hi all,

engine is driving nicely and cool. idles fine.
But whenever I'm stuck in a traffic Jam (yesterday queuing to get into car show) the temperature wuld climb and climb causing the engine to stall
i can start it (takes a few turns) and i have to keep the revs up to keep her going.
It seems to get worse and worse.
as soon as I'm driving the temperature drops immediately
what can cause this?
- too lean or too rich mixture in idle?
- ignition too far advanced or retarted?

the radiator (alu 2 core is new), the heater core is new and the liquid looks all good so no chance for gunk to be in there blocking the rad. I have a fan shroud and the fan is about half inch away from rad like it's supposed to be

I'm thinking it might be down to ingition or carb misadjustemt. the funny thing is that it happend to 4 other cars as well. all of them Ford. Lads already say we are not allowing anymore of those into the club :-)

 

What kind of fan are you running? Does it have a shroud? Do you have a/c? Sounds like typical under-cooling.

Retarded timing would cause overheating, but you said you bumped it up to 14*, so that shouldn't be an issue. Lean mix could cause it as well, but that's an easy fix with the idle mix screws.

 

ha ha, mine is the oppsosite.can idle all day, driving home from a show was hitting 230*.

DO you have a flex fan or the stock fan?Tried any Watter Wetter or Below 40??

 

Sonuds like the HG is already toast. If it's shutting off when it's hot, that usually means the fuel is boiling in the carb. BAD. You are able to re-start once the fuel cools down. Have it blocked checked to see if it lifted the head. A blown HG of this sort won't show milk shake, Your just pushing combustion into the cooling system. If it checks OK, try to find out if it's the tune. You won't be able to fix it if it has a bad HG. Are you loosing coolant at all ?

 

I didn't see anything in what he posted that says to me he absolutely has blown head gasket. Could be but there are other options. Also, he mentioned nothing about losing fluid, or milky oil, or white smoke out the exhaust.

What brand water pump you have? If you have a cheapo from a discount auto parts store that itself could be the problem as the impellers in those things suck. You need a performance water pump if you don't already have one. That would be my guess since you say it cools fine on the road. The chepos flow enough at higher speeds, just not enough at idle.

Another question is whether or not you have underdrive pulleys. If you have one on your water pump you are turning the pump slower and it can't flow as much and the fan is turning slower too.

Also, what fan do you have? 4-balde, 5 blade, flex, etc.

As far as the car shutting down, it could be from excess heat causing vapor lock. You can help this by installing a carb insulator plate.

 

Hey Kalli!!

Check your fuel line routing to see if it might be too close to the exhaust causing vapor lock... might stop your stalling... (I think vapor lock!)

How hot did the engine temp read? Boiling over? How many PSI radiator cap are you running? 15 or 17 would be best.

If you are not boiling over, (and even if it is) I say vapor lock, or possibly a weak ignition coil.

IMO the radiator is just too small on these cars, a BIG FAN helps a lot.

We are running a 3,000 CFM electric fan in the desert heat here, the 66 never boils over and seldom sees 205*, and I think the overall setup is very similar to yours.

 

Fan shroud????????

 

hi all,

thanks for all the responses.
I have a fan shroud, but no A/C. the blade I have no idea. I'll take a picture at lunch.
It's 5 blade no flex if I recall correctly
the fuel line is getting close to the header but it always has been routed there (with old negine) that before it died would idle all day long as well.
will take a picture of that as well.
I have no ideas about what temperatures it actually reaches. driving I have the gauge in the lower 3rd of gauge and when it stalls its when it gets over the upper half
rad cap is Summit (16 psi). I checked this morning and unfortunately i must report that I have lost half litre of water on a 300mile trip. quite sure all of it at entrance to show and exit of show ( i could kill em for their stupid organisation. firends were stuck for over 2 hours trying to get out ). oil is as new. no less, no more, no colour

Lean condition: I'll richen it up a tad see how it goes.
idle too retarted. i moved it back to 8, but with the vac advance hooked to manifold the "real timing" is over 20 BTDC. so i don't believe that's the case.

vapor lock: that could well be. When i finally arrived at the show i couldn't start the car for over half hour. once it all cooled down it started with the turn of the key.

I'll go home at lunch and take a few pics. See what you say. maybe someone has an alternate suggestion for routing the fuel lines

Kalli

 

fan is 5 blade solid (no flex in that)
shroud is 18" dia (maybe 18.5)
fan is 17" dia (i thgink it's mounted the right way round. not sure). it's blowing a lot of hot air alright
radiator is stock size (tiny) 2 core aluminum (summit brand)

should I change the fan to something better
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...?part=FLX-1817 (???)

or will I have to go electric?

EDIT: the longer i look at that picture the more I'm convinced I mounted it arseways.
Can some1 confirm?

Kalli

 

as for the vapor lock. I have the fuel line running at the driver side engine mount (in there). the closest the line gets to header is about 4 inch maybe.
If it is a vapor lock then I'd belive it's from the intake. I only have a thin paper gasket between intake and carb. should I install penol;ic spacer or half inch rubber gasket or something? can't put much in tehre as I might run in trouble with hood clearance then.
I'll try the same thing with the holley just for fun. see if that behaves any different ..