Project Lex

[Kracka]

How long do you suspect that cooling fan has been non-functional? Are there any signs of leaks now that things have cooled off? If the impact in some way damaged the radiator fan, and that allowed temps to creep up, that may have been just enough to expose the cap's weakness. If you cracked the radiator, there would be a puddle under the car (besides the one underneath the overflow tank).

As far as you can tell, did anything else make contact with the curb besides the wheel/tire?

[Kracka]

Did you take out some bystanders?
Only Mustangs are allowed to do that :lol:

[Halon]

I suspect everything, including fans, were fine up until I hit the curb. Here's my best play by play run-down.

- Started the car to let it warm up, it sat and idled for probably 15 minutes while I helped clean up and say bye.
- Got in car to leave. At this point I didn't look at any gauges or anything, but I assume the coolant was up to operating temp of ~180*. Nothing looked, sounded, smelled out of place, I fully suspect everything was just fine. Pulled out of parking lot.
- 20sec later I hit the curb.
- 20sec later I was back parked, left the car on/idling, we all were looking at the wheels.
- after maybe 2-3 minutes of us looking and the car parked idling (hard to say i wasn't timing it), someone noticed some coolant under the car. So we shut the car off immediately.
- popped the hood, noticed coolant coming out of overflow.
- After maybe 30sec of "WTF is going on", I went and turned the car key to the ON position (without starting the car) assuming the fans would kick on. We noticed the fans didn't turn on. Thought about that for 10 seconds and then checked my BTI gauge to see if we were over the setting where the fans turn on. That's when I saw 219* on the gauge. Didn't look at my stock gauge to see if i was even near red, didn't even think about it, but wish I would have. But anyway at that point we determined something is probably wrong with the fans and turned the key back off.
- Let the coolant bubble out for maybe another minute before it stopped.


So since the car sat and idled for like 15-20 minutes before I drove off, I highly predict everything was just fine. Plus I drove it a half hour there with zero issues. It wasn't until directly after hitting the curb did the coolant thing occur at all. So has to be related. Still don't know what though.

The coolant reservoir is molded into these fans, so it's pretty much directly above the radiator. So any puddle caused from overflow is right where a puddle would be from cracked radiator. Really hard to say right now.

As for did anything else make contact. It doesn't look like it other than the under side of my front lip. I looked under there briefly with a flash light and didn't see anything sticking out like a sore thumb. I'll have to look closer though. The lower crossmember that the radiator rests on seems like something that definitely could have hit. This is a OEM radiator so plastic end tanks could have cracked. Lots of things to consider, just need to get under there and start figuring it out, and keep my fingers crossed I didn't hurt the motor.

[Halon]

Did you take out some bystanders?

Nobody was harmed during the filming of this stunt, other than my ego I suppose haha. You know what it was, I setup that dyno appt at DB, so just being associated with anything mustang related means this was already predetermined by a higher power to happen simply because of that, out of my control!

[AwdGSX13]

What position wheel is that? I assume the front so that you still can replace the control arms and hopefully not have any bent suspension parts?

[Halon]

Passenger side, front and rear wheels. Front one is worse, and is the 2nd picture. First pic is of the rear. I looked under there briefly, didn't notice anything bad, but something I'll be looking at for sure as I get to looking closer. Good news is I have all new front arms that I'll be installing none-the-less lol.

Good news is local place in White Bear said they can repair the wheels. $100/ea to repair (not including coating). Typically 1 day turn around. So I'll be getting those over to them in the next day or two. Seemed like a fair price and an excellent turn around time.

[Goat Blower]

But you'd want to match the paint though, and that's another $150, right?

[Halon]

Match what paint? You mean my plastidip on the wheels? Lol no I will worry about finishing later.

[A//// Guy]

Ouch! That sucks. Might want too check alignment again too lol. Time for some wide stancer wheels!

[Halon]

Alignment had to get redone anyway when I put these new front arms on, so no real biggie there. This is exactly why I have cheap fun cars, doesn't hurt so bad when I break it haha.