1994 Mustang GT: Condenser and Radiator upgrade - In Traffic!

The ride in to work is about 74 miles.  Early this morning, the weather was pretty nice.  It was 65-70 degrees the entire way.  Using my laptop, the Moates Quarterhorse and Binary Editor, I can monitor the exact ECT temp - along with a bunch of other parameters.  Pulling the hills on Interstae 80 heading to Roseland NJ, I got the temp up to 190.  I tried turning on the AC on max when it was 190, but the temp dropped to 186 very quickly.  Needless to say, the ride in to work was uneventful.  I checked for leaks when I got to the office and there were none.

For reference, heading to Myrtle Beach in July we were seeing 204 during normal driving with the AC off.  Turn the AC on and that easily added 20 degrees.  That was the stock setup.

I left work just before 4pm.  I got to the car and turned on the laptop.  Even before starting the car the ECT was 118 degrees.  It was HOT under the hood after sitting in the sun in the parking lot!  I started the car, fired up the laptop and started logging.  Then I turned the AC on MAX.  The ride started out well, and soon I hit the rush hour traffic.  Back to school has a lot of people on the roads again.  There are still a lot of hills, and it was stop and go traffic.  I was driving the car normally, with the AC on max.  I was even 'getting on it' a little going up the hills trying to see what the temp would peak at.  The absolute max for ECT was 206.  The ACT was also 134 at that time.  So it was pretty hot sitting in traffic with all the other cars.  As soon as the car started moving, the temp dropped.  I kept the AC on the entire time, and never did any 'tricks' to try and drop the temperature.  The ride home took almost 2 hours with the traffic due to accidents.

Eventually I had to stop for fuel.  This was well after the traffic had let up.  I fueled up, dropped the top and set back on my way home with the AC off.  The battery on the laptop was slowly diminishing after all the logging on the way in and all the traffic, but it still had a little bit left.  the temps sat right around 186-188 for the rest of the way.  At least until the laptop battery had given up.  I would say there was some 'spirited' driving, and the ECT stayed pretty consistent - high 180s low 190s with the AC off.   It was a great day to test out the upgrades, and I couldn't be more pleased with how the car performed after the uprade!