40 Ford Thermostats

dewert

dewert

Member
I bought a 40 and the thermostats seem to be in the neck and held there with pins through the casting. I am not sure they are opening correctly. How do these come out and do the new ones just set in the neck? I have enclosed a picture. Hope I did it right and it turns out.
 

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The 40 thermostats set on top of the water outlet and were kept in place with the radiators hose. Real 40 top hoses have a step that fits over the head and then necks down to a smaller diameter to hold the thermostat in place.
 
dewert, The pin was someones bright idea. You will have to tap it out with a small punch. I would stuff paper down in the stat and drive the pin in if it don't have a head. If you try to tap it from inside the punch will be on an angle and the casting could break. Looking down in the stat you can see the opening of the stat is very small, this restricts the flow of coolant through the radiator and in weather over 60 degrees will cause the engine to run much warmer than the thermostat rateing. In 85 to 90 degree temperatures the engine will run up over 190. There are no modern stats I know of with large enough flow opening to work on 32 to 48 engines. For the 49 to 53 engines Prestone # 330-160 stats have large flow openings and work good but these are to large in OD to fit the early engines. For driving the 32 to 48s in spring and fall a piece of cardboard over about 1/3 of the radiator at the bottom works, the size can be adjusted and it don't need to be secured, the air holds it in place. G.M.
 
G.M. said:
dewert, The pin was someones bright idea. You will have to tap it out with a small punch. I would stuff paper down in the stat and drive the pin in if it don't have a head. If you try to tap it from inside the punch will be on an angle and the casting could break. Looking down in the stat you can see the opening of the stat is very small, this restricts the flow of coolant through the radiator and in weather over 60 degrees will cause the engine to run much warmer than the thermostat rateing. In 85 to 90 degree temperatures the engine will run up over 190. There are no modern stats I know of with large enough flow opening to work on 32 to 48 engines. For the 49 to 53 engines Prestone # 330-160 stats have large flow openings and work good but these are to large in OD to fit the early engines. For driving the 32 to 48s in spring and fall a piece of cardboard over about 1/3 of the radiator at the bottom works, the size can be adjusted and it don't need to be secured, the air holds it in place. G.M.
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Thanks for the info. I was afraid it was a home made deal. I put a new distrib. on and it has been running hotter than it should.
 
flatjack9 said:
Is it running hotter than with the old distributor?
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Yes, I bought the new one from Mac's. I had a starting problem so I changed everything and then found out it was the resistor. I am a novice at this so I am not sure if the distributor is set wrong. Maybe I should put the old one back on.

I have learned more in a week from the Ford Barn then in the last year. Any help will be appreciated.
 
Ken why don't you tell us the real reason you don't like Mac's. I don't have any toruble with the parts I bought from them. I'm sure if there was a problem with their parts they would make good on it. G.M.
 
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