Customs 302 with blown head gasket?

Hope you can offer some advice, working on my neighbors shoebox.
Is a nice car, all original except for a newer 302 in it.
He bought it a year ago and never drives it ... I asked why, it is overheating he said.
So I offered to fix the cooling system, T-stat was stuck, water pump bearings are gone, electric fan dead, I flushed the radiator, new hoses.
Has a 195 T-stat and runs at 190 when warmed up, goose the throttle and cools right down to 180 now ... cooling system is now working.
But while idle in the driveway with no radiator cap, and not over heated, it is blowing water out the top of the radiator.

I am guessing a blown head gasket, will buy the test kit today to confirm it.
My question is, moving forward from here.
The motor runs smooth and solid, just touch the key and it is running.
It runs smooth, it has plenty of power.
Does anyone think it is a good idea to just slap a set of head gaskets on it?
Or do I need to take the heads to a machine shop and checked?

Since I have not yet confirmed the head gasket, any other possibles on a 302 ford blowing coolant out the radiator?

 

post a video of what you see going on with the radiator.

Does it lose coolant in normal driving?

The test for exhaust in the radiator will tell you what you need to know, though.

 

It can run smooth and still have a leaking head gasket. I agree with Squirrel exhaust in the cooling system makes them boil over.
I recently did a 350 that sounded good and ran perfectly except it couldn't keep the coolant in the radiator. Replaced the block and reused all of the internal parts and the heads . No issues after that.

 

Ok, is warming up now, takes about 20 min idle to warm up

Guarantee it did before I replaced the cooling system, got it back together last night and not driven it on the road.

Exactly what I plan to do next ... if positive to have exhaust gas, and it was my car, I would just put a set of gaskets on it and pray.
When helping a friend, am not sure is a good idea.
I still need to go buy the kit though.

 

When and if you have the heads off, you will be able to make a better decision about having work done on them.

 

Those kits work great would not buy a used car without one. Especially if the car has aluminum heads. Went car shopping with grandson 3 out of 5 cars he liked failed.

 

Here is the video ... I am simply trying to fill the car with water and test for leaks etc..
The longer you run it, the more often the water spurts out, and the higher it spurts.
This is why I have not driven it. .... I cant first get the water level to settle, I do not think this is normal.

 

I think my neighbor paid $7500 for this car, bragged a little about the great deal.
So far he has driven it 35 miles in 1.5 years

 

Stock iron heads?

 

The engine is stock with no modifications.

 

How full is the radiator, when it's cool, and not running? as in, how many inches below the bottom of the filler neck?

 

You mentioned that it takes 20 minutes to warm up at idle. In my experience, a bad head gasket will cause it to heat up much faster then that.

 

Right now it is sitting 1.5" below the neck.
I only let it run long enough to show the symptom.
But yesterday, I let it run for 1 hour. It just continued to spit water out and had to use the hose to keep adding water ...
Maybe I just need to slap a cap on it and drive it, then see where it is at.

 

yeah, that's what I would do!

 

Yep, I'd cap it and drive it. Just don't venture too far---just in case.

 

Reminds me of my '54 Ford from high school. 332 fe, stock radiator. It would set idling with radiator cap off and periodically geyser like that. Did fine with cap on unless you flogged it for a bit and then shut it off. Often, it would blow a radiator hose off within a few minutes of shut down. When I finally got tired of it, I discovered the water pump had a phenolic impeller which had broken in half. New water pump solved the problem. You dont have a reverse rotation water pump, do you?

 

did you change the water pump?

 

What is this kit you speak of??

 

Never had a Windsor that had a heating problem; guess I been lucky. I had a 383 that would puke it's guts out but I found the head gaskets clogged, not blown. Another problem that I ran into was a bad bottom hose that would suck flat once the rubber got hot. I was sure that car was a goner; a new radiator hose with a strong spring in it cured it.

 

Video looks normal for a top tank vertical flow radiator and no cap on it.
Water level needs to be at least 3" down from cap if it doesn't have a hose leading to a return tank type set-up on it... It can only be filled to the top with a recovery tank. The old dump the overflow hose onto the ground systems need lots of expansion room or that will push a lot out.

I'm with the cap it and test drive it group, add a recovery tank if it does okay in the drive test.

 

Pretty sure this might make me a criminal. The insurance card is not in my name, the registration expired last month.
Maybe I can get my neighbor to drive his own dang car.

Let me show you this video, this is while it is warming up before the T-stat opens.

I understand, I just need to do the test, this is what I am seeing and why I need to do the test.
To me, this is just not normal ... I have been wrong before.

 

I apologize for being stupid, this just does not look right to me.
Been a long time since worked on a car like this.

 

do you see bubbles of "air" coming up in the radiator?

Does it smell like exhaust in there?

 

I can't remember ever having a little Ford with a bad head gasket but I'd let the water get down to a level that you could see it in the rad. If compression is getting into the cooling there will be large amounts of air in the coolant.

 

Put the rad cap back on

Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Was the motor sitting on hi idle while running with the radiator open? It sounded like it to me in the video. If it was I would top off the rad and cap it and then tool around the hood a little bit to see what it does. I've had cars before push coolant out when on hi idle or revved up that were fine when capped and being driven.

 

Borrow a pressure tester & take the plugs out. Pump it up & crank it over in an hour or so. Don't stand in front of any plug holes ….

 

That's not a blown head gasket its just blubbing from the water pump working. A blown head gasket looks like a fire boat.

 

Sorry one of these https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-75500-...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584413735782607&psc=1 If the car has an old style catch can recovery, fill a bucket with water and stick the hose to the reservoir in the water and watch for bubbles much easier than try to see them in the top of a radiator.

 

I think you are seeing a radiator that is too full. The first video just looked like the thermostat opening and closing to me. Nothing to worry about. I've never had a blown head gasket on any Windsor style Ford, even race engines. My guess is you are worrying about nothing and seeing how things looked before closed systems came into play on everything.

SPark