So I finally drove the old girl home to the garage at my house.
It was awesome! It was a 6 mile trip and I had to actually shut her off while going down a long downhill becuase she was getting way too hot.
I've tried three new thermostats all the way down to a 160F model. The thermostats don't change anything. She warms up and just goes to the end of the temp gauge and stays there just hover over the edge of the what I assume to be the "normal" range indicated by the white stripe between C and H. but if I get on her she will close in on the end of the temp gauge range. She hasn't bubbled over yet but...I've been pretty careful.
When I used my infrared thermometer on the radiator return hose after the engine is warmed up and running Im' getting temps in the 195-200 range, over 230 on the thermostat housing and this was with a 160 thermostat!
I feel like there are only two possibilities.
1) radiator is clogged and not flowing
2) water pump isn't pumping. (is this possible? The belt is going around.)
Can anyone think of any other possibilities?
My next step is going to be to stick my garden hose in the radiator, unook the upper radiaotr hose and point it into a bucket and wait for the engine to warm up and then see how much flow comes out once the stat opens up. How fast should it flow if the pump is pumping properly?
If the pump seems to be flowing well, then I will disconnect the radiator lower hose and power water into the filler opening and see how fast it flows through the radiator and out the bottom outlet. What should this look like? How fast should it go through?
Are these good ideas? Are there different better tests? Anything I'm not thinking of?
Nate - Madison, Wisconsin 56 Ford Customline Sedan