Help with overheatin

HELP!!! 96 Mustang GT, overheated yesterday on way home. Added water and it cooled down and held. Thought perhaps thermostat was going bad, so replaced it with a 195 degree thermostat (all the parts store had at the time). Replaced antifreeze and went for a road test. All was fine on a fairly hot afternoon.

This morning, cool 79 degrees, overheated again on a 40 mile commute to work. Not bad, didn't push any coolant out, but temp was rising as I sat in the parking lot...Water Pump perhaps???? No visible leaks anywhere!!!

Any ideas would help!

Run the car without the theromostat, and see if it over heats.

Could be a pluged radiator.

There really is not much to go wrong in the cooling system. If the water is moving, I would rule out the water pump.

Well, I know the radiator is not plugged, cause I ran water through it and it came out of the thermostat housing when I changed the thermostat. But, how can one tell whether it is actually circulating by the water pump? The system is totally closed and the only way to see anything is in the overflow bottle at the top, and it doesn't appear to be circulating through there...at least not very much if any.

Is your fan engaging properly? Was the system "burped" properly?

You should be able to touch the radiator and see if its getting hot, if that is the case the system should be working fine.

Does it get hot when the car is at speed. Or in stop and go traffic? Is the fan working?

Turns out the fan was starting to go bad...it would run for about 30 minutes, then overheat and quit. It also burned the electrical connection going to the fan. Had to replace the fan motor and the connection, now everything is back to normal. Thanks guys!

Glad you got her fixed :)

Holy Cow Batman! Now that I've got the overheating issue resolved, the gas mileage seems much better now too...checked it this morning after a fillup and got 23.74 MPG...NOT BAD for an old worn out 96 GT!