Author Topic: Off topic --Over heating Ford engine  (Read 1499 times)

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Offline ray

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Off topic --Over heating Ford engine
« on: February 28, 2012, 09:56:50 AM »
A few weeks ago someone mentoned the their Ford flathead engine would over heat.
I tried to find the post, but no luck.
This may seen couter-intuitive, but the water is flowing through the radiator to fast
to cool properly. You need to put in thermostats or a restristions in the water lines
to slow the water down.

Ray

Offline Papaw

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Re: Off topic --Over heating Ford engine
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2012, 10:03:56 AM »
I don't recall that here on Tool Talk, but don't thermostats restrict the flow so an engine can warm up faster? Then they open up at the right temperature to keep it cool.
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Offline johnsironsanctuary

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Re: Off topic --Over heating Ford engine
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2012, 10:17:47 AM »
It does both.  If the water doesn't stay in the radiator long enough, the engine will overheat. The thermostat acts as a flow restrictor, even when it is open. My 51  F-2 drove me nuts trying to figure out over heating. I found out that flatheads MUST have the proper radiator shroud, even if it makes it a bugger to change fan belts and water pumps. I did all that and still had problems. Finally figured out that it was originally a six cylinder truck and someone stuck a V-8 in it. When they made the switch, they modified the radiator from a two port for the six to a four holer for the flatty. Only thing they missed was that the six radiator has three rows of tubes and the V-8 has four. BIG DIFFERENCE. Once I got a V-8 radiator, all was well. Oh yeah, don't leave out the thermostat and check the timing, a retarded ignition will cause overheating.
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Offline rusty

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Re: Off topic --Over heating Ford engine
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2012, 04:59:16 PM »
don't thermostats restrict the flow so an engine can warm up faster?

Yes, but we are talking old technology that doesn't work the way it does today, and doesn't work the way most guys think it does. It is very common to have weird cooling problems with these cars after modifying the cooling system without understanding how it actually works.

One issue is it's not a pressurised system on the early models, and it needs the restriction of the thermostat to maintain some pressure in the heads so the water won't flash off. Another problem is that lots of folks replace the radiator without noting if it has the necessay divertor baffle. the baffle keeps the water from going entirely through the center of the radiator without spreading to the edges....

Another common mistake is adding high volume water pump(s) without taking into consideration the possability of air entrainment occuring at high rpm...
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