gcstang65

All,

My '65 is over heating [:'(]...I just changed out the thermostat and made sure all the hoses were free of gunkbut once I run it for a while with the radiator full it will boil, heat up and then disperse the water out of the overfill hose. What do I try next...radiator flush or what?

When I got this '65 it had probably been sitting for about 5-7 years. HELP!!!

voipguy

1) Make sure the lower radiator hose has the spring in it. It can collapse if it's not there!
2) Are you running 50/50 antifreeze and water?
3) If you haven't flushed the radiator, you can certainly give it a shot. You might want to have it done by a shop.
4) Do you have a flex fan or the fan and clutch? How far is it from the radiator? Do you have a fan shroud?

Check all that and see where that takes ya!

superdavid

A little bit of a tangent... but what is the ideal opperating temperature for our old-school V8's? How bout the max temperature?

rmodel65

sure its over heating if the radiator is filled to the brim its gonna expand when hot buy an overfill and check the temp with an aftermarket guage

philgrocks

When I got my '66 it had lots of rust coming out of the engine and that clogged my radiator... I replaced the radiator and put in a gano filter. I got the gano filter that was clear so I could see it fill up with rust. I had to clean it every month or so. Eventually the engine still overheated because the passages inside the engine was still clogged up with rust.

Eventually I rebuilt the engine and all of my problems went away, I even removed the gano filter.

--

So perhaps that is your problem.... If rust had clogged your radiator it is hard to clean someone could try to back flush the Radiator, but rust could be stuck anywhere in it.

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Other suggestions given above are worth testing (like the thermostat).

Good luck.

phil

Aussie66Fastback

if its been sitting for 5-7 years then the radiator, heater core and block passages will all begunked with rust and sludge.

you're looking at replace or recoreboth heater core and radiator but you gotta try to get some of the crud out of the block first otherwise you'll just end up back where you started from. So +1 on the filter but i prefer a tefba as they are easier to get at to clean. Warm the car so thermo opens, dump water, refill, repeat. More times you do it,the cleaner it will get.

You can also flush it yourself using a heater hose and block off the outlet.

kalli

with "free of gunk" i hope you don't mean brown/white-ish cream-ish sludge?
if that's the case you have oil in water which could be signs of blown head gasket etc.
don't want to paint the devil for you, but what did your 'sludge' look like?

Kalli

gcstang65

I'm back with this...i had a radiator shop dip my radiator in acid and the guy said he could not "rot it out" because otherwise the corrosion that showed up would bust the channels. Is he pulling me leg? He said the best thing to do is buy a new radiator...is this what I should do?
If so do i buy a 3 core or change to 4 core...do I go steel or aluminum? I should probably do the water pump while i'm at it.

derwin66

Go aluminium, you will never regret it.

Aussie66Fastback

"rod it out" is cleaning the vertical passages the water passes through. I am not surprised at his response given the time it has sat around.

if you get a new rad you MUST get a good filter or you will clag the new rad up pronto. Your heater core should also get replaced but your block will be throwing crust for up to 12 months.

Alum is probably better but more expensive and if you do gunk it up its harder to take the tanks off to rod it out. It would bemore necessaryif you had a higher performing engine as more hp means more heat.

IMO you shouldstick with a 3 row stock copper/brass for now and if it has to be cleaned out again its not such a big deal. Ask the guy you've been dealing with how much for a re-core of what you've got in 3 row?