Once again I am fighting my annual coolant leak. I have been noticing a slight drop in coolant level in my auxilliary plastic overflow tank (to keep the surge tank from puking on the ground) after weekend cruises. Today we took a long drive (wife and I took the day off from work) through the Virginia countryside. Speeds ranged from slow mountain roads to long stretches of back road at 60 mph in overdrive.

When I got home and popped the hood to let the engine cool I noticed some dried coolant on the front of the driver's side valve cover and on the distributor cap where it sits on the distributor base. There was a wet spot there too. I could not find any evidence of a leak, however.

I let the engine cool down a while and then started it back up and held it running in neutral at 3000 rpm for several minutes. No signs of a leak or spray. The car is now sitting cooling down over night and I will look at it cold tomorrow night.

I am baffled. I can find no evidence of wetness around the surge tank, plastic overflow tank, hoses, water pump and surge tank bolts, etc. Any ideas?

 

I had a tough one ...the thermostat housing gasket. The paper gasket had a delamination between layers, it would spray a fine jet of coolant at high rpm. I only found it one day when I was mad, and standing there watching as I over reved the engine...

 

Radiator/cooling system pressure tester.......Pump it up to rad cap rated pressure, NO MORE, and wait and watch.........Does the pressure blead off? Maybe a high pressure only pin hole in a radiator or heater hose?? Thermo gasket, as mentioned.....And check the inside of the pulley on the water pump for signs of seal leakage.......The pressure test is best as above idle speeds do not necessarily build pressure......And you can do it with the engine off and listen as well as watch..........aMP

 

Doggonit Bill! Just when it was working you had to make the system more complex. Maybe you should just keep some of that flourescent dye in your cooling system.

.02

 

I don't know why it always seems to leak coolant after sitting all winter. I'm taking tomorrow off (long holiday weekend) and will be spending some time looking for the leak. I have never had much luck with the previous leaks using a leak tester. I have always found them by sight/feel AFTER my mechanic used a pressure tester and declared there to be no leaks! LOL

 

Scourge tank first and foremost. When the water gets hot and expands, the surge tank swells up, and then if there's a defect (NORMAL!) a crack or defective seam will open. Look at the short neck where the radiator cap goes...those necks leak where the neck and the tank meet. Hard to find, because once the water cools everything returns to normal.


I've owned over 40 1963/64 Galaxies, so dealing with the POS scourge tank is a natural. If you have water on the valve cover and dizzy cap, I seriously doubt it's the t/stat housing gasket, because air from the fan will blow any possible leak backwards towards the carb and firewall..same for the heater hose pipe on the intake.The only other possible water leak in the area...a faulty radiator cap seal. If the cap has a lift handle, that might be what's leaking. But my money is on the surge tank...the one defect these cars have.


Overdrive very hard to find on any 63/64 Galaxie.

Besides the GCA, we have a club out here = website: socalgalaxies.com

 

The surge tank is my suspect also, I just can't find any wet spots on it. A couple of sticky spots, yes, no nothing wet. It is a new, reproduction tank from Greg Donahue, not the original tank. I am getting ready to go out to the garage and fire her up and take the engine through a complete cold/hot/cold cycle and see what I can see. More to come.

 

Went out this morning and fired the Galaxie up from cold. I watched everyplace I could see for evidence of a leak. Nothing. I let the engine warm up until the radiator cap opened and coolant started to flow into the plastic overflow tank. No leak. I waited for the thremostat to open. No leak. I let it sit and run at fast idle for several minutes. No leak. Shut her down and let her sit for about 15 minutes. No leak.

Drove to my wife's office to pick her up and take her out to lunch. Popped the hood to let the engine cool while I waited for her and found a small amount of coolant on the front of the driver's side valve cover and the base of the distributor cap.

Fired the engine back up and revved her up while watching the surge tank. Saw a tiny (and I mean tiny) trickle of cooland dribble down the curved neck from where the neck is brazed into the underside of the surge tank. EUREKA!

Now what? Obviously the best fix is to pull the surge tank and have the neck rebrazed to the tank. I don't really have time for that right now. So I think I will let the engine cool down, clean the underside of the surge tank and spread a bead of JB Weld all around the seam. Thoughts?

 

Found some waterproof marine grade epoxy that I am going to try. I'll clean things up as best I can with the tank on the engine and spread a small bead of this stuff around the seam and keep my fingers crossed.

 

There is a way to end the problem forever using a genuine Ford part. The 1975/78 302 V8 Mustang II's don't have the radiator cap on the radiator, instead it's on a short inline tube. This unit will work on all the 1960's Galaxies and T-Birds (there are at least 5 different tanks, btw). To use this tube, you need one curved hose from the t/stat neck and a short hose to the radiator. The part number is D5ZZ-8C155-A...obsolete, but any 75/78 Mustang 302 has one..the trick is finding one of those cars in a junkyard.


I bought 10 NOS surge tanks several years ago...only one problem...they are all for the 6 cylinders. So if your Galaxie is a 223, I can fix you right up.

Interesting website you have...Red is a nice color, but the blue looked pretty sharp too, and if it was mine, I would have left it that color. The last '64 I had was Pagoda Green...ugh..but the car was all original with 64K miles, so I left the color alone. My current Galaxie 500 XL's (2) are Wimbleton White..and Rose Beige..it took me years to find a Rose Beige Galaxie XL, because most have been re-painted. Rose Beige is Pink!

 

Bill I'm pretty sure those 6 cyl tanks were used on the 289 Cobra's. If they are the kind that has the tank sideways (compared to the FE tanks) I've seen quite a few originals that had them. Most 289 cars used the smaller round "Harrison" tanks. I beleive the street 289 cars used the 6 cyl tanks. Anyway you might have a small fortune in oem tanks there.

G.

 

Interesting...those surge tanks just increased in value from 0 to $$$...thanks! And the seller has about 50 more...

 

Thanks. The blue (more like seafoam green) was a very cheap repaint by the previous owner. The original color was Silver Mink Metallic. I did the body and paint prep and had it painted Ford Vermilion Red.