Well the olds is Overheating??? Help

Alright my damn 40 started overheating the other day. this is the 303! olds that never goes above 170. so i go ahead and change the thermastat but that didnt change anything, went ahead and pulled the therastat and still no change. pulled the cap and no water movement. has my water pump failed. this is a new rebuild when i built the motor. some of the old timers say the bolt must have come lose, there is no play in the shaft. help. cory



Well i finally got the time to work on the car pulled the radiator looked it over looked fine pulled the fan and spun the shaft water was moving and i thought shit what could it be went a head and pulled the water pump all looked intact held the propeler and spun the shaft and sure as shit it spun on the shaft. so i think im gonna just spot weld the shaft anyone see this as a bad fix of by the way this was a fusick peice. cory

 

If you still have the stat out, what we used to do to see if the water was moving, was.
1. first fill up the rad to the top of the cores, don't over fill it, where it's right at the neck.
2. start you car
3. go around to the rad with the cap off, and spit in it, that's to see if it moves.

Sometimes it's hard to see if the water is moving if it's just water, or water and your anti freeze. Also, if you've got your stat in, you won't see anything untill the water warms up enough to open the stat and get the water moving. if it's a bolt that's not sealing, then you should see water drippin down the front, or if you've got a head gasket leak somehere, then you should be able to see steam coming out the tail time, OR. check your oil for water.

 

thanks ill give it a try, im pretty sure its failed im just wondering what mechanicly has gone wrong

 

I had a newly rebuilt water pump on a 56 T-Bird that had a plastic impeller insted of the stock cast iron one. The first time I wound the engine up the plastic cracked and the impeller would spin on the shaft causing it to overheat and blow the radiator cap. Brian

 

The olds is a cool running motor. If you have a problem, the water pump or the radiator is the first place to look. I ran a J2 for years in a T bucket with a little radiator that fit a t shell, 180 all the time.

 

Ive seen the impeller come apart. Saw this on a 6 cylinder Ford truck. It was drove intot he ground and wa soverheating. Took the pump off and the impeller was all chewed apart. The guy didnt change his anti-freeze and it rusted apart. Yours may have just fell to pieces.

 

When does it run hot? Sitting still or on the run? If you're sitting still, check and see if you're getting air pull from fan (electric or manual) do you have a shroud? Is the fan approx 1-1/2 in from radiator? If its running hot running, does it run hot under load? Cools down when you get off the load, if thats the case you're radiator is plugging up. If its running warmer as you drive down road at cruzing speed and cools down as your speed slows down. It means you're blocking the flow of the radiator (i.e) License plate, electric fan in front of radiator, or you have space on top or sides of radiator where air is escaping instead of going through radiator. Hope this helps. Any questions PM me.

 

works with a few spot welds