Help! OVERHEATING?

[papawfalcon]

'63FALCON with a '78 200 New falcon waterpump, 190 thermostat ( boiled it to see if it was ok) New Heat gague to the back of head.This motor has been mine for the last 20,000 miles it has about 43,000.Never had a problem.when the thernostate opens the radiator circulates.then after 2-3 passes down the alley it boils(steams) the water out!! the c-4 still has a leak.I hope the tranny can't cause overheating.My son also put an electric fan on the front to pulmore heat out and it still got hotttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!I wish someone had a simple fix.Oh yea we also trided to bleed the air out of the heater hose and drilled a hole in the thermostat.Thanks for you help Ken N.

 

[250mav]

Flush it out and then see what happens

 

[postal]

Do you have an auxillary tranny coller on the car. My 65 wgn, 289 w/C4, always ran warm until I installed a tranny cooler.

 

[Junk-Falcon]

ck th

 

[66 Fastback]

You might try replacing the cap. It may not be holding pressure and causing the boil over. The rest of the system could be fine.

Check to make sure that the vacuum canister is holding vacuum at the distributor. Retarded timing will make it overheat quickly. Check to make sure that the timing is advancing with increasing rpm's.

Was it recently worked on such as timing?
Confirm that the timing mark is at TDC when the #1 piston is at TDC. The outer ring of the balancer may have slipped and the reference mark being used to set the timing may be off.
Doug

 

[papawfalcon]

Havent had a rad. cap on yet.

 

[kukm66]

This has been a problem for many of our cars at times.
Tracing the problem can be a difficult when multiple issues may be the cause.

Some tips:

1) Plug off the heater hose ports on the engine to stop possible contamination from the heater core.
2) Check for lean conditions and proper timing.
3) Make sure all hoses are reinforced as they can collapse and stop the flow of water.
4) Make sure all hose clamps are up close to the nipple and secured very tightly. These systems require pressurization.
5) Flush the system as stated earlier.
6) Take the C-4 out the system by using an external cooler and see if this helps.
7) Make sure the fan belt is not loose which can cause slippin.

What is the status of your radiator and engine as far as rebuilds? Accumulations of rust can severly restrict the flow of water. If you flush the system, observe what exits. What kind of fan blade are you using?

 

[pedal2themetal45]

Not knowing your experance ... Could it just be that your overfilling it??
After it boiles over and it cools down pull the cap and see how much fluid is in it.. only needs to be about 1" from the top when its cold...
Just a thought"
tim

 

[papawfalcon]

rad., water pump and thermostat all new, motor has only got 44,xxx ish miles and was running fine when pulled out of other car not long ago. Running a stock fan and a electric fan to help. Boils over with no rad. cap on at all. Also have the heater core by-passed.

 

[wallaka]

A good radiator cap will raise the boiling point. With no cap it'll boil at 212*, with a 12-14 lb or so it'll usually raise it to over 240* depending on how much pressure it'll actually hold.

 

[Anonymous]

It will always boil over with no radiator cap. The pressure it provides raises the boiling point. Get one and put it on and the problem will probably go away.

 

[Anonymous]

yep you need a cap. Simply flowing the rad. will lose enough water to overheat and then lose more water.

 

[kukm66]

As I stated earlier, the system must remain pressurized. It is also not uncommon for pressure to be lost at the filler neck and tank joints due to faulty soldering.

Personally, I do not mess around with older tanks due to multiple problems with cores being plugged, bad soldering joints, etc. You may want to try a quality radiator next, especially if it has not been replaced. I am going with aluminum on all of my cars.