Hello everyone, Hope everyone is doing well. I'm here with issues lol I picked up a 64 country sedan last year and am having trouble keeping it cool. It is a 289 3 on the tree two barrel car. It only had a couple owners, I believe I'm either the 3rd or 4th owner, has all the og ford literature, warranty card etc. It was really well taken care of and aside from the cancer eating the edges of the roof away its pretty solid. When I got it I drove it a good distance on the highway with no issues. As everything was original I opted to change out the water pump, old br*** radiator thermostat, the works since I live in the desert. Fluid was clean and green for the most part, there were some solid bits floating around in the radiator when I pulled it. I replaced the water pump(bearings were lose and the impeller had wobble to it), upgraded to an aluminum radiator, swapped the 13psi cap to a 16psi cap, new thermostat, hoses, distilled water and antifreeze. And now it overheats I cant figure out what the issue is other than I touched it lol Can anyone help point me in the right direction? Thanks a million Frank
What does it do when it overheats? Does it boil over or is it just high on the gauge. if it’s actually boiling over first thing I’d do is pull the thermostat and put it in some boiling water to check it actually opens. Presumably you took the fan off, did you put it back on the right way? If it’s not that maybe the new radiator is not up to it. My 62 with a big block doesn’t overheat but the gauge will move around, they aren’t damped like a lot of cars so dont just sit in the middle of the gauge.
Just to throw it out there, I've run into a lot of bad thermostats brand new out of the box recently. To the point where I test every one now before installing them. There was a time when tstats also had a little dongle/air bleeder valve thingy on them that allowed air to bleed out when you were filling the system. I now drill a very small hole in the flat of the tstat to allow the air to bleed out. If the tstat gets trapped in an air pocket it won't heat up and open. Jr.
Perhaps it is a water pump for one of those serpentine flat belts? If so it could have a reverse rotation? Did you check that Impeller to see if it looked the same?
Check for timing chain slop. Could be retarded valve timing and / or late ignition timing at that age . I had an old 326 Pontiac that I’m convinced overheated because of a bad timing chain and late timing. Replaced the chain, but then the weather turned cold, so I don’t know for sure the late timing was the culprit.
Agree with thermostat as a possibility. Motorad bought out all old reliable names ,and have too many defective ones. If that turns out to be the problem,Flow Cooler makes the Robert Shaw units. They run about $30. No problems so far, just ordered 3 more.
Are you saying it didn't overheat when you first got it? But it overheats since you did the water pump and radiator? Or did it always overheat? To give you good advise we need to know the conditions for the overheat. Does it overheat when idling or going down the road? Need more information.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only who has come across a number of new **** thermostats. Couple said Mottorad on em were the worst. You gotta check everything out, but like others say pull that thermostat.
Did the parts store kid give you a 192 degree thermostat instead of a 160? Is it OH just putting around or when you're running 50+? Little Fords only have 4 head bolts per cylinder and if they sit for a year or so the head gaskets seem to absorb water and then at high speed they allow a little combustion pressure into the water jackets and cause OH problems. I've always torqued SBF heads 5 pounds over max with the stock bolts and never had a problem up to 11:1.
Like others have said, we really need to know what is actually happening to help diagnose. Not hard rules but in general (this is all ***uming your gauge is working correctly and you ARE overheating) Overheating at idle - Not enough fan Overheating going down the highway - Not enough radiator, or restricted airflow to the radiator. Immediate nuclear hot - thermostat. Even a poorly functioning cooling system is at least going to try, so if going nuclear hot super fast, I would suspect your thermostat isnt opening as others have said. *All of this can be solved by a m***ive increase in capacity, but that is rarely a reasonable option. Something 64 Galaxie related that I havent seen mentioned. Some aftermarket radiators are made to delete the expansion tank. Is yours like this? Its not necessarily a problem, BUT thats where the factory 64 fords fill because its a high point. If you deleted that, and are now filling at the radiator itself, Im wondering if you are now filling from a point lower than say the intake. Its possible you arent actually filling your cooling system to capacity and have a bunch of air in the system. Also, check your lower hose to make sure its not pinching kinked in a bend. Again, kinda general rule, but most of the 60s cars are under-radiated. Starting in the 70s you see frontal surface area increase in a big way on radiators. This becomes a big issue when you are stuffing huge engines in cars that only allow for a small radiator. That said, I dont think this is your issue. The 64 raditor is probably about 387 in^2. Thats not huge but it shouldnt be an issue with a 289. I did this little video a while ago because I see so many people chasing their tails with fans trying to cool a 500ci stroker with a radiator that was barely adequate for a 389.
The expansion tank w/cap was an FE item that mounted on the intake. He's got a small block cap on the radiator.
Well I stand corrected, I thought that was universal on the full sizes for that year. My 64 was a Z code 390/4-speed car. I had to modify a cheap dirt track fan shroud to help mine out a little at idle.
Flush the Engine, my older 302 had a clean radiator and the engine was full of mud. fixed the problem for me,
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