why????????????

[Nat Angell]

As a lot of you know, I bought a 50'dodge truck. It had been sitting since 1971. After I started it up I only let it run for a few seconds. I then started on the other stuff, like cleaning the fuel tank, seeing if it would hold water, ect. I only took less than a gallon of water to fill it up, so it had 38 year old water in it and was full up to the gooseneck. I let it run for extended times just checking things out and I just like to hear it run, I have been doing the body work and fixing the brakes in the meantime. I thought I would flush out the rad. and block, so I hooked up some jury-rigged piping and started flushing out the system. I got a lot of rusty water out and kept it up till I only had clean water at the dishcharge. I thought that was good enough, so I put it back together and filled it with water only to see it leaking out from several places in the core. I took it to the local rad. shop and had them clean and repair it. After tanking and testing the core is shot. I have to replace the core after it held water for 38 years.

Just like building a house, everything costs more and takes longer than you think. Later, Nat

[Reg Evans]

Darn, must have boiled out all the rust that was holding the core together.

Whie you're at it you might want to remove the lower freeze plugs on the drivers side of the block and scrape out all the gunk in there with a coat hanger.

Here's what you will probably find in there.

[MBF]

Nat-I think there is a radiator for sale on ebay right now. Mike

[Nat Angell]

Went this morning and oicked up my recored radiator. I really hated to spend this , but at least now that is one thing less to deal with. I'm getting ready to paint the cab. Bed strips are on the wat from Mar-K. Seat bottom is recovered and seat back is nearly done, so it won't be tooooooo long maybe. later, Nat

[grey beard]

Nat,

Somewhere along the line, you really should take the time to pull the water pump and the water distribution tube behind it. Logic sez the best time to do this is while the radiator is already out. Then, with the tube out of the block, knock all those five or six block core plugs outa' the drivers' side of the block and flush things out.

That pic shown on this thread is very graphic, and is taken of the lowest point in the block water jacket, where all the crud settles. Unles someone has done this recently to your engine, you will be amazed at the amount of crud and junk you find in there - stuff that gathered over the past sixty-plus odd years' time. I used a combination of wire hooks, shop air guns, water pressure and anything else I could think of to get my own water jacket clean. It was literally packed with junk, and would have done a poor job of coolkng, at best, had i not bothered to do this important step.

Once that job is done and your recored radiator is in place, your engine will stay cool on the hottest days with lots of margin to spare.

You'll be glad you did it. JMHO:D

[Reg Evans]

Even after cleaning out the gunk in the engine ,I pictured earlier in this thread ,the Ole 35 Dodge was still overheating. I had also had the radiator boiled out and installed a new water pump trying to solve the overheating problem. I removed the head and sure enough 1/2 of the water ports between the head and block were clogged shut. I got a drill bit of the correct size and drilled out all the gunk and made a coat hanger with a hook on it and scraped out the inside of the water distribution tube. Success !!!!! No more overheating even on 100 degree days. I only wish now that while the head was off I had taken it down to the machinist and had it milled .050 to raise the compression ratio and HP output.