Been working on a 46 ford with a 59AB flathead in it and been having some interesting problems. first off when the car was purchased it came with a big *** aluminum rad in it and a big mallory electronic Distributor. wich off the bat tells me someone was trying to fix a problem by throwing expensive parts at it. anyways the thing runs pretty warm. the more we drove it the more odd it got, sometimes would be fine, sometimes over heat right away. the thermostats that were in the car looked pretty ****ty so i took them out and replaced them with new 160 ones ( tested them they are def opening and closeing) the car almost instantly over heats it doesnt have to run long for it to shoot up, on the highway its a little better but as soon as u hit town its throwin up all over itself. when you take the thermostats out, it runs awsome ( mind you its also about 55 degrees here at the moment in NJ) when your on the high way with them out the car runs cool right where it should, when you get into town and hit traffic is gets a touch warmer but still doesnt overheat. this works for now while its cold and gettin colder but i feel that once summer hits the car will just heat up and get hotter and hotter without thermostats in ( tryed running it without them in the summer and overheated as well) so my questions are as follow: Could the timeing be off? its almost the first thing everyone tells me and usualy i would consider it, but the car runs so good that i find it hard to belive the timeing is off enough to make it run that hot. also to me doesnt explain why it only runs that hot with the thermostats in. but again i could be wrong this is the first flathead i had to get this involved with. Could the water pumps be bad? could it be possible that the water pump isnt pumping enough water to fight the bit of restriction an open thermostat would pose and not let the water flow back into the rad? Could it be air flow? this is the one im doubting seeing as it has that big *** aluminum rad in there and a huge electric fan, and its 50 degrees out. id like to time the car but am unsure how to go about this, i understand that there are no timeing marks so im ***uming id have to find TDC then make a mark, but wich way do i turn the distributor? wich way advances it and wich retards it? also most the articles iv been reading are for vacuum advanced distributors. this one is electronic and has no vacuum advanced going to it. so any help from someone who is familiar with these motors would be greatly appreciated. thanks.
My first thought would be take a head off, find true TDC and mark your pulley accordingly, make ten degree marks up to 30 degrees as well. My second thought would be find an original Ford crab, go through it and bolt it on, and check you are getting 26-28 total advance, and idling at 4 or so. the advance should come in real quick on a flatty.many aftermarket distributors have too slow an advance curve. my third thought would be to pull the waterpumps off and make sure they havent corroded away, or have some other issue. Thermostats do nothing to help an overheating car..except maybe slow coolant flow down a touch..you wont find an answer there, so for now, leave them out. good luck, Im sure there will be others chiming in. OH what sort of fan set up? fan blades miles away from radiator wont help..should be 1/2" or so clear of rad core. shrouds can help a lot too.
Fan set up is a big *** electric one. because of the after market distributor thats in there u cant fit a regular one on. or at least i cant with what i have laying around so il have to look into getting the correct stuff. the carb on the car is a stock carb thats in pretty good shape ( have taken it apart and gone through it). also as i said befor the distributor on there is one of those electronic ones with no vacuum advance. all electronic i ***ume. so i guess best bet would be to look into gettin a stock one with points and a vacuum advance. real no reason for it to have that big electric one on there its just a stock motor. So 4 degrees advanced at idle, and have a total of between 26 and 28. im guna give that a shot and see what happens. thanks for the input, i appreciate it.
Ok before you get tearing everything apart let start with some simple questions? First how hot is hot and what are you using to determine the operating temperature? Stock gauge or external mechanical gauge. I start here first because in may cases the engine is not over heating but just blowing water out the over flow. Second question is this a pressurized radiator and if it is what is the cap rated at? The next question is, If you fill the radiator up so you can view the water level, leave the radiator cap off, start the engine, can you see if there are bubbles appearing in the coolant? Let the engine heat to operating temperature of 175* and check for bubbles again. What you are doing is checking for a head gasket compression leak. Stopped here and await response.
The car is not mine its a friends who just recently got it. iv been on him to get a pair of mechanical gauges to put in it for awhile and he still hasnt produced them so im gong off the stock temp gauge ( not the best way to go about it i know bu tlike i said its not my car) how ever, it is not just blowing out of the over flow it is overheating. its a pressurized radiator and i think i put a 6 or 7 pound cap on it. ( what flatheads call for) have left the cap off to watch the cooliant. with thermostats out you can see it flowing very well with them in not so much and since with them in it starts to over heat it doesnt take long befor the water is just boiling itself outa the rad. the water doesnt bubble while it runs as if there were air being burped out.
like i said iv been working with the car for awhile now and have pretty much tried all the basic stuff, cap, thermostats, flushing the motor/rad out, making sure no air pockets are t****d in the system. im fairly certain at this point its a more involved problem such as a water pump or timeing issue. i agree i need to get a gauge on there so i can put a number to the temp. but when it runs in the "normal" field on the guage it is infact running good when it gets to the "hot" portion its hot not just a little overflow steam pouring out and over heating.
Simply go to the to the auto parts store and purchase a thermometer radiator gauge, should be about $8.00. Just from pecking thru your additional posts it appears to be more like a headgasket leak but not necessarily. While you are at the auto parts store you can purchase a CO2 sensor kit for the radiator. Just follow instructions and check for CO2 contaminants in the water. Burping the water level seems to be a leaking headgasket or cracked valve seat issue rather than timing or water pump. However if the increased water flow with the thermosates removed causes the water flow to run out the neck rather than flow thru the system also can indicate a plugged radiator, which would cause overheating also. Flow of water ok at low speed but at higher engine rpm cant and therefore coolant overheats. In any case you have to determine the actual temperature where the problem begins.
i agree he is gettin gauges for it. the rad is brand new aluminum one its def not cloged, ( have had it looked it flows good) the thought of a head gasket did cros smy mind, but you get 0 smoke out of the exhaust i would figure with a bad gasket you would be burning some cooliant and see white smoking comming out
Not necessarily, The water is thicker than the compression g***es so the water does not leak into the cylinder but the gases escape thru the poor seal. Also note that even if the radiator is new it must flow "x" number gallons of fluid per minute and this will vary based upon the volume being pumped and the size of the engine. . Is this a 3 or 4 row tube radiator or some cheapy race car radiator?.
4 row. its a legit rad not one of those cheap jobs, everyone that sees it agrees its over kill for the motor should more than do the job and i agree
Also's: It is simple to remove the pump belt and upper hoses...do that and star***up with water to the top of heads and see if there are bubbles. If this is a gaket leak, it is likely a big one. A lesser leak might not show without a load on engine. Timing...search...I have posted how to find TDC on FH without pulling heads, interference method. The Mallory, unlike the crab, has no method of timing built in so you need to make marks for a timing light...same posts on iterference will give quicky way to find spacing of marks on pulley for the rest of the curve. Some Malloeys don't advance until way too late. Real numbers from a gauge would be good...and of course test it w/o the stats to start with.
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