DeTomaso Mailing List: September 2000, Message #22

Laurie,

If you aren't tinkling antifreeze out the expansion tank overflow when you 
shut the car off or you don't hear loud rumbling noises eminating from the 
engine compartment or if you can touch the top radiator hose with your bare 
hands for a few moments....you aren't overheating and either is you car.

The item Bobby told you about is called a resistor and it goes in the wire 
leading from your sending unit to your guage.  It just makes it read lower by 
"tricking" the electrical impulses that the sending unit sends to the guage.

Your sending unit will read hot all the time if you got a sending unit for an 
idiot light rather than a guage.  You need to specify what sending unit you 
want when you purchase one.

I remember when I had a serious problem with my first Pantera's radiator.  
The baffle inside the radiator separated from the tank which made the water 
go into the radiator but not through it.  It just came right back out.  
Needless to say, things got hot in a hurry.  My guage suddenly began 
rising......lots of rumbling noises were heard (even over the sound of the 
car)....sounded like someone was beating the car with a hammer!   Then the 
explosion....one of the rubber hoses underneath the car went kapluey!  Shut 
the car off.....coasted to the side of the road.....lots more 
rumbling....lots of steam....you get the idea.  THAT is what an overheating 
Pantera REALLY acts like.

There are more details but they are too gory to note.  On the bright side, I 
fixed the car on the side of the road and drove it home some 175 miles 
without any major problems happening to the motor.  A true testiment to the 
resiliance of a Cleveland!

Jim Demick
New Mexico