just got back from a sister in law visit, set the rad outside, plugged the top hose stuck a water hose in neck and got a real good flow of water out bottom hose with no trash.OK I have no stat, good water flow thru radiator,looking in bottom tube and in side the head, looks very clean, overflow is not plugged?? ran lots of water thru block and head great flow no trash. any other ideas or things to look for,i am lost on this overheating problem last time it took about a gallon just cover the top of fins i am running it rich and advanced timing????
Break it into steps and make sure each step is right before going on to next....
1- Make sure your rear brakes are not dragging and your tires are inflated right. Just a wee bit low drives overheating wild...
2-make sure the advance lever is in time and up is really up and down is really down and you have full range. Read the recent post on Anderson timer setting, the same scheme works for all the other standard timers.
3-then start it and then adjust the carb at idle for best RPM for least throttle. You may have to open it up another 1/4 turn when driving, you'll find out if it bucks when shifting into high...
4-look for an intake manifold leak with a bit of carb spray thru the red tube aimed at the glands. Speeds up, you have a leak and will always burn lean.
Ronnie
Check how well the radiator fins are attached to the vertical tubes. If many are loose, no amount of flushing or cleaning will help. Its a heat transfer situation and I don't know of any way to repair it.
Even a water pump won't correct that situation, although it might help somewhat.
Here's hoping it something fixable!
Cheers
schuh
http://www.mtfca.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=257047&post=469493#POST469493
Hard to tell exactly but the radiator doesn't look that bad from Ronnie's earlier post.
Ronnie - I haven't been following all your posts but do you have any history on the engine? Was it recently overhauled? Besides George's tips, perhaps the engine is a bit tight (bearings). Can you crank the engine by hand without a lot effort?
Plugged steam holes can cause overheating too.
don't know about overhaul, but don't think so by looking at the outside.when i changed bands they were worn pretty good, all the fins seem solid both sides,the guy i got it from bought it in south texas about a year ago,just let it sit,sold it to me as he has lots of bodywork projects,,he told me he is not a mechnic at all,but he does do great bodywork,real slow
It's not a "Kosciuszko" 3 tube core? Over here we had a 3 tube core for the cooler climates, but if they turn up in Adelaide, or South Australia for that fact, they are an instant cooker.
don't know what a "kosciuszko " is but it is a 3 tube flat core
Three tube cores are often not very good at cooling, even in excellent condition. How good a radiator looks is not always that important to how well it works. Some years ago, I had an ugly old, beat up radiator that I used on several different Ts. It was on one of my speedsters when it was sold. I told the buyer that if he planned to replace the radiator on the car, I would be interested in buying that beat up old thing back. It had two areas where a bunch of fins were broken, tubes exposed. The only time it came close to a boil for me was one day I let it sit and idle for about fifteen minutes while pictures were being taken.
But if the fins have lost solid contact with the tubes, even the best looking radiator may boil excessively. Only three tubes deep? even worse.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
The vertical tubes in the core are three rows deep Ronnie.
In Australia we had a 3 tube core for the cooler climates called a "Kosciuszko". Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain in Australia and snows in winter, hence the thinner core and the name.
Another useless piece of Australian only model 'T' trivia!
Mount Koscluszko is only 7300ft. We call them hills in Texas.
It might just bet he camera flash but it appears that the fins and tubes have a pretty heavy coating of shiny paint. That does not help a radiator do its job and if the radiator is marginal to begin with it can be problematic. Most newer radiators are painted with a very thin paint to thus allow as much air contact with the base metal as possible.
Back in the 50's and 60's it was common for radiator shops to rod tractor and truck radiators to clean the tubes. The radiator core was next steam cleaned, dipped into an acid bath then a solder bath. I was told this solder dip was to seal any pin holes and reattach the fins to the tubes.
My uncle owned a radiator shop and I watched him perform this procedure many times. I wonder why it's not done this way any more?
Most car radiators, now days, are half plastic, if not most all.
Modern car rads are most certainly half plastic which is the tanks, the other half being aluminum-the core.
Alot of my old Ford spending money comes from scrapping aluminum rads that I've replaced in modern cars.
My question was about Model T radiators... not modern radiators which we all know are throw a ways.
I was just simply adding to Richard's post, which I suspect was an answer to your post @3.20pm.
Just about all the radiator shops around me have closed up shop due to the punk junk radiators being designed as a non repairable part.
Radiator repair is becoming a lost art.