I just started driving a T I bought it does not hat a moto meter, when I climb a couple steep hills a little water will seep out from under the radiator cap and I shut off the engine you can hear the water rolling in the radiator,so I put my turkey deep fry thermometer in the radiator fluid and it is exactly 200 degrees,I did this twice and both times it was the same is this too hot?
Sounds perfectly normal.
Ron the Coilman
No way water will seep from the radiator cap if the gasket is in good shape. I use a neoprene bathroom sink gasket instead of the original style paper one just because they last longer and seal better.
As Ron says 200 degrees is exactly right. Be sure not to over fill the tank. If you over fill it just ends up on the ground after every drive.
I hope you have an overflow/pressure release tube from the radiator neck down to the ground. Jim Patrick
Jim,
Every Model T radiator has an overflow tube.
Royce you're right. If the Model T radiator has not been tampered with, but you never know what some clueless new owner might have done in the past to keep that rusty water from messing up the driveway to make the wife happy. While you and I would never consider crimping the tube closed, who's to say someone else might not do it. What prompted my suggestion to check it is that the water was coming out of the cap. Whenever mine boils over, it comes out at the bottom and not up through the cap. Jim Patrick
Needs a water pump. Keeps the motor cool and stops the boil over when you stop. When I get my ice cream no body says HEY MISTER YOUR CAR JUST Puked. Scott
Mine never spills any anti freeze / water mix on the ground. Must be something wrong with yours Robert Scott Owens.
No water pump is needed on a Model T if it is running right. Water pumps on Model Ts eventually cause trouble and you will regret having one.
John Markham:
I also use the bathroom sink rubber gasket in all my Ts. They are the exact size and thickness.
John Markham:
I also use the bathroom sink rubber gasket in all my Ts. They are the exact size and thickness.
This is sorta' "off-topic", but the discussion you fellows had about radiator overflow and such reminds me of my very English maternal grandfather:
My maternal grandparents, "Pa" & "Ma" came from England in the very early 1900's as my grandfather's ambition was to work on the railroad and as he was unable to do such in England, he came to the U.S. (Wisconsin) and ended up working as an Engineer on the SOO LINE Railroad for 44 years until his retirement in 1954.
"Pa" had a big black '52 Cadillac that he bought new (and thought the world of) but according to my Dad (a railroad switchman) "Pa" Wadsworth drove that car and treated it just like he did those big ol' steam engines on the railroad. One thing that none of us could ever talk him out of was his habit of filling the radiator completely FULL on a daily basis. I guess it was sort of like his "oiling around" routine of a steam locomotive. We tried to convince him that just because the level in the radiator was an inch or two down from the filler neck whenever he last checked it, it wasn't really "low" and was not in need or refilling to the top; it was just natural expansion that spluttered out of the radiator overflow pipe that extended from the top of the radiator, down to where it terminated near the crankshaft pulley and vibration dampner.
As a young kid, I sort of became the "family mechanic" and used to "tune-up" the family cars and actually made a few bucks tuning up neighborhood cars on a pretty regular basis. "Points, plugs and condenser" and check the ignition timing about every 10,000 miles or so. Remember those days?
Anyway, from years of my grandfather filling the radiator on that '52 Cadillac on a daily basis, and having it splutter water and in the winter, water and alcohol anti-freeze mixture all over the front of the engine on a daily basis, I eventually had to re-establish and remark the timing marks on the crankshaft pulley, because I could no longer read the timing marks on that rusty and corroded pulley with my Sun timing light. Believe it or not, some time in the '60's, the hollow pivot pins in the tension spring counter-weighted hood hinges actually wore out until one of them finally broke, due to my grandfather opening and closing that '52 Cadillac hood hundreds and hundreds of times to "oil around" and such!
My Dad (a railroad switchman) had a couple "sayings" that I've never forgotten,....one was that "they don't call them Englishmen "Johnny Bull" fer' nothin", and, "ya' can always tell a hoghead (RR engineer) but ya' can't tell 'em much!"
(My apologies to any RR engineers on the forum, but that comment of my Dad's was just typical of the light-hearted rivalry between railroad trainmen and engineers, plus the usual "son-in-law"/"father-in-law" thing!)
The hotter the better, as long as it's not boiling.
Harold,
Great stories! I've known folks like that too! 'sides, when the Ox screws up, the Hogger takes the blame!
And Brakemen usually have a "crummy" job!
(The rest o' y'alls gonna have to look this up in a railroad slang book!)
T'
David D.
I put a ceramic seal in my water pump 15 years ago. I think it is going to out last my radiator. All the cars in our local group have pumps. We get to eat as much ice cream as the next group. Scott
Bunch of bad radiators methinks.
Engine oils, water pumps, seat belts.
What do they have in common?
Bernard: Modern cars.
Controversial.
Norm
Robert Scot, When your ceramic seals do out last your radiator and the radiator needs replaced, then you can take the water pump off and the seals will last for an eternity while hanging on your wall. My T never gurgles and never pukes. I've not topped the radiator off for 2 years and I run antifreeze and drive a daily. Your local groups use of water pumps don't make a majority or make it right.
A gurgling, bubbling, dripping Model T is part of the fun.
We have an old saying in Australia
"When she boils she's buggered" Not true with T's unless you have a faulty radiator, new engine or has a hard workout. Most "Modern Cars" have a 180 Deg thermostat anyway so what's a few extra degrees between friends? Considering its a thermo syphon system without a water pump
Alan in Western Australia
The lack of a water pump is one of the things I like best about a T. At a car show, I love to point out the lack of a water pump. People will look at you in disbelief. Then you get to explain thermosyphon to them. Model T, epitome of simplicity.