I bought my 69 Cougar in Jul of '09 as a retirement from the Army gift to myself.
From day 1 it had intermittent heating problems that I tried to fix. I changed the radiator, thermostat, water pump, and added 2 12 in 1400 cfm electric cooling fans.
That setup worked fine until the outside temperature went over 90 degrees, then the car went over 220 degrees. Next, I went to a 3-row radiator, high flow water pump, and a 24in electric fan pumping out 3200 cfm's. My temps rose to 230 degrees in stop and go traffic and 90+ degree heat. I had a plan: I bought a 4 row Champion aluminum radiator from eBay, and I was about to pull the trigger on 2 12in 3000 cfm electric fans, but I had a hard time convincing myself that they would fix my problem.
I listened to the Under the Hood Show podcast and they talked about how old school cars in the 60's never had as many heating problems as the owners complain about in modern times.
Frustrated, I decided to call Don at WCCC and see what he thought. I remember Don saying to the effect of, "the 429 Cobra Jet Cougar had a 7-blade clutch cooling system, and it never failed." From Jul of 09 to Jul of 19 I had spent well over $1800 dollars chasing my overheating issue and I was afraid to drive my car any long distance in the heat after I had a mind changing incident occur one time. My brother-in-law wanted me to bring the Cougar 700 miles to show it off to family in Iowa. We made it there no problem, but on the way back the temperature got in the 90's and the car hit 220 and kept going up. I pulled over and called myself releasing the pressure on the radiator by lifting up on the handle on the radiator cap. I stupidly turned the cap, and the pressure made it shoot off. Well, I got a free "hot water" exfoliating facial treatment and I invested a lot of money at Walmart on about 10 gallons of water and a couple bags of ice to take the sting out my now beet red face. And I still had to drive about 300 miles before I got home.
I tell you, this incident stuck out in my mind when Don said that the clutch fan kit he sold should fix my problem. So, I bought it and anxiously waited for the kit to arrive. When it came, I put it on over the next few days and that weekend I took the car on a test drive. The outside temperature was about 90 degrees, my car topped out at 210 degrees and the needle stopped rising. when I drove off and got air flowing at speed it dropped to 190. Once I put the correct radiator fluid in the car instead of mostly water the temperature topped out at 200 in stop and go driving.
After almost 10 yrs of grief, I was finally able to say that my overheating problem was fixed. Thank you, Don.