vacumm it out!

 

Yes. 0 F is the point at which a brine solution freezes. It is my opinion that 0 is lower than 32. The term antifreeze in not just a clever name; it actually lowers the freezing point of water. Any impurity in water will cause boiling point inflation and freezing point supression. There are a ton of people that don't understand this. Most of them have this topic handled by 7th grade science. Please continue to read through this site and you will learn a world of valuable information.

Mike

 

It's ok Mike, you understand how it all works, I understand how it all works, and I'm sure a ton of others understand it also. There's just always that one person that does not, and will not get it.

I talked to the Hi-Po teacher that I had last session who had taught me a lot about the cooling and lubrication system of an engine. He said himself that the ONLY air that should be in that system is the little bit of air in the filler neck of the radiator.

He said that if there is air in the system, either you haven't completely bled the system free of air, and it is slowly working itself out, or your radiator cap is bad, and is pulling air from an empty coolant reservoir. Have you been keeping the reservoir filled to the appropriate level?

 

I gotta go with Handy and Mikey on this one. Handy's got the mechanical/thermodynamics ends down, and Mikey's got the chemical/thermodynamics ends down. As for buying the hose with the spring in it, umm, NOT a BAD idea, quite a good one actually. Without the spring inside the hose, at least the bottom one, the water pump CAN collapse the hose, because of the suction after the t-stat opens. The top hose should NEVER collapse unless a vacuum gets pulled in the radiator. It's on the pressure side of the pump. Until the t-stat opens, there is no flow through the radiator (except at high RPM) meaning no chance for vacuum in the radiator. While the t-stat is closed, not a problem because the water pump basically dead-heads into the block. One heater hose is attached to the block (higher pressure), the other to the water pump (lower pressure), which results in flow at all times through the heater core, cold or hot engine. What little circulation there is, is going to go through the heater core, and back into the block via the water pump. Open the t-stat, and voila, you now have flow through the radiator.

As for water/steam not getting hotter than 212 degrees, if you believe this, you've obviously never been in a power house or generating plant. Can we say 1200 degree steam at 3000 psi? That is H2O in gaseous state with a LOT of energy. Put it through the turbines, absorb the energy by rotating the turbine, lower the pressure, put it through a condenser (the radiator), and you have the same water that went through the boiler (the block) just a little while ago. Water used in these systems is as close to pure as possible to prevent scale and other build-up.

One other thing that may cause your vent air temps to change and fluctuate, is a vacuum leak under the dash somewhere, that lets the air dampers move when they shouldn't. Make sure that none of the lines on the back of the heat controls is disturbed and on all the little vacuum actuators for the dampers. That should stabilize the air temps coming out of the vents.

However, if engine temp is fluctuating with higher RPM's, again, I agree with a t-stat issue that it may not be holding when it should. That spring on the t-stat is there for a reason. If the pressure goes too high, regardless of temperature, the pressure in the block will overcome the spring and push coolant out. It's there to prevent blowing gaskets and heater hoses. The temperature rating on the t-stat is the temperature at which the t-stat will pull itself open to allow coolant flow regardless of pressure. I recommend a Motorcraft or Standt t-stat, 197 degrees. I don't trust other brands, and the 197 degrees assures the most efficient operation of your engine.

I also agree with bleeding the air from the system. If there is enough air, then you will see temperature fluctuations. This is normally caused by cavitation (air) in the water pump, and not moving the coolant fast enough. You can usually hear this in the heater core. The system will eventually 'burp' itself, other than the trapped air in the top hose, because once the pressure exceeds the cap rating, it will push air into the reservoir. When it cools back down, it'll pull coolant back out of the reservoir, thus displacing some of the air. This takes a long time, though, and a lot of topping off the reservoir. The flow of the coolant will dissolve air into the coolant/water as well, especially when it goes through an impeller type water pump, which is the primary cause of it taking longer to burp itself. Not only is the glycol an anti-freeze/anti-boil, it's also got defoaming agents in it. Foaming coolant is BAD.

I just recently put a new radiator in my 'Bird, as well as a new timing cover gasket set, which pretty much completely drained the block below the water pump. I did exactly as Handy said, and left one heater hose off until coolant came out through that hole, then pushed the top hose down to make sure it was full. I didn't get this from Ford, but from common sense that air goes up when there's liquid below. BTW, the temperature on the 'Bird is ROCK SOLID, and the heater works BEAUTIFULLY. There was still a little air trapped, and ALWAYS will be just a little, but after topping off twice, and the reservoir is maintaining level just fine.

 

There is a lot of good info in this thread along with a fair amount of BS.
Depotops, I'm sorry your thread went off on a tangent.

But back to the initial problem:

1. The thermostat is sometimes sticking in the open position.

2. It has a defective radiator cap, or the an old style cap that allows air in rather than drawing fluid from the resevoir.

 

Ok, well, heres the result...

Head gaskets... BAD

It was causing piston pressure to blow out the anti-freeze via the resevior...

Thanks for all of your imput and wasting time, but the mechanic looked everything over, replaced head gaskets, checked to make sure nothing was damaged, and now ive got my heat and a cool running engine

 

GReat news Depotops!!

Glad you got 'er fixed.