Gained a Pound Over the Holidays

For the brief time my car has been mobile, I've found that it's not uncommon for the coolant to overflow after driving and shutting off the car. I made sure that the coolant level was just covering the cores inside with at least an inch of empty space at the top of the radiator. I figured the radiator cap was in need of replacement, although it was only five years old.

When I replaced it, I found that the current cap was a 13# unit and the replacement was listed as 13# as well. This means as the pressure builds within the cooling system, 13 pounds of pressure will cause the cap's spring to let some coolant past the cap and into the expansion tank (on newer cars) or pee out the overflow tube at the bottom of the car on mine...

The replacement cap showed up and it was 14#, which surprised me, but the car hasn't overflowed again since I've been using it. So that extra pound made a difference. In the photo the 14# cap is marked with the number "14" on it, and the 13# cap is below with the number "13#" on it...

You Should Be In Movies...

I was on YouTube this evening and found a cool video featuring a red '65 (ok, looks like it's really a '66) and the song "65 Mustang"... Yeah!



And here are the lyrics.

Brand New Repro Parts, Part II: More Adventures in Head-Scratching

Here's an issue that has caused me to waste some time, so maybe this tip will help somebody else. I bought a new fuel tank sending unit for my new 22 gallon fuel tank. (This tank is from a 1970 Mustang and holds more fuel than the stock 16 gallon tank from 1966.) The sending unit was from NPD and is supposed to be a good quality one with a brass float and 3/8" line. I think all of the parts houses will have this same issue, so I don't think NPD could do much about it.



Anyway, the first two floats failed by filling with fuel, causing the gauge to always read "E". The first floast failed within one day, and the second within one month. I finally replaced only the brass float and not the whole repro sending unit. At left is the brass float I ordered from NPD, and it came in a Ford package, which was a nice surprise.



And here are the two floats together. The import is on the left and Ford is on the right. They seem reasonably close to being the same, but notice the soldering (or brazing?), which is more controlled on the Ford one.



And here's the failure point of the import on the left both times (the first time there was a leak on the side too): the solder on the end cap looks like a big porous blob stuck on there. The Ford float has solder that is accurately placed and very smooth for leak-free service.

As a matter of fact, the import sending unit design apparently has another issue that quickly happened to both units I bought: The white plastic sock that is stuck on the intake tube to keep debris from getting sucked into the fuel line actually fell off or melted off and is presumably lost in the fuel tank somewhere. (With a new tank and a fuel filter before the fuel pump I'm not really worried about that right now.) But the parts houses do sell a NOS sending unit filter or sock for about $22. I just bought one and will install it when I have a chance (see photo). [Edit: Just installed it a couple months ago!]



In hindsight, I'd use a NOS brass float ($7) and NOS sending unit filter ($22) that are available in Ford packages from places like NPD and Mustangs Unlimited. Then I'd buy a $25 repro sending unit and hope for the best. I would not use a repro sending unit again without upgrading the sending unit filter and float. Of course if you can score a NOS sending unit assembly for $50 that's the best bet, but these go for over $100 easy when they come up on eBay.