hello all, first time poster here but ive been lurking for quite some time. Forgive me if i have posted incorrectly. I recently purchased an 87 f150 with the 4.9. timing gears blew up and i replaced those. in doing so the radiator seals broke and i mixed coolant in the tranny and vice versa, transmission has been rebuilt and installed, new radiator, 165 thermostat, water pump, fan clutch. every part of the cooling system is new minus the top radiator hose. here is my issue... the truck over heats what seems to be randomly. normally the coolant would boil after a long drive but only after shutting the vehicle off. today after driving about an hour at hwy speeds it over heated while driving to the point the engine shut off. sat for a while let it cool down refilled the radiator with mix antifreeze and it drove the hour back home no issues guage barely reading above the "C" mark, drove it around for a while afterwards it boiled once after shutting off. and then just before getting home it over heated while driving again. while we had the truck down waiting on the transmission rebuild we pulled the motor, cleaned the head and installed a new head gasket. have checked the coolant for exhaust gasses and to my relief there were none. the truck runs like a top before it over heats. it runs great but i am at a point with it over heating and not being able to figure out why that i am ready to rip my hair out. any input or ideas are appreciated, also let me know any information i may have left out. again this is my first post and i dont consider myself good at these things
thank you much!!

 

It sounds like your fan clutch may have failed if you have no coolant loss

 

"timing gears blew up"
Id like to know how you handled that job and ensured its in time
"overheats till the engine shuts down"
Thats not a feature, bud

"every component is new beside the top hose"
Why did you not replace the top hose, is the right rotation water pump on, is the fan the right direction, what is your v belt tension, did you EVER CONSIDER checking for codes , did you ever try bleeding your coolant, did you ever consider posting pictures....

 

fan clutch is new, i suppose it is possible to get a faulty new part.
yes factory timing gears from these truck were made of phrenolic i believe its called which is a pressed fiber of sorts, i followed a detailed youtube video and set the timing to factory. when i say over heats till engine shuts down i mean the engine wont run because of the over heating. not like its the computer shutting the truck off. i didnt see a reason to replace the top hose because it seemed like a still functional part. i dont know what you mean by right rotation water pump. yes the fan is in the right direction. this truck is a serpentine belt with no v belt. i do not currently have a way to check codes. yes the coolant was bled.

 

Yes you do have a way to check codes : )
also, can you show a picture of your belt drive if you can grab the whole setup in one shot?

The water pumps are sold in 2 different direction flows

 

I hope these work. I don’t have a code reader on hand is what I meant when I said I couldn’t look up codes. The water pump was a factory replacement from oreilly so I’d assume it’s whatever direction factory called for. I can’t verify that as I did not put the water pump in.

 

To read the codes, all you need is a paperclip, a pad of paper, a pen, and 5 minutes.
unfortunately, your overheating issue sounds like a blown head gasket that's leaking high pressure combustion gases into your cooling system. Have you checked your compression? The leak is probably small enough that it won't show up during a compression test, but it's worth a try. You can also look at your sparkplugs to see if any one is cleaner than the others.
but the real way to find out if your head gasket is leaking is to pressurize each cylinder with 100psi of compressed air and watch the radiator coolant level with the radiator cap off. When you see the level start to rise or bubbles come up, that's the cylinder that has the leak.

 

I can't say for sure from the pictures, but do you have a fan shroud? Without a fan shroud you will get overheating when driving slow especially in hot weather.

 

Yeah, it will run till it is so hot it shuts off itself. Had it happen on my 95 when i puked a water pump gasket on the highway. At 75 it got hot faster than the gauge could react and she got hot enough it she started losing power. As soon as i clutched in it shut off and wouldn't crank. Coasted to a stop... so yeah it isnt a feature but it is the way the engine acts at excessive temperature

 

Ive never stalled doing that but Ive turned the engine off before it got there. As to the OP, Im seeing issues. He doesnt appeart to have anything where the air pump should be. without being able to visualize well, that means eithr the water pump is getting **** for Wrap (PLUS NO SHROUD) or the water pump isnt going the right direction

 

Yeah the dude has a right angle belt wrap on the water pump pulley straight down to the crank and that tensioner may or may not be at its stops. Why is the OP bypassing an acessory, is this a retrofit of brackets/components? if so, that spot has to be occupied you can use a bypass pulley made to do that

Also oil fill cap and grommet for the breahther (check PCV too!) all appear to be vacuum leaks. Upper hose appears to be soft/getting to end of its viability on appearance but it could be from flash.

So can OP confirm the part listing for his water pump so we can see if he has the right one , and also is your TV cable ok? it appears in 2 different conditions so just want to make sure you got that fixed at some point. if thats not a tv cable but a cruise, then ignore that haha

 

Originally I thought the same about exhaust in my coolant but I tested the coolant for exhaust gases and found none. I will check for codes tonight after I get off work

 

This truck is rather new to me. But I suspect the previous owner did away with the smog pump and just installed a shorter belt? There is no fan shroud, as far as the water pump I will have to crawl under and see if I can find a part number when I get home cause I cannot figure out where the part was bought from and so I can’t get part numbers from the store. The pcv hooks into the side of the air box the tv cable seems to be functional as far as I can tell. If you haven’t picked this up yet I’m not much of a mechanic myself so apologies for trying to fish answers out of a monkey

 

I found the water pump today. Murray cp4048 standard direction also the belt was routed for non a.c so I routed that correctly minus not having a bypass for the smog pump.
I haven’t had the time to check codes as my Check engine light is burnt out and I haven’t had the time to get behind the dash.

 

well you would be wise to get on that.. lol.. get the scanner shown in the video above. im not certain if the codes can be read without the light bulb for resistance, but you will like yoursel for getting that tool. available locally at auto store and cheap