As I said on a more recent post I had a pcv not working, put in a new one, now the hot engine gases are getting away and no more mess on the fire wall, I think this was the main culprit, it's cooling better around town and on the highway. Gary

       

Gary, 55 Vicky, St. Germain, Wisconsin

 

My 'bird always ran too hot for my liking. Changed pulley to an overdrive size to spin the fan faster, 4 row radiator in good shape, swapped out the pump to one of Cascos modified impeller models (impeller 'fins' about 2X length of stock. 'Birds have that extra pump spacer with a large free space void behind the impeller), have the lower shroud & 6 blade fan. Newer dizzy with good advance curve. Just added the restrictor in the return hose that was recently discussed & that did add some margin. Gage doesn't stay way up near H like it used to.

Brian - 56 T-Bird

Woodinville WA

Not sure it will lower the temperature but I learned 56 cars came from factory with 7# radiator caps.  Would suspect same to be true for 55s.

You gotta have the right tools and know how to use 'em.

TC - Austin, Texas

lready a 4 blade, and the radiator was looked at, didn't even need roddoing, but the fins are a little ragged.

       

Gary, 55 Vicky, St. Germain, Wisconsin

 

Gary, i think wise to have radiator looked at, just thought if you still had original 3 blade fan to replace it with later 4 blade one, to help increase  low speed air flow through radiator. Regards bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Just got back from a show, 3rd place, and it was a hot one. I never removed the heads during this last fall teardown, just pulled the pan and valve covers to check things out. The car ran right around 200 today, a little over 80 outside, running just a little under 2000 rpm, not to bad. I'm gonna replace the pump & radiator in the fall, then everything is new except the driver.

       

Gary, 55 Vicky, St. Germain, Wisconsin

 

Does your cooling system have a fan shroud? If so, does the fan pull enough air through the radiator? Is the fan properly placed to be half way in the shroud opening? Too far in and the fan  can't suck enough because of cavitating the air flow.

   Maybe you could try a six blade fan. I replaced mine with a six blade flex fan and made lots of difference on my 55 Bird.

   Try sitting with your engine running at fast idle (1000- 1500rpm) and run some smoke through the grill and see how well it sucks it into the radiator. If you block all of the holes on each side of the radiator support, it will allow more air to flow through the radiator instead of going through the openings outside of the rad. I sealed up All of my leaks including using the black foam insulationyou used for water pipes, cutting it down the middle and filling in the gaps between the shroud and radiator where air can be sucked in by the fan. After I sealed my air system I was astonished by how much more air was being sucked through the radiator than before.

   Just another thing to try after you change that 55 year old pump.

Bud in Northern Arizona on route 66 in Winslow (standin' on the corner)

If you're American, buy American

631/2 Galaxie 500XL 406   55 T-Bird

Howdy,





This frequently happens in marine engines where the engine runs hot and the first place to look is the "sea" water pump. When it's not the problem people frequently look to the circulating pump (the belt driven water pump bolted to the engine)



(I know, you're all wondering what the 'ell does raw water cooled marine engines have to to do with a Y-block in a car?)



Well the cause of engine over heats are pretty universal. It's water flow thru the engine/manifolds or heat exchanger. (or coolant and/or air flow thru the radiator)



The circulating pump cannot be a problem if it still has an intact impeller. I.E., unless it has COMPLETELY corroded away (which *could* happen in a raw water cooled engine in salt water), and if your engine has always had a 50/50 mix of AF inside, the only problem a 55 year old circulating pump might have is it could leak.......IT'S STILL GONNA MOVE WATER in sufficient amounts to cool the engine.





OTOH, if the radiator, head(s), block, or other water-hoses, passages, T-stat, etc are blocked or partially blocked, then you either won't get enough flow thru them to cool the engine and in the case of the radiator you won't get enough flow thru it for cooling it.



You also have the added problem of sufficient cooling air flow thru the radiator.





Now having said all this, if I had a 55 year old water pump on my 292, I would probably replace it just to ensure that it doesn't leak in the future.



But it if doesn't leak or squeak now, it's probably not the root cause of your problem.





Also, before you diagnose the "problem". Make sure that you use a known temp gage or get a IR gun like below to verify that you really do have a problem!









Cheers,





Rick






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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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This post was created using OpenSuSE Linux x64 and Firefox

I lived in Dallas Texas a few years ago. One of the hottest places I have ever been other than 'Nam. I had cooling issues with my bird. I change the fan to 6 blades ,new rad cap to 7lbs.,new 180 thermostat, and had the radiator cleaned out. I have A/C on my bird as well and she keeps cool around 190 all the time in traffic. Now I am back home in NC and she runs cooler. I too have the orginal water pump. It was rebuilt but its still original.  

55Birdman  Hickory NC

Fall teardown?  Is it possible that one or both head gaskets are on backwards?

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"