I've been having some overheating problems with my 401 nailhead. I took it for a 10 to 15 min cruse yesterday and it got really hot about *225 and started poring out the overflow. When I got it home the top hoes was hotter then hell and the bottom hoes and bottom of the rad was cool to the touch. I thought i could be the stat was stuck shut so i pulled it, put it in a pot of hot water and it opened and closed fine. I pulled the rad off and ran water though it and it seemed to flow well (there was a bit of crud in the rad though) I plan to flush the engine as well. Could this be a water pump problem? i would rather not pull the pump if I don't have to but i might just to make sure. Any ideas?
That sounds more like a radiator flow problem. I had a 410 nailhead, ran it cool for as long as I owned it. 160 on a cool day, 180 on a hot day. If that were my car, I would take the radiator in to have it cleaned and rodded out.
how much crud came out? sounds like you may need to have the radiator cleaned out. I'd go there first, I'd also flush the engine real good, remove the plugs under the exhaust manifolds in the middle of the block and flush the block as well, it's not running extremely hot for a Nailhead, they tend to run in the 190-210 range a lot. Even the manual says that...
Yep, and like I said I'd flush the engine out as well. if there was "mud" on the bottom of the radiator I'd worry about it in the engine as well
A friend just went through the same issue (with a different engine) and it was a badly clogged radiator. We cut the old one up and found "mud" clogged tubes. A new radiator solved all of his overheating issues. Cleaning by a professional radiator shop may solve your problem.
So after debating about buying a new rad, because every rad shop I called could not give me a definite answer that flushing it would get all the crud out of it, I went and cut the bottom tank off and pushed a piece of thin plastic through each of the rad tubes. Wow!! a lot of **** came out into the top tank. So after giving it a good cleaning i will take it to the local hotrod shop and get him to weld the tank back on. I figured **** it, its worth a shot! I will let you know how it works out. Cm30
You cut the tank off? You're just supposed to melt the solder out of the seam holding it on and take it off, no cuttung.
Rad's all back together and took it out for hour rip. never went over 180* and only cost me $35!! score for me!!
definately check the thermostat and the radiator. therm could be shot and the radiator might be plugged. if those clear out OK then check the water pump
sounds good. did you flush the engine to make sure she is clean? 30 bucks much cheaper than a new rad thats for sure. chris.
Yup. pulled the water pump and flushed it every way i could for about an hour or so. Man alot of **** came out!
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