Thanks for the suggestions. I chased the overheating problem last summer. First, replaced the driver's side water pump. I then removed the thermostats but that didn't do anything. I have been told flatties will overheat without thermostats. They need the restriction to keep the water in the radiator so the water has time to cool. I then installed new thermostats. That seemed to make it run hotter. I suspect one of two things, the engine was rebuilt before I bought it, never run and the heads were never retorqued. I have also been told this might cause overheating. Also, when I replaced the water pump I noticed there was a lot of rusty gunk inside the block. I flushed the engine twice with water and air to stir everything up. I got a lot of junk out but I suspect I may have more gunk in the back of the engine. The engine was rebuilt but it sat for some time before I bought it so it could have accumilated some junk back there.


Yeah, where is all this global warming they are always crying about?

Yeah, yeah stop your braggin'

We have a saying in Wisconsin, there's two seasons, winter and contruction. As soon as the snow stops the orange cones come out and they shut down have of the lanes on the highways.

 

I'm cleaning the Driveway so that I can Unpack the Garage. Then I can get to the tractor to get it out and service it. Then I can get the trailer out of the back shed, service it then I'm ready to clean the yard enough to be able to the the bigh trucks and trailers moving on cleaning the serious tree stuff.

I did order some more car parts today.

 

Well, I was able to get some work done on the panel truck today. I retorqued the head bolts. The ones on the passenger side were loose, anywhere from 55-60 ft/lb, they're suppose to be around 70. The driver's side wasn't as bad but still had some loose ones. I swapped in another radiator. The one I put in last fall was from a '46 and I had to switch top tanks because the top tubes were too small. When I did this the cooling tubes looked good and clean but when I brought the truck up from storage this week I had a bunch of leaks. When I took it out tonight I saw about a dozen, or more, leaks. The "new" radiator is out of a '52 F-6 and has three cores. I did find one bad leak when I went to fill it up so I used some epoxy to plug it. It got too late so I didn't get a chance to see it there were other leaks.

I also was able to install an after market temp gauge to verify that the stock gauge and sending unit is working properly.

Ahh, the sweet taste of anti-freeze, the grease stained hands and the small cuts, it's great! Also, the small of oil. Now I just need to hear the sound of the flattie and watch the temp gauge not peg out to the hot side. Everything is great, I have the truck out of storage and the first big swap meet of the year is next weekend. What more can I ask for?

 

good weather, lol. Congrats Bob, Spring is here!!

 

Just an update.

As I was filling the "new" radiator I noticed a somewhat major leak last night so for a quick fix I mixed up a small amount of epoxy puddy and pressed around the leak and left it set for the night. This morning it still leaked so I got a bottle of stop leak and dumped it in. No more leak and I think I fixed the overheating problem, if there ever was one. As I mentioned above I installed an aftermarket temp gauge. Today as I was running the truck to plug the hole the stock gauge pegged out after about two minutes. The aftermarket gauge just sat at the lowest temp mark, 130º. I started to worry after about five minutes and it didn't move. I thought maybe the new gauge was defective. a few minutes later I noticed it slowly move and finall reached about 160º. I left it run for anothr five minutes or so and it just sat at 160-170º. I strongly believe I have a bad stock temp gauge. I might have been chasing a problem that wasn't really there. The radiators were still bad and the one I have in it now I will take in and have properly repaired.

All is good so far