Question for motor gurus??? 8ba

R

Rollingmenace

Member
Ok I have the 8ba in my 51 .... We ran this weekend up to a carshow about 90 miles each way ... The car ran great up there .. Got a little hot while cruising through town in golden ... I stopped and let it cool off . Turns out was about 3/4 gallon low on coolant.. (It was full when I left the house) ... Proceeded to top off coolant and drive home 90 miles.. Again ran flawless... (Puked a little coolant when we stopped for gas but only a little) I checked the car today and 3/4 gallon low again....

I'm wondering what gives no visible steam of odd smell when running.. Oil looked good no real signs of water in it..... But I did pull the plugs and investigate.... 1-2-3-4 on passanger side looked good nice golden brown like a toasted marshmallow...
5-8 on driver looked the same.. 6-7 on the other hand 6 was black like carbon black and 7 was white like lean white...
I haven't pulled a compression check yet but could that be a sign of a head gasket issue....
 
a pure white plug usually means water getting into that cylinder, torque heads after engine cools down, did you notice any white smoke coming out of tail pipe? white smoke is steam run a compression ckeck
 
Ok I haven't run a compression check yet but I did re torque the driver head to 70ftlbs in the proper order according to green bible... They all required some tightening ... I gonna take it to a cruise in tomorrow and see how she does I will also re torque passanger head .. I want to run it there and back and then I'll check the plugs ... I'll run compression check on it wed after work....
 
Put a bottle of Barr's heavy duty stop leak in and check to make sure your pressure cap is seated on the bottom down in the filler neck and is working. G.M.
 
Puking coolant is not necessarily overheating. What were your temp readings? Do you have reliable (mechanical) gauges?

You don't mention what car, but assuming a stock 51 Ford or Merc, these cars don't like their radiators too full. They will puke out excess coolant and settle to a level just above the tops of the tubes. 3/4 gallon is probably the difference between the tops of the tubes and the tops of the tank.
 
I agree with Mike on the coolant levels.

Over rich on 6 and over lean on 7.... any chance of a physical obstruction in the intake port for 7? The other suggestions were good too.
 
I double checked torque settings the bible shows 65-70 for head bolts....
51 ford with 8ba
I'm aware that puking does not mean overheating... But it was getting hot enough to boil fuel in the carb.. Not sure 100% of actual temp as I think my guage is off I will be replacing in near future..... The radiator cap is sealing good as it's brand new... I believe #7 was burning coolant (white plug) that is why I started with re torqing head bolts ... I started with the coolant level about an inch above core and it took the gallon to bring it back to around the same level... I'm going to go for a ride here in a few and I'll see how she does...
 
Doing this for a living, just about every Flathead ever built here gets 65# on the iron heads and 55# with aluminum.

You can "back-down" some torque with aluminum due to the different expansion rate! This is indicated in all the directions from the higher-end fastener mfr's.

To the OP, it sounds as though #7 may be taking in some water?? Remove the spark plug, pressure test the cooling system with that specific plug out!

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. My personal take on head torque is there is more risk from lower-than-recommended torque numbers related to premature head gasket failure than using the correct numbers. One of the issues I have more recently is the vendors casting up Flathead heads (Edelbrock, etc) have made the head bolt holes in the newer heads larger than years ago. This isn't all that good! When we build aluminum headed units as of late we "pin" the heads and gaskets to the blocks like the SBC's. They will no longer "float" around on the bolts/studs!
 
Pull the spark plug out on #7 and run the engine. You'll know for sure right away if it spits out steam and water. You should also check your oil filler tube for water vapor.

You can also check your motor oil. Leaky gaskets can cause coolant to blow by the rings into the crankcase. Drain the oil and pay close attention to what comes out first.

Is your new rad cap the right depth? Been there and done that too.
 
had the same problem with my 1950, more so after she ran a little warm at back to the 50-s , pulled the heads, had them resurfaced, put in new gaskets torqued them at 65 lbs. no problem since ,also I agree with the rad. fill should only be just above the core, my still would through up once in a while ,so I installed a nice chrome catch can on the right side of the rad, works great best thing I did for that cooling system
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top