The other day a senior Early V8 Club member was talking to me about overheating problems w/ flatheads. I told him the 59A in my '35 pickup gets pretty hot when the ambient temp goes above 80 degrees (the liquid gauge shows just at the max normal range & she runs poorly). He asked how I set my advance & I told him I used the steel ruler method as a Early V8 Club member taught me. He looked at my distributor and told be to advance the timing a little and see if that helped. My timing marks were just about midpoint on my distributor & I moved it up about 1 1/2 marks. I now have been running her in the heat and the gauge does not move much above the normal reading. There has been no issues with performance or drivability. Im sold, give it a try you might save yourself some grief and expense.
Glad to hear it's worked out for ya - timing these old beasts can be a black art and probably as much to blame for overheating as anything else.
Yeah works on 8BA as well. Tuck let me in on that little secret. I now run 175 on the hottest of days, just idling. going down the road it only runs about 160. (I have stewart warner mechanical gauges (one for each head)) I am glad to hear it was nothing serious! Mike
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