ok, today i went to an junk yard and got a hood latch and a edelbrock aluminum intake manifold for $10 (becuase my friend knows the guy). so i get home and put the hood latch on so that i can drive it. after i get it on my friend and I jump into the car so he can continue teaching me how to drive a stick (my stang is a 3 spd[&:]). we only drive up and down my street so that i can shift between gears. and after about 20-30 minutes of driving we park the car back in the garage and i opened up the hood and noticed that my overflow tank was litteraly as full as can be. my radiator was hot as hell and i just wanted to ask you guys what this could be. the guy at autozone said that it could either be the timing or the radiator could be rusted. the engine was rebuilt about 800 miles ago so i know its not a head gasket. unless i blew it today, although i never went above 25 mph. so tomorrow im flushing my radiator and my friend is bringing his timing light over. any imput would be greatly appreciated and it would be cool if some1 could tell me how to use a timing light too

as always thanx alot guys

 

is it the original radiator? if it is atleast flush it. replace it if you have the money. It's probably low speed use on an old factory setup(?). check thermostat and accompanying hardware. best of luck.

 

the radiator was replaced when he rebuilt the engine. it just sat in a garage for about 10 years after he rebuilt it. im thinking it may just be rust in the system? could that just be it?

 

How do you know your car overheated? All you reported was that your overflow was full and your radiator was hot. How hot was it? Without a temp gauge you really can't determine that it was overheating. If the rad really was overflowing (excessively) it can be as simple as a defective radiator cap.

 

That's how an overflow tank is supposed to work. When the engine cools back down, the coolant is sucked back into the radiator. Starting and stopping in a one block area for a long time is going to cause the engine to heat up. You just are not moving enough air across the radiator. Flush the radiator and replace the fluid with a 30-70 mix.

 

ok ill do that, its just that when the overflow went back down it looked like there was sand in the bottom of it. the radiator cap is new too btw. and the radiator got so hot that i let it cool for about an hour and went back outside and it was still way to hot, too hot for me to even touch for more than a second