water loss problem

Woodie UK

Woodie UK

Member
I've now got about 450 miles on the newly rebuilt pumping head motor in my '36 woodie.

The motor initial ran hot (rebuilt rad), but I cured that by fitting an additional electric high speed pusher fan in front of the rad.

However after taking the car on a fairly long run (about 80 miles each way) I noticed that it seemed to be pushing the water out of the overflow pipe long before it got hot. On the return trip I had to make two stops to completely refill the radiator header tank and it makes me wonder if the system is getting mildly pressurised somehow.

Could I have a fautly head gasket that is allowing engine gases to enter the cooling system??

Help!!
Colin
 
fill the rad take it for a ride it will spill some out now don,t add any water & drive it back see if it spills more most of the time they spill water out is because there over fill & have to seak there level p.s cary water with you on this test if it keeps spiling you have a proulbem. on my 36 the tank level is low when cold i never add coolent & it don,t overheat
 
This is a common malady for the earlier radiatgors. IF there are no bubbles in the coolant after the engine gets hot, the easy cure is one of Skip Haney's overflow tube pressure regulators. You clamp that to the tube and but a good seal gasket in your radiator cap and problem solved.
 
Here is what cured the same problem for me...completely, once and for all...

I'm using a 32, four cylinder, zero pressure radiator to cool the blown Hemi in my 32. It cools BEAUTIFULLY whether at prolonged idle, or at consatant highway speed. The problem I had is/was twofold...the cap wasn't seating properly, and the coolant constantly went out the overflow at normal operating temperature. It reached a certain level and stayed constant (just at the level of the overflow tube). But when I shut it off, it would surge from heat soak, and run out more coolant...not much, but enough to constantly have to replace some. What I did to cure it was to dress the sealing surface of the neck as best I could, then add a thin layer of closed cell foam to the sealing surface of the cap. This made the system air tight (except for the overflow tube). I then installed an over flow container and connected it to the outlet of the overflow tube. Problem solved!;) I had considered one of George Haney's pressure valves, but it wouldn't have allowed back flow, so I did the closed cooling recovery system. Not an original idea, by far, but it does the trick...:D
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