Joe..... Any thoughts that the lubricant in the coolant helps the plastic pieces last a little longer? My wife's around-town driven '06 (69K miles) needed the thermostat housing yet mine at 133K miles (yea.... I know) is still (apparently) still good. I do flush the coolant every couple of years.
What did you do to your LS today?
- Thread starter RigsLS
- Start date
Joe..... Any thoughts that the lubricant in the coolant helps the plastic pieces last a little longer? My wife's around-town driven '06 (69K miles) needed the thermostat housing yet mine at 133K miles (yea.... I know) is still (apparently) still good. I do flush the coolant every couple of years.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
No, it reduces the damage (greatly), but it does not eliminate it. It still went above normal temperature, which does increase wear, and shorten the life of some of the other plastic parts. If you are lucky, you will never be able to tell it.
Oil does not do the cooling. It has no where outside of the engine to exhaust the heat to. Coolant normally does the cooling by moving the heat to the radiator and transferring it to the air there. Failsafe cooling uses air passing through the cylinders. Every other time, no fuel is injected into each cylinder and the air that is pumped through carries some heat from the previous combustion out the exhaust pipe.
waggs
Dedicated LVC Member
My upper hose went last week...lol
Sucks
G-RELL
FULLY DIPPED LS
dropped it off at the Tint shop 
... she'll be legal soon.
... she'll be legal soon.
View attachment 828470215
View attachment 828470217
View attachment 828470216
Replaced broken upper radiator hose assembly.
View attachment 828470217
View attachment 828470216
Replaced broken upper radiator hose assembly.
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
Voyeur, I did mine freehand and while it wasn't perfect it did the job well. As long as you drill the hole a hair bigger than the nail, you'll be OK. Ranchero listed the drill bit and nail size needed.
On the hinge pin, it looks like there might be just enough room that you could drill a hole through the pin between the hinge and the spring, then a cotter pin can be used to keep the pin in place. If not a cotter pin, then two holes (one on either side of the spring) could be drilled and a wire run through to hold the pin to the spring. Either way should prevent hinge pin creep. Third alternative that I'm not sure about, get some threaded rod the correct diameter then use really thin nuts on either side to hold it in place with a bit of Loktite to hold the nuts in place. I'd say find a bolt, but bolt heads are pretty thick and might need to be ground down. You'd need to measure to make sure the nuts have enough clearance to not interfere with the lid's operation. Simplest option, a little glue on ONE of the six fingers that the pin runs through. The other 5 will need a bit of grease so the glued finger won't break loose. If you wanted to get REALLY ambitious with it, you could drill a hole through the hinge and the pin, and use a set screw to hold them together. This would be easy to remove, if you ever needed to for some reason.
Robot and Waggs, may as well order the rest of the plastic coolant parts and get them replaced too. When I had my hose go bad, I had no other signs of problems including any signs of overheating. When I replaced them I found my degas bottle full of cracks, and the thermostat housing was destroyed inside.
On the hinge pin, it looks like there might be just enough room that you could drill a hole through the pin between the hinge and the spring, then a cotter pin can be used to keep the pin in place. If not a cotter pin, then two holes (one on either side of the spring) could be drilled and a wire run through to hold the pin to the spring. Either way should prevent hinge pin creep. Third alternative that I'm not sure about, get some threaded rod the correct diameter then use really thin nuts on either side to hold it in place with a bit of Loktite to hold the nuts in place. I'd say find a bolt, but bolt heads are pretty thick and might need to be ground down. You'd need to measure to make sure the nuts have enough clearance to not interfere with the lid's operation. Simplest option, a little glue on ONE of the six fingers that the pin runs through. The other 5 will need a bit of grease so the glued finger won't break loose. If you wanted to get REALLY ambitious with it, you could drill a hole through the hinge and the pin, and use a set screw to hold them together. This would be easy to remove, if you ever needed to for some reason.
Robot and Waggs, may as well order the rest of the plastic coolant parts and get them replaced too. When I had my hose go bad, I had no other signs of problems including any signs of overheating. When I replaced them I found my degas bottle full of cracks, and the thermostat housing was destroyed inside.
RigsLS
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dropped it off at the Tint shop
What's this G?
you are removing the tint? why what happened, ticket? Pulled over too often for tint?
I did the inner thermostat housing a few weeks ago. I am shopping for the lower hose assembly now. Ford is asking $135 for the genuine assembly. I know I can get cheaper ones but if they last for 75K miles, I think it's worth it to get the real deal. It seems the Ford dealer near me is loaded with parts in an outlying warehouse so they can get the parts the next day. I ordered the hose yesterday afternoon and they called me at 0830 this morning saying it was here. There are a lot of old folks running around in Thunderbirds and LSs in great shape so I would imagine there's a good market for the parts down here.
Blk04LS
Well-Known LVC Member
You got a much better dealer price than I did. It cost me close to $110 at the only "local" dealer around that had one and they were still 65 miles away ("luckily" I was working about 10 miles from them at that time.) I could have found a better price online, but I needed to get it done.
When mine cracked (along the seam) in early June '13, I limped it home by stopping and shutting it down as soon as the warning popped up and letting it cool considerably before adding more distilled water and driving a bit further. It made for a long last 20miles of my commute home and although I could have just called AAA it was fine.
When mine cracked (along the seam) in early June '13, I limped it home by stopping and shutting it down as soon as the warning popped up and letting it cool considerably before adding more distilled water and driving a bit further. It made for a long last 20miles of my commute home and although I could have just called AAA it was fine.
Blk04LS
Well-Known LVC Member
hmm.. not certain if that was in reply to my post or another. If was not directed towards me then please disregard, but if it was... It happened the evening of Thursday 6/6/13, I had the part in hand on my lunch break Friday 6/7 and installed, new coolant in and system bled about the same time Saturday 6/8. If the cost was a huge deal I would have made arrangements to delay the install, but it was good enough so I felt no need to wait.
RigsLS
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https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fus...8&diagram=KD00130&Title=-3.9-LITER-UPPER-HOSE
Part Number 3W4Z8260BB - Sale Price: $51.03
https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fus...0130&Title=-3.9-LITER-w/oil-cooler-LOWER-HOSE
LOWER HOSE W/OIL COOLER // Part Number 3W4Z8286CB - Sale Price: $68.94
https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fus...30&Title=-3.9-LITER-w/o-oil-cooler-LOWER-HOSE
LOWER HOSE W/O OIL COOLER // Part Number 3W4Z8286DB - Sale Price: $53.56
Not sure about that site Robert, have never ordered anything from them ... ???
Not sure ...<shrugs> :shifty:
G-RELL
FULLY DIPPED LS
Yep,
Three times in the last month. It's never been a problem before, but I guess my city has changed its views.
Not a huge deal, just take some getting use to.
I'll post pics later.
waggs
Dedicated LVC Member
Replaced the thermostat housing a couple years ago. Probably ought to look at the lower hose and get that ordered.Voyeur, I did mine freehand and while it wasn't perfect it did the job well. As long as you drill the hole a hair bigger than the nail, you'll be OK. Ranchero listed the drill bit and nail size needed.
On the hinge pin, it looks like there might be just enough room that you could drill a hole through the pin between the hinge and the spring, then a cotter pin can be used to keep the pin in place. If not a cotter pin, then two holes (one on either side of the spring) could be drilled and a wire run through to hold the pin to the spring. Either way should prevent hinge pin creep. Third alternative that I'm not sure about, get some threaded rod the correct diameter then use really thin nuts on either side to hold it in place with a bit of Loktite to hold the nuts in place. I'd say find a bolt, but bolt heads are pretty thick and might need to be ground down. You'd need to measure to make sure the nuts have enough clearance to not interfere with the lid's operation. Simplest option, a little glue on ONE of the six fingers that the pin runs through. The other 5 will need a bit of grease so the glued finger won't break loose. If you wanted to get REALLY ambitious with it, you could drill a hole through the hinge and the pin, and use a set screw to hold them together. This would be easy to remove, if you ever needed to for some reason.
Robot and Waggs, may as well order the rest of the plastic coolant parts and get them replaced too. When I had my hose go bad, I had no other signs of problems including any signs of overheating. When I replaced them I found my degas bottle full of cracks, and the thermostat housing was destroyed inside.
waggs
Dedicated LVC Member
Those are some pretty good prices
FDR
Dedicated LVC Member
I pulled a pair of earbuds out of the front right suspension last night and, 5 miles later today, got an AdvanceTrac light. No ABS light. Fairly certain I have no traction control. Coincidence?
This was also about 30 miles after replacing the clockspring.
One of the aluminum buds swung and wedged itself in between the disc and debris shield, creating this awful, jalopy grinding noise. Luckily, there was no scoring. I know it was aluminum, but still. I just can't win for more than 100 miles....
Edit: finally found the yaw sensor in the workshop manual. Being located in the arm rest, with the steering angle sensor in the steering column, I'm gonna go with yes, coincidence.
This was also about 30 miles after replacing the clockspring.
One of the aluminum buds swung and wedged itself in between the disc and debris shield, creating this awful, jalopy grinding noise. Luckily, there was no scoring. I know it was aluminum, but still. I just can't win for more than 100 miles....
Edit: finally found the yaw sensor in the workshop manual. Being located in the arm rest, with the steering angle sensor in the steering column, I'm gonna go with yes, coincidence.
That's true unless you have an oil cooler. I used to fly Cessnas that were all air cooled and the only difference was the cooling vanes around the the piston heads. Because of the location of the temp sensor, the computer will pick up the high temp well before the water gets hot enough to cause major damage. That's why you can put water in and it will start right up. We had the same thing with big trucks. Oil is the main cooling component of the system. The water is there because it changes temperature faster and acts as a regulator just like when you live on the coast. The water is denser than the land so it takes longer to change temp so the temp doesn't swing as widely on the coast. I don't think any damage can be done to the other plastic parts because there is no more pressure in that situation. Many will disagree.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
As do I and my engineering background...
I was going to order the part from Rock Auto for $37.89 but, they wanted almost $47.14 for next day delivery so that's $85.03 and I would have gotten the part on Wed or Thurs. I guess they have to have a day to process the order. The Ford dealer here has a shuttle that runs daily.
Well, I'm sure you would disagree with an engineering background. I have a science/engineering background so we are going to disagree on a lot of things. Engineers are supposed to design the planes I flew and the cars I drove. As a scientist I'm supposed test them out and see if they really work or not then give you the result. You're supposed to say BS. Then, I'm supposed to show why it's not BS. After we come to a workable solution, we go to the pub and have a few beers. Unfortunately, I think someone on the design team for the LS preferred wine coolers.
waggs
Dedicated LVC Member
Took her out for a little trip today about a 100 miles man it was great!
MONTE 02 LS
Active LVC Member
Installed front lip from home depot.
RodLS
Dedicated LVC Member
Replaced the clutch packs in my LSD.
