Cooling troubles, need help

[Fiddy B2C]

I've been driving my 50 B2C as a daily driver.  I've only had the truck for a year, but got all the needed systems up and running.  I live in FL and during the summer last year, it would run around 180-190 on my commute to work and back...not bad since it had a 180 thermostat.  When winter rolled around, I found that occasionally the truck would run up to 200+ degrees then settle back down to 180ish.  Reading up on the thermostat, originally ithe truck seems to have come with a 160 thermostat, so I thought I would change it out.  With the 160, it ran at 160 for the rest of the winter until recently.  In the 15 mile one way commute, the truck was getting back up around to the 190s, then cool back off again...  I did a block test on the radiator to see if I may have a blown head gasket, and the results were good, no blown head gasket and off to work I went.  That evening, it overheated, got up to 200+, so I eased it on home keeping a close eye on the temp gauge.  I could see it coming down , the going up,then coming back down again.  I thought the thermostat may be getting stuck, so the next day, I removed it completely and drove for a couple of miles and it overheated again. So here I sit wondering what the heck...  the only thing I can think of, is that with the daily driving for about a year now, the old girl is knocking loose dirt, crud, rust and God knows what else, and that stuff is plugging up the plumbing... next step is for me to flush everything out as good as possible, without removing the freeze plugs, hopefully...

Any suggestions or recommendations on the best way to flush and what I can use to get the vast majority of crap out of the block and radiator?  As always, any help or past experience in this matter is greatly appreciated.

 

 

[pflaming]

Are you using anti freeze, Are your hoses old and collapsing, are you running water through your heater, is your heater core clean, how good is your fan belt, can it slip, are your external  radiator passages clean check all of these then buy a good /engine flush  and see what happens. Work with the easy items first. Good luck. JMHO. 

[Drifter99]

Many post here have stated and my personal experience was when we pulled out the  freeze plugs the block was packed solid with build up.My temp was fine but then when I took the engine apart I got three coffee cups of debris out of it. If it's never been clean out you would be supprise what in there. Just my opinion not fact,, good luck

[pflaming]

Drifter is spot on. I pulled the  freeze plugs on both engines I repaired, then spent an hour with a steam cleaner in every cavity I could get into. I did not stop til all exiting water was clean. Yes the engines were out of the car. Maybe, if you open all the pet cocks, use a guality flush product, then replace water as the engine runs and pumps out water, one may remove a lot of crud. Not necessarily a recommendation just an idea that won't hurt anything. Good luck.

[The Oil Soup]

The water distribution tube could also be part of the problem.

[P15-D24]

You can try the hit and miss approach by doing the good suggestions above or do a one time major service and never have to deal with it again.  Pull the  radiator and get it cleaned. (same with the heater if you have one) While it is out pull and replace the water distribution tube. Remove the freeze plugs  and flush the block till clear. Replace hoses. Go back to the 160 degree stat. (These are not presurized cooling systems and the 180 stat loses you 20 degrees of cooling capacity) Check water pump and fan belt. While it is out pull the back cover and check for bearing and impeller wear. Or just replace and be done with it.The impellers do fail. Insect fan belt replace if needed and adjust properly. Refill with a 50 50 mix water and antifreeze.  You heating issues will be over and you will just need to flush every couple years.  By doing it all at once you save a lot of time and some money. 

[Fiddy B2C]

8 hours ago, pflaming said:

Are you using anti freeze, Are your hoses old and collapsing, are you running water through your heater, is your heater core clean, how good is your fan belt, can it slip, are your external  radiator passages clean check all of these then buy a good /engine flush  and see what happens. Work with the easy items first. Good luck. JMHO. 

Yes, have antifreeze in it currently, hoses are not new, but good, coolant is going through heater, heater core is clean and clear (rebuilt 5 months ago), fan belt good, not slipping, external passages are good. Any recommendation on a good engine flush product?

[Fiddy B2C]

You may find this as a stupid question, but when you refer to the water distribution tube, is this the metal tube that comes from the bottom of the radiator and goes to the water pump?  

[Desotodav]

I had a similar problem with my 52 truck when I first got it on the road. My radiator guy told me that (in a nut shell) if your truck overheats whilst driving it is more likely a blockage issue, but if it overheats whilst idling then it's more likely a waterpump flow issue. We found that a few of the cores in my radiator were blocked  by scale matter from inside the engine block. I had the block acid dipped (with freeze plugs removed) during the rebuild process & it appears that process loosened a bit of scale. They suggested that I ran some sort of sock in my radiator hose to catch that scale, but I fixed he issue with a few radiator & block flushes over time.

i run a 160 degree thermostat & anti freeze. I now rarely see my temp gage get to 180.

hope it works out for you.

[Desotodav]

Water distribution tube (WDT) is a metal tube which inserts into the engine block (beiind the waterpump) to distribute water to the hotter areas at the top of the engune.

Try a forum search for the WDT, or find information on that topic from the resource section at the top of the forum page.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Desotodav

[JBNeal]

additional information - Flathead Coolant Flush 

Edited October 19, 2019 by JBNeal
revised link

[P15-D24]

1 hour ago, Fiddy B2C said:

You may find this as a stupid question, but when you refer to the water distribution tube, is this the metal tube that comes from the bottom of the radiator and goes to the water pump?  

http://p15-d24.com/page/p15d24/tech/tech_tips.html/   Scroll down to Water Distribution Tube for a backgrounder

[Mike36]

Unscrew the petcock completely out of the block. With a bent wire, see if you can get any crud out of the water jacket. This will give you an idea what is in there, and if you need to remove freeze plugs. If you do not have a shop manual, good idea to get one.

[Fiddy B2C]

Flushed the crap out of her today.  Some gunk in the radiator, more gunk in the engine....  flushed it until the water that came out was drinkable, however it did still have a rusty taste to it...  I kept the water in it and added a chemical flush to it.  I let her idle for about 15 minutes, and with no thermostat in it, she only got up to around 140 degrees.  I took her for a 3 mile test spin around the neighborhood and she got up to around 150.  I needed a new thermostat so I drove the 25 mile round trip at 2PM in Jacksonville, about 80 degrees outside, in stop and go traffic and she didn't get up to the 160 mark.  All good results, until I was leaving NAPA and noticed a coolant leak right where the bottom hose connects and the peacock is.  This is also where the drain line is, so I'm not sure where the leak is coming from.  Hopefully she is just finding her level and off gassing the extra?  

Webmaster, thanks for the link to the WDT description, good info.  

I figure if the radiator has sprung a leak due to the flush, I'll take it out, get it fixed, remove and rebuild or replace the water pump and replace the WDT.  It sounds like the tube can be a knuckle buster trying to get it out while the engine is still in the truck, but I'll give it a go.

Thanks for all the feedback, hopefully I'll be able to impact the cooling issues to keep her on the road until I'm ready to rebuild the engine. We'll see.

[Fiddy B2C]

My iPad auto-corrected petcock to peacock...if that is the case it should be spelled peecock. Hahahaha, I crack myself up

[Fernando Mendes]

 

[Fernando Mendes]

On 08/04/2017 at 11:51 AM, Fiddy B2C said:

You may find this as a stupid question, but when you refer to the water distribution tube, is this the metal tube that comes from the bottom of the radiator and goes to the water pump?  

 

[greg g]

The primary mission of the water dist tube is to direct coolant up toward the valve seats.  It is vitally important for the exhaust valves as they are only cooled when in contact with the seats.  I don't think the tube itself contributes to engine running temp unless it is collapsed or clogged and restricting flow.  Also keep in mind that the thermostat  only effects the temperature at which the bypass opens and the radiator enters into the picture and adds its capacity and thermal exchange to the operating temp equation, it really has little to due with operational running max temperature. Years ago I had a Honda Civic the on real cold days with the heater running at full open and high fan did not open the thermostat.  The heater coreprovided all the heat exchange that was needed and the radiator and hoses stayed cool to the touch.  Strange but true.   

[Fiddy B2C]

I've been driving the truck exclusively since Saturday, in Florida mind you, without a thermostat and I cannot get the temp up to 160.  It maxes out at 150-155.  I need to put it back in just to get and keep the truck at operating temp.  

Also, I'm not sure the is radiator is original to the truck.  It has a pressurized cap and the drain line is above the seat.  My shop manual doesn't give details around this.  Any advice on how to check and whether I should keep a pressure cap on it?

[ggdad1951]

on the stock rad, there is no pressure cap (but they will fit) and the drain tube is below the neck so it can flow out.  a picture of that area and the rad in general will help determine if it is stock.

[Fernando Mendes]

4 hours ago, Fiddy B2C said:

I've been driving the truck exclusively since Saturday, in Florida mind you, without a thermostat and I cannot get the temp up to 160.  It maxes out at 150-155.  I need to put it back in just to get and keep the truck at operating temp.  

Also, I'm not sure the is radiator is original to the truck.  It has a pressurized cap and the drain line is above the seat.  My shop manual doesn't give details around this.  Any advice on how to check and whether I should keep a pressure cap on it?

 

[greg g]

A lot of old time racers would run without a stat, but would put a large washer in its place. Then monkey around with the center hole to slow  or increase the flow till they got the operating temp they wanted.

[Fiddy B2C]

On 4/11/2017 at 9:54 AM, ggdad1951 said:

on the stock rad, there is no pressure cap (but they will fit) and the drain tube is below the neck so it can flow out.  a picture of that area and the rad in general will help determine if it is stock.

Thanks, I'll take some pix tomorrow and post them.

[Fiddy B2C]

Ok, here are some pix, and from earlier posts, it looks to be an original.  It has the honeycomb core as well.  The only question I have at this point is with the cap.  It looks to be a pressure cap, maybe it isn't original?

 

[ggdad1951]

13 minutes ago, Fiddy B2C said:

Ok, here are some pix, and from earlier posts, it looks to be an original.  It has the honeycomb core as well.  The only question I have at this point is with the cap.  It looks to be a pressure cap, maybe it isn't original?

 

looks like the right rad (but that PN doesn't show in the parts book that I can see), wrong cap for sure.