hi all .
i have a 1800 zetec and it has a cooling fan but often still gets to 110 degrees is this ok or not . if not help needed/
cheers josh

my 2.0L zetec has a raceline water rail with a 82 degree stat with a 3mm hole drilled in it to allow a small amount of water to bleed past it when the stat is closed. Nissan Micra radiator.

Warms up fairly quickly to 85 - 90 degrees, then stays in this range.

110 sounds a bit high IMHO

Cant comment on the Zetec but it sounds a bit high, would not expect to see those temps in road use however hard it was driven, i would try redline water wetter, if that dont bring it down enough, (it will bring it down) then its a bigger rad you need, no matter how good the fan, surface area is whats needed for cooling, the fan should only come on when stood anyway with no natural airflow.

Is the engine running ok ? timing out or running lean would increase heat too, just an afterthought.

[Edited on 7/3/05 by Jon Ison]

are these expensive

water wetter is around £20 a bottle including postage, it does work, but you may need a radiator with more capacity to run decent temps, what rad you running ?

dont know what rad it is .i assume the standard one for a zetec although fan is manual and no stat

Cooling fans generall cut in at about 105 degrees -- so the fan is OK
However it sounds like your coolant isn't circulating when the thermostat is closed-- drill small holes in the thermostat to substitute for the by-pass circuit. in the original Ford the coolant would by-pass via the heater circuit this allow a small volume of coolant to circulate within the block and head without this the thermostat won't open because the hot water can't get to it.

Don't be tempted to add snake oil to the cooling system it dosen't need it a 50% solution of ethlene glycol based antifreeze already gives considerably more heat transfer than plain water.

sorry to sound thick but wouldnt have a clue how to do that .
just a thought the pipes that carry coolant etc on the passenger side of the engine are cliped together one large and one small pipe, is this not helping

It may be worth removing the thermostat and going for a drive, if the temps reduce then the do as suggested above, id'e like too add i was'nt saying you must use water wetter, i was saying i would try it (if everything else was working ok and before i fitted a larger capacity rad), i ditched running anti freeze and swapped to water wetter, for me it worked, for others it may not, pheraps i did,nt explain myself very well. If the top hose is getting very hot after warm up the thermostat is opening.

All IMHO.

Don't trust your gauge, especially if it is electric. A mismatch between sender and guage, bad earths etc will give you flase readings.

If you know the thermostat is working (let the engine warm up from cold, keep 'feeling' the rad hoses/radiator, it will be obvious if/when the stat opens), and it hasn't spat it's water everywhere doing impressions of a steam engine, this is a good indication everything is fine cooling wise and the problem is likley to be gauge related...

thanks all
i will try all tomoro , may need some more help though .

cheers all

Stu's advice is spot on, make sure your gettin proper readings 1st.

dont remove the stat,it will cause the water to circulate in the block and not get to the rad