My Buddy has a rebuilt 8ba canadian block in his Kustom 35 roadster single 94 carb ...new radiator electric fan 3000 cfm , checked all head gaskets and checked head bolts , new water pumps running be cool ... timing is dead on ? driving 50 miles per or less ...still getting hot ? Any New ideas ?
Yes hes has tried with thomo ...no themos ... flushed motor had sand in water ...flushed radiator ...new pumps ... bigger eclectric fan ... ?? took heads off checket gaskets re installed ???
aluminum rad? push or pull fan? try using old themos with the guts taken out to slow the flow. some just use washers with different size holes. worth a try
no sock fan wont fit ..only has electric push fan ...steel radiator nose is pinched packard grill ..Thanks
Check the timing. 9 times out of ten timing is the problem. What distributor does he have. Original will not work "without much adjustment" in anything other that stock carb aon properly connected. Try advancing the ignition
The small timing mark is not necessarily where the timing needs to stay. It is a starting point, find the sweet spot by advancing it. Plus, what is the temperature reaching, using a mechanical temp gauge?
Chuck the stock distributor. Put one in that has a centrifugal advance. 9 out of 10, that cures the heating issue.
The is tons of info here to search on overheating flatheads. If you have sand in your coolant passages then that may very well be the problem. Sounds like it was not properly cleaned before the rebuild. But then again it could just be the typical issues that you will find in your Hamb search.
If distributor is stock, it may well have no advance or inadequate advance above your idle/static timing you checked. You cannot actually check what is happening on the road by revving it up with a timing light like a centrifugal distributor, finding out requires a bit of trickery. First check should be to apply some vac to the thing by mouth or by one of those little pumps...see if you get advance, then see if it leaks by trying to hold the vac. Any stock '49-53 distributor is HIGHLY suspect in a case like this unless actually proven to function IN USE.
. I had a similar problem Timing dead on Rad was new. Tuned and running great. Sand and remnants of old rad stop leak in the system. Purchased Wynn's Rad Flush, installed, went for a highway drive, temps climbed. The returned home and Flushed engine while hot and idling for 15 minutes. Went for a drive, still ran hot. Water Flushed hot engine another 5+ times with No relief in sight. Then an old mechanic told me about this stuff... Note that this is the "All in One" tablet as opposed to the rinsing or sheeting tablets. It is dishwasher, rubber, plastic, metal safe and the hotter the water, the better it works. As the label states, it releases baked on grime. The bonus is that it completely releases residues (oil/slime/baked beans/old stop leak) from the inside of the water jackets. I put 2 tabs in a freshly water filled rad/engine and went for a drive. Flushed the rad at my buddies place 25 miles out. What came out was unbelievable and that was after I had already flushed the rad many times. Put 2 more tablets in and drove home to flush it one more time. More sand/gunk/residue came out. ----------------- Before: I used to drive at 50mph (or less) to keep it from overheating. Always ran at 190 to 215 degrees depending on speed. As soon as the temp hit ~185 the steam would start to escape the rad and overheating was a short matter of time as the rad emptied itself. After: While keeping an eye on the temp gauge, I drove 50mph, heat stayed steady at 165. Up to 55 temp was steady, at 60 temp was steady at 170. I have since put close to 1000 miles on the Flathead (4:11 rear ratio) and am now used to moving along with traffic at 65 mph and the needle doesn't get anywhere above 180 degrees even on hot days. (I have dual temp gauges, the original in dash gauge which is fast to adjust to engine temps and an underdash temp gauge that is a bit slower to react, they both read about the same once they have stabilized). The Cascade All in One tabs removed the slime that was attached to the insides of the water jackets of the block and that's where my problems seemed to be. The various coats of erroneous stuff that had attached to the water jackets over ~62 years were not allowing a complete transfer of heat form the cylinder walls into the water jackets. -The engine was more or less wearing a insulating blanket that no amount of flushing was going to get rid of. The cleansing and sheeting action of the cascade all in one removed much of the sand and obviously removed the un needed insulation from the internals of my motor. Cascade All in one is now in my garage toolbox, it worked. . .
Cascade didnt work ...However his rotor was loose sloppy clip...came off would this make it overheat ...too late at night cant wake the neighbors ..
Yes that could be part of the problem. If the engine experiences weak or abnormal spark then our natural tendency is to push down harder on the gas peddle to force it to do the speed limit. If the engine is in proper tune and it's pulling properly, then it usually isn't to hard for them to cruise at speed. If the engine is poorly tuned or has a weak or irradiate spark, then we as drivers just make things worse by throwing more fuel on the fire. This causes 2 problems, :It creates more heat (we have introduced additional fuel in our attempt to make the speed limit) and the added heat of that extra fuel has to be dissipated by the water jacket and rad. as well as :A poor spark will cause an incomplete burn inside the cylinder. Often times the fuel will still be igniting on it's way out the exhaust valve and into the port. On a Flathead, a late burn inside the exhaust port places the heat of combustion right up against the block/wall/water jacket so in essence you end up taxing the ability of the water jacket to do it's job by allowing the combustion/burn to continue into the exhaust port right where/when the water jacket is attempting to cool things down.
. For those who do not have or use a Vacuum gauge, I would highly recommend purchasing one as it will point you squarely at particular trouble spots that (among other things) will cause your engine to run hot/misfire/burn oil/use excessive fuel and/or be down on power (and that's where we tend to over compensate by pushing harder on the peddle and ad more fuel to the fire). The page below will help you diagnose the gauge readings. Pay particular attention to the "action" of the needle as in how fast it pulses, moves, swings or blips as that is how you figure out the difference between a burnt valve or a broken ring or between a poorly tuned carb or ignition problems. -It's the action of the needle along with the gauge/range/reading that will help pinpoint all manner of engine problems. I have a hand held gauge for the toolbox but for years I drove with an under dash unit (it will help you save fuel as well as help you to recognize when you are on the verge of using oil) ((when cruising, allow the needle to show at least some sort of reading for as soon as the gauge drops to zero, your vacuum ceases to be a vacuum and becomes a pressure, that pressure Will push oil out any and all gaskets/seals/breather causing you to continually be topping up the oil. -Maintaining a vacuum while cruising helps prevent your engine/crankcase from pressurizing which helps keep the oil inside the engine where it belongs)) A vacuum gauge is one of the handiest diagnostic tools anyone can have, (they're chap insurance as well as a learning tool). . .
Hello, >>Flushed the rad at my buddies place 25 miles out. What came out was unbelievable and that was after I had already flushed the rad many times. >>Put 2 more tablets in and drove home to flush it one more time. More sand/gunk/residue came out. What method did you use for flushing the rad and block? This may seem like an elementary question, but I can think of a couple of ways to to this and would be interested in how you approached it. Did you remove the bottom hoses? The top hoses? Did you use a garden type hose? If so where did you direct the flow? It would seem logical to put the hose in the water outlet and back flush so the residue comes out the bottom outlet. We've never done this but are thinking of using the Cascade method. Thanks in advance for any guidance Henry
Just curious about the logic, but if the heat was being held in the engine, and not being transferred into the coolant, how would that cause it to overheat? Seems like removing the "insulation" and allowing more heat to transfer to the coolant would actually cause it to run hotter, not cooler. Bob
The Jalopy Journal
