So I have an OT vehicle that originally had a worn out 300 Ford inline six..use 2 quarts of oil a week. I found a complete 289 from a 67 mustang that had been sitting for 10 years indoors. Owner claimed it was a good engine and the price was fair so I bought it Installed new water pump, 180 thermostat, new points condensor, cleaned carb. Set points to .17 with feeler gauge...I know a dwell meter is best but I dont have one. Engine fired right up with no smoke or knocking. Adjusted timing to 6 degrees BTDC. It runs SO GOOD and smooth its unbelievable....fires right up with just a tickle of the key. So heres my problem, it overheats...after about 20 to 30 minutes of running it pegs the guage all the way, doesnt matter if its idling or running down the road..temp will not go down..water boiling out of the overflow tube. Im running the original radiator that was on the 300 six, a proper fan shroud and a 6 blade clutch fan. The airflow through the radiator will suck a piece of paper up to it. Im pretty sure I burped the system, took the heater bypass hose off while filling with 50/50 antifreeze water. Also warmed it up with the radiator off till coolant circulated and refilled. I pretty sure the radiator is good, it cooled the 300 just fine and never went over a quarter on the guage. So im gonna install another thermostat....maybe the last one was bad...I have gotten new parts that were bad before....but it really sucks to have an engine that runs good and strong and cant drive it. I was reading that the head gaskets can be installed wrong on these engines causing this....however the person I bought the engine from says its never been apart...and it looks like it hasnt. But..as anybody knows when buying used parts sometimes people "forget". Please help!....gonna go work on it...will check back later
Are you sure that radiator is big enough? I have a '64 Falcon with a 302 and I put a 4 core aluminum radiator in it and it overheats.
Get rid of that 180 degree t-stat! Think about this,it does not start to open until 180 then continues to open from there.If you want proof,go to Stant's web site and read up on T-stats.A good friend was having issues with his 302,he had a 190 stat,went to a 160,problem solved.The early 289 powered cars had a two row radiator,no matter what they came in and worked fine.I bought my 65 Comet in 67,20,000 on the clock,factory air,289,never had heating issues.Put a good fan on,make sure you have the right water pump[late ones are reverse flow]and make sure the radiator is clean. ROY.
I have a 289 in my '32. I bought that motor and had it sit for about 5 years before rebuilding it . Overbore, new cam bearings etc. Assembled that engine and ran it in. It would always run hot. Water in the radiator always dirty. The radiator was new so that wasn't the problem. I concluded the only source producing the dirty water was the block. Pulled the heads and knocked out the welch plugs. Had a good look and could see there was a lot of built up rust and scale in the bottom of the water jacket. I then fashioned a piece of 5/16 tube and inserted that into a crevice tool on my vacuum cleaner . Taped it up to seal it and then set about probing and scratching around inside the water jacket to suck all of the crud out of the bottom of the block. You will also find residual core sand in there too. All of that crud was holding the water but not allowing it to flow so it would just build up heat and not cool no matter what I did. Despite being to the machine shop where the block was cleaned. It is amazing to see what remains behind. Once that job was done and the engine reassembled it ran fine. I too was running a 180 deg. F thermostat and that worked just fine for me.
I was going to say exactly what fredeuce said, sediment and rust can build up in the lower parts of the block and keep the water from circulating. Knock out the freeze plugs and flush out the passages with a strong flow of water from the top. You might have to run a screwdriver or something like that into the hole to loosen it up. An engine that sits will become plugged up in lots of places and if you don't get water flowing around all the cylinders it will heat up quickly. I'm not a fan of engine additives, but you might try a caustic flush after you clean out the block and see what that does. Don
Even if the engine was stored indoors, critters can get inside if it's not sealed up. A mouse can build a neat inside and all of that can come out and plug a thermostat or a radiator. Can you see the coolant flowing into the radiator from the upper hose? Are there bubbles in the system when it's cold and you first start it. You might want to drain the antifreeze and save what you can. Take the thermostat out and flush it with water. Take the upper hose off at the radiator, run water into the radiator with a garden hose while the engine is running.
Thanks for all the replies...popped a 160 thermostat in and it still pegged the guage..just took longer..water in the radiator is swirling around when the thermostat opens......however it didnt boil over. Im starting to suspect the original gauge in the dash. I will get a proper gauge then if its still overheating i guess all have to tear it down
I'd have to say , if it's boiling the antifreeze all over the place , it isn't the gauge . If I had to venture a guess , I'd say it's the fact that the 6-cyl. rad can't keep up . Place a probe-type thermometer in the radiator & run the car & see if it heats up as you think it is . If you have one (or want to spend a bit more than a probe-type) , get a quality non-contact digital thermometer & check the temps around the engine & radiator & hoses . See what ya see ...
try running without a thermostat (just for s and g) and see what happens. i bet it still overheats. ill put my $ on waterpump or 40 years of crud in the jackets.
I knew the 160 T-stat would not cure the problem. Many people still don't seem to understand what a thermostat is for and how it works. Ford designed these engines to run with a 192-195 degree T-stat and NOT overheat. I run a 040-over 302 in a OT car and it has a 3-row V-8 radiator with a shroud, & 180-degree 'Stat. 'Runs at 190 degrees all day long. Might creep up to 200 in bumper-to bumper stop-&-go traffic on a hot summer day, but that's as bad as it ever gets. 'Soon as it's moving again, it goes back to 190...
is the new water pump a "high volume" or "high flow" piece? i had a similar problem where my 302 would over heat and actually peg the temp gauge after installing a new high volume performance water pump. took me a while to figure out but what was happening was that the pump was out flowing the radiator and it was basically trying to put more water back into the top of the radiator than it was taking out from the bottom. i would get a big steam pocket in the block which made the gauge spike to max. drove around one time with the rad cap on but not tight and at a certain rpm gallons of coolant started shootin' out from under the cap. i switched back to a regular flow ford pump and the problem went away. found out later that high flow pumps want high flow radiators to go with them. lesson learned.
FEEL THE HEADS, SEE IF THEY ARE BOTH THE "HOT" TO THE TOUCH, I AM BETTING YOU HAVE "TOO MUCH RADIATOR" my .02 cents
im having same problem in my ranchero, just replaced water pump and put 160 thermostat in still runs hot after 20 mins (highway or traffic) just pulled the radiator out and getting a good go over and try it again and see if it still bubbles the overflow! head gasket is my next target if this doesnt work.
Could be a head gasket, or a modern serpentine pump driven with V belts. IF the coolant is staying clean (not muddy looking) I wouldn't expect too much crud in the block. Have you flushed the radiator? I know it's got to have something wrong if it's boiling over, but have you tried another temp gauge to see if it really is that hot with the new 160* T-stat?
I had similar problems 289 in 64 fairlane . Tryed every thing pulled heads to check gaskets and there it was a long crack in one head. I thought i would add that as no one has mentioned cracks at all.
Timing retarded ??? Try advancing timing. Retarded timing puts a lot of heat into a engine. As said before check water pump , radiator , stat .....Good Luck..
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but curious if your problem was the radiator or the head gasket?
In my experience, the 289 Fords do not like retarded timing. They seem to run hot if the advance is not correct. This would be the first thing to check on one of those engines.
One other thing to check is airflow loss around the radiator. Are all the air shields (rubber or steel) mounted around and below and above the radiator so the air coming through the grille is forced to go through the radiator core? Aa a test, cover all seams between panels with cardboard or duct tape and go for a test run. It made a great difference on my 40 Coupe and a track nosed T roadster both with small block Chevy V8s.
I had a similar problem and tried most of the suggestions. My engine had sat a while and come to learn the previous owner must have ran water most of the time. I knocked the soft plugs out to find the water jackets with a lot of sediment. I took the water pump off and ran water through the engine flushing the water jackets. I had to use a coat hanger to dig with as I flushed the block. Small blocks are thin walled and if the water does flow 100% can't disperse the heat. Took care of my problem
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