Why so cold??

My 1994gt runs colder than normal. I installed a Griffin Racing aluminum radiator and 180* thermo., and many many more mods when rebuilt. Also it has tremec 3550 5spd tranny. I bought a thermo. radiator cap, and it consistantly reads a fluid temp. of 105-110*. Is this bad?? (as in damage to the motor) Ive never had the issue of my car running TOO cold. Seems kinda strange to me.:screwy: also has egr and emmision pump delete

thanks for any and all feedback

It is not good. The engine will remain in open loop mode running rich. It may be a faulty t-stat. Remove it, and test it in a pot of water on the stove. Have a thermometer to see the temp of the water. A 180* t-stat should start opening at 175 and be fully open at 200 if I remember correctly. If it's opening correctly, then test/replace the ECT sensor. I believe your year would have two. One is used for the PCM and one is for the dashboard gauge. Try swapping the connectors and see if the other one shows the same temperature.

My 180* t-stat runs the engine at 187-189* year round.

Awesome thanks man. ill check the thermo tomorrow. The car is def. running rich. I can smell the gas in the exhaust fumes... Also, im not sure if this is a symptom of the same problem, but when i first start my car in the morning or when the motor sits for long enough to cool the engine sputters at 4-500 rpm. i have to hold the pedal down so the car will idle correctly until the engine warms up. Once warm, the engine idle pans out to around 850rpm. Sometimes while driving ill take the car out of gear, and the rpms drop so far the car stalls.

Your second issue sounds like a bad IAC valve. Sometimes you can remedy these by removing them and cleaning the ports with carb cleaner. I did with mine but it helped for only about a month. Ended up replacing it with a Duralast replacement from Autozone for $80 and no problems since.

The IAC valve is located on the back of the intake plenum. It is held on my two 10mm bolts. Just remove the plastic intake tube to it, remove the 2 bolts, and pull off. Be careful not to damage or remove the paper gasket and be sure to put it back in place afterwards or else it will cause a vacuum leak.

Blue,

Do you know at what temp it stops the open loop? I thought it was like 210*?

It's definitely not as high as 210F. I believe it is somewhere around 150F but not sure exactly.

It's always been my belief that 180* stats are still too cold for these motors. I always run the factory 195* stat to keep the engine at the correct operating temperature for optimal performance which was calibrated by Ford in the ECU.

The engine temperature triggers Open and Closed loop operation of the EEC. Closed loop will only happen if the engine is fully warmed up and operating somewhat normally. If something is really out of wack then it will stay in open loop, such as low coolant temp. Open Loop is meant to be operational at 2 points, WOT and before the car warms up. At open loop fuel enrichment occurs which could reduce mpg.

Looks like 140*.

Good read.

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/EECIVInnerWorkings/

I mentioned 210*, because I read that many moons ago on the Corral, a lot of bad info out there. A lot like higher octane for a stock engine:)