Boss / Ford performance radiator needed? 2011+

[GT R13]

Just trying to get some opinions on whether I should get / need the Boss or bigger radiator. My 14 is not the track pack , but I’ve added the Boss oil cooler and cooling fan. It’s been pretty hot and humid down here on the west coast of Florida and my cylinder head temp has been above 200*. It seems since I switched to 5w30 from 5w20 that my engine seems to run a little higher temp from before. I think the regular GT radiator works , just thinking I need the extra cooling / coolant for the oil cooler to be most effective. Not really tracking the car or anything, but do step into the gas on weekends. I’m not looking for anymore power , just want to keep it running smoothly and cool is all. Couple of pics in 5th gear rolling across the bridge by my house when it was 94* outside. The car has never ran really hot or overheated, think max CHT I’ve seen on it was 216*.

 

[86GT351]

Is it needed? No necessarily. Will it hurt? Not at all.

 

[PK Khobdeh]

How many cores is your existing radiator? Two? I have upgraded to a 4 core and still my engine raises to 209 without the fan turning on. When the fan turns on at high speed it drops to 195. My suggestion is that the upgrade is affordable enough to pull the trigger. I am having an Alloy works 4 Core Radiator and they also offer a fan and shrowd option for it for $200-300.

 

[Nord315]

I would be careful with a 4 core radiator. Some years back on a dirt stock car I worked on, we were having a heating issue. I talked to one of the aluminum radiator manufactures about possibly getting a 4 core radiator to try and cure it. He said to stay away from a 4 core because we did not have the speed necessary to get the air thru the radiators (recommended a double pass which did cure the issue). They normally only used 4 core radiators with their Nascar clients because of the speeds they ran.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

This is what you need, and this was the best price I could find:

https://www.teamjdm.com/2005-14-mustang-gt-aluminum-radiator/

Search for Ford Performance part no. M-8005-MGT

 

[JC SSP]

Have you considered a cooler thermostat (e.g., 170 degree) and adjusting your low/high fan settings?

That radiator is BAD ASS!

 

[pass1over]

north central florida here as well, 2012 GT, lots and lots of mods. The OEM stuff keeps my car cool just fine. Why do you think there's a problem? Those temps look fine to me

 

[pass1over]

Have you considered a cooler thermostat (e.g., 170 degree) and adjusting your low/high fan settings?

That radiator is BAD ASS!

lower temp thermostat will not make the engine run cooler, it just opens earlier, and will take longer for the engine to get to normal operating temperature. Especially on an otherwise stock car. If the radiator was upgraded to dissipate more heat, then yes, it would run cooler. Reprogramming the fans will slow the rate of the engine warming as well, in some conditions, but it will not make it run cooler.

Gasoline engines are the most efficient between 190-225°, you're fine.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

The OEM stuff keeps my car cool just fine.

Same here. Mine runs at 190-195*F normally, and the highest I've ever seen is 200*F after a long pull up a highway incline. This middle of summer (95-100*F) with the AC on. The cooling system is completely original as it came out of the factory in November 2005, though the Brenspeed tune lowered the fan temperature settings.

The car has never ran really hot or overheated, think max CHT I’ve seen on it was 216*.

In standstill traffic with the factory fan temperature settings, that's normal.

 

[GT R13]

lower temp thermostat will not make the engine run cooler, it just opens earlier, and will take longer for the engine to get to normal operating temperature. Especially on an otherwise stock car. If the radiator was upgraded to dissipate more heat, then yes, it would run cooler. Reprogramming the fans will slow the rate of the engine warming as well, in some conditions, but it will not make it run cooler.

Gasoline engines are the most efficient between 190-225°, you're fine.

Yeah , I just was wondering about the temps and running a little cooler. I’ve been meaning to put the boss radiator in when I added the oil cooler is all. The shop I take my car to said it would be fine with the regular GT radiator, but might run a little hotter if I was to start getting into tracking it. I’m pretty much done modding the car except for maybe some lighter wheels and a tubular radiator support for weight reduction. This is my first real performance car and just wandered about the temps. It runs great , handles well and pulls hard , just sometimes after running around and getting into the gas , the heat coming off the engine and long tubes seems pretty hot.

 

[GT R13]

Same here. Mine runs at 190-195*F normally, and the highest I've ever seen is 200*F after a long pull up a highway incline. This middle of summer (95-100*F) with the AC on. The cooling system is completely original as it came out of the factory in November 2005, though the Brenspeed tune lowered the fan temperature settings.



In standstill traffic with the factory fan temperature settings, that's normal.

I just figured that the cooling system would be better off with a better / more capable radiator. I’ve driven this car to the Florida Keys a few times and all through the Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains on multiple road trips to Tennessee and North Carolina and haven’t had any issues as far as overheating or anything.

 

[JC SSP]

I use a 170 on my 05’ and 142 on my little 5.0 coupe.

Also 180 in wife’s 5.7 Hemi and all have lowered the temp gauge.

Cooler thermostats have worked for me for many many years. 160 was the norm back in the day…

 

[pass1over]

I use a 170 on my 05’ and 142 on my little 5.0 coupe.

Also 180 in wife’s 5.7 Hemi and all have lowered the temp gauge.

Cooler thermostats have worked for me for many many years. 160 was the norm back in the day…

All pushrod 5.0s came with a 195° thermostat. My 1966 289 powered mustang, came stock with a 195° thermostat. A 1950 Chevy Bel Air, 190° thermostat. The norm has never been a 160° thermostat. Gasoline engines are the most efficient between 190-225°, back in the day, and now.

The lower temp thermostat only makes warming your engine up take longer and your fuel mileage suffer because of it. The computers are programmed to run at a certain temperature. By prolonging the warmup, the ecu keeps adding fuel because it's "cold".

By temp gauge, you mean the little pointer with some arbitrary lines and a little red block on the right side? Unless you have a way to measure the actual coolant temperature, I wouldn't put much faith in those stock gauges.

 

[JC SSP]

160 was the norm for modified cars back in the 1970 and 1980. Chips (e-proms) were specifically designated as requiring 160 stat and aftermarket exhaust and intakes.

Not going to argue with anyone but have been racing and building cars for over 30 years. A cooler stat was the norm on any modified engine.

 

[GlassTop09]

Remember my fellow Mustangers, gasoline doesn't atomize as well under cooler IAT's & ECT's (and the more ethanol% in the fuel, this gets worse......especially when using either port or direct EFI......costing you available HP\TQ due to poorer combustion efficiency from poorer fuel burn). The whole purpose of the thermostat is to maintain the min temp thermal efficiency range (helps the engine to warm up quicker as pass1over has said)......the rest works to maintain the optimal thermal temp operating range which includes the radiator's design taking into account the A\C compressor's load......called overhead. Since most all engine blocks\heads nowadays are made of some type of aluminum alloy (which tends to shed heat more quickly\efficiently than cast iron), this is more important to maintain (running cooler thermostats worked back in the day due to most engine blocks\heads being made of cast iron......which has much poorer heat transfer rates thus would heat soak).

Cooler operating temps can allow more spark timing to be applied, but is it really working as well as it should be if the fuel burn is poorer than optimal thus less heat & less cyl pressure to work with (not to mention more pollutants spewed out the exhausts)?

IMHO, if you want all this to work at its best when wanting to make more available\peak HP\TQ than OEM stock, install the larger radiator\fan up front & go to a cooler thermostat\mess w\ the in-tune fan cooling profile settings only as a last resort (should only need to do this if FI is used) to maintain adequate cooling. At least the larger radiator is adding in more cooling overhead reserve that will always be available over an OEM radiator.......this is fact.

If you want to know your setup's overall thermal efficiency, measure the cooling deltaP across the radiator (temp at inlet vs temp at outlet) then track the radiator outlet temp curve (coolant temp before it goes back into engine) for any temp rise over base temp. This will tell everything you need to know.

There's a limit on how cool you want a modern IC engine to operate & expect good things to come out of it..........

The rest is up to you.

My 2 cents........................

 

[PK Khobdeh]

I would be careful with a 4 core radiator. Some years back on a dirt stock car I worked on, we were having a heating issue. I talked to one of the aluminum radiator manufactures about possibly getting a 4 core radiator to try and cure it. He said to stay away from a 4 core because we did not have the speed necessary to get the air thru the radiators (recommended a double pass which did cure the issue). They normally only used 4 core radiators with their Nascar clients because of the speeds they ran.

A double pass radiator would have the same air flow demands as a 4 core. The concept of cores or double pass is to achieve the same purpose, increase the surface area of the heat exchanger (i.e. radiator). The difference between a double pass radiator and a 4 core is that the pump has to push the same amount of fluid through a longer run, where as the 4 core splits the fluid into 4 parallel paths. Cycling your cooling fan at low speed or high speed and until what temp., which is manageable on via your tune. Your PCM has the ability to choose what conditions to turn the fan on.

 

[JEWC_Motorsports]

A colder thermostat will throw a check engine light if the temps in the winter. The car may or may not ever get up to operating temp. I had my car on a colder thermostat until the winter and i couldnt drive it, would go into limp mode. All the codes pointed to the thermostat, went back to a normal stat and never had another issue. Im in south Texas and run the stock radiator and the heat is never a problem, even when pushing it.