1998 Lincoln Conti overheats

I have a 1998 Lincoln conti with 185 K on her. She overheated and was taken homw once cooled ( several miles). I have replace the thermostat / broken thermostat housing, All hoses and did a water pump and serp belt. My problem is that when you drive the car, it overheats.My check temp light comes on and the temp guarge reads above normal I performed the add coolant procedure and ran tested for fan operation but it appears to only work in AC mode. When I perform the add coolant procedure, Water does circulate through this tube but after 5 minutes of riding and then car gets hot ( blowing hot air until it starts to overheat. The coolant is no longer present in this tube. The oil is clean and the exhaust tip is dry with no smoke. all hoses are hot when it overheat with the radiator being red hot on the intake side
Any thoughts

I pointed the thermostat up (doomed shape head upwards) is this correct
I fllushed out the system. Water come out jus as fast as you put it in including heater core so can I assume their is no blockage? I changed the thermostat twice and cooked them both for proper operation.


Temp Sensor was changed with same reults

Conclusion,

It appaers that the water is circulating and the belt is installed as per the stickers on the rad support. The fan comes on but it still overheats and the blower does blow hot air. The car does loose its fluids when it overheats. A hose flush shows no clogs or restrictions? Can this be a radiator that losses it's cooling properties?? The one odd thing is that the intake side of the radiator( top) has hotter air blowing from the fans than the return side which blows cooler.

I ran at least 50/50 anti freeze the entire process.

Since no one responded, I decided that it may be exhaust gases escaping into the coolant pointing to a bad head/ head gasket. I flushed the entire system and removed the thermostat flushed 3 times and disconnected all the houses and flushed the systme piece by piece as well. I mixed a head gasket selant called nanotechnologies made by crc industries. Ran the car for 30 minutes without the car overheating. I shut it down, drained after 1 hr and left the system to dry for 12 hours ( 24 in my case). reflushed and reinstalled antifreeze without the thermostat and the overheating issue is gone. Drove with the a/c aon in stop and go traffic for over 30 minutes. I now have a new issue.

The car has a rough idle when it becomes warm ( warm / not hot and no where close to hot . The analog needle stays between the "n" and "o" in the word normal on the dash). When the car is cold, it runs very smooth with no miss.?? any ideas??

Welcome to the forum !!

Your "new issue" may just be the cars computer re-learning optimum settings for your geological location.

We have this issue every time we "clear" the OBDii memory by disconnecting the battery..

Give it a few days to see if it corrects itself. If it doesn't get corrected, it just might throw a fault code for diagnostic aid.


BTW, most of us read your 1st post but were reluctant to tell you the obvious. Many folks don't like to hear Head Gaskets and just go away, never to return :(

Very glad you were able to stop the overheating, for now.

Thanks for the reply,

I wish someone would of said, Oh yeah, that sounds like a head gasket but as you can see from my post that it wasn't your typical blow white smoke or water in the oil type of head gasket. I am mechanically inclined and it was a bit fustrating know that you changed all parts and you still overheat. I wish someone would of provided some feedback. So I hope my experiences will help others.

After it overheated, I decided to change almost everything. In order to get to the waterpump, I had to remove the altertnator which meant disconnecting the battery. Once everything was changed, I still had the unexplained overheating issue. the only thing I did differently after many attemps was to add a chemical http://www.crcindustries.com/auto/content/prod_detail.aspx?S=Y&PN=401232 (http://www.crcindustries.com/auto/content/prod_detail.aspx?S=Y&PN=401232) )

After completing the head gasket chemical process which I flushed the system 3 times with engine hot water and used a hose when cooled to power flush the cooling system again. The car sat at idle with the temp needle on the letter "N" for 30 minutes.after waiting 1.5 hours I drained the chemical and opened all possible house connections including the heater hoses to the heatercore, Let sit overnight and then flushed and filled with antifreeze as per directions on bottle)All said and done with, I ran the car for 40 miles in 85 degree temp with the a/c on last night and the guage did not budge. I will be doing a full motor flush and install the new thermostat this weekend with engine restore and the remaining 4 plugs which i did 4 last night .The issue of the rough idle was determined to be all 4 spark plug holes filled with water ( from me flushing and clean and flushing and cleaning the engine)I was glad to see all the tips were a medium brown color. With 184k miles, The car appears to be back to normal. Now I need to figure out my slow rear airbag leaks :)
I

** FOLLOWUP **

I have driven over 1500 miles since I had my overheating issue after running the head sealant, All is fine. I did a full tuneup and the car runs like a champ. I now have a leaky airbag and need to address that issue.

Sounds like You know what You are doing------This suggestion You can take it or leave----This Overtemp Problem has also overtemp the trans; Fluid I would change trans Fluid and Filter,It will look brown and have a scorched oder to it;I did this and ran eng to reg. temp placed trans in each position for three minutes; Loosened trans coolant line at side of Resevoir or Rad. the Return would be best, I loosened top one and had a clear hose ran eng until it started to loose volume. I had a large container unde front so I collected 6 Qts. I replaced 6 qts started eng to normal Heat 3 min in each gear-loosend line Fluid was getting back to red close line 6 qts added; I am glad, I do know a car that overtemps will scorch trans fluid and about 3 months later transmission goes out; The good lessens in life cost ,this was a costly one for me;Good Luck