36 ford PU over heating

jers36

jers36

Member
I have a 36 ford pickup overheating problem. I have flushed the system completely filled it with radiator cleaner and distilled water drove it around per the cleaners instructions and drained it all out and filled with 50/50 prestone antifreeze. All seemed real good I have been driving it with no problems temp would stay in normal range or if you was driving in slow traffic it would start rising but as soon as you got up speed temp would go down. Yesterday while driving at speed 40 mph it started steaming and blew all the coolant out. I had it towed home and this morning refilled with antifreeze and let it idle to temp all the time checking carefully for leaks, couldn't find any, all of a sudden, fluid started flowing out the radiator overflow like I had opened a faucet, coolant everywhere. I don't want to start pulling parts guessing at what's wrong but if I was to guess I would say bad water pumps. What do you guy's think pull pumps and ship to Skip Haney?
 
You're filling the radiator to the brim, aren't you? As the coolant heats, it expands, the excess blowing out through that overflow pipe. when it cools down, the coolant contracts in volume, consequently, the top of the tubes will just be covered. This is normal, and is the 'normal' radiator level.
 
When you take the cap off you can't see down into the radiator to see the coils, you see a plate with about a 7/16th hole in it and the overflow pipe sticking out beside it. The manual said it takes 18 qts or 4 1/2 gal. Yesterday when this happened it blew out 2 1/2 gallon of antifreeze. When you look through the 7/16th hole there is a space and you can see a plate below it. The 2nd plate is 3/4" below the first plate with the hole in it. I filled it this morning till I could just see it on the lowest plate that is the only visual you have to go by. Why would it get so hot so fast just sitting there idling. I measured what I captured this morning when it blew out and that was about 1/2 gallon and there was more on the floor I didn't get. I am not disputing what you are saying I am only trying to figure out wat is happening. Driving yesterday early in the morning it was about 70-75 degrees no stop & go just driving at 45 mph. when it happened.
 
Possibly a bad thermostat . You can feel the radiator hoses and see if one side is hotter than the other , or use a infra red thermometer. The motor has 2 separate cooling passages that get mixed in the radiator, one or both thermostats could be bad .
 
I believe Brian is right I over filled the radiator and it caused it to boil out to the point it was low on fluid. I also took Ggmac's advise and pulled the hose on the water pump on the drivers side, there was no thermostat in there so I assumed there is none in the other side either. I bought an infra-red thermometer and checked engine, radiator hose temps. I replaced fluid from overheating so that when it gets hot it doesn't blow out the overflow. The temp gauge shows the temperature rising and falling as you would expect while driving. I checked the engine temps while running both sides read approx. same. Heads high about 235 at varies places hoses 179 radiator 149 top cooler @ bottom.
Do these numbers seem about right? Thanks for your advice.
 
I had the exact same problem with my 28 Buick. Run it a bit and it would puke all over the place. Diagnosis... plugged radiator.

EDIT:

I agree with Brian as well. You have to leave room for expansion when it heats up.
 
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