My 66 with a 289 is constantly over heating. If I fill the radiator it will puke out the coolant to where you can barely see it. As long as you run on open roads it won't heat up but if you drive in town it will. I have a new radiator, thermostat and water pump. I have tried removing the thermostat and that did not help. Any suggestions?

 

You're describing an airflow problem usually caused by: lack of a shroud, cooling fan not working right, electric fan working in the wrong direction. Ignition timing set too low can cause this as well. Don't forget to put the t-stat back in. Removing them never solves anything and the restriction is required for proper cooling.

 

My 66 with a 289 is constantly over heating. If I fill the radiator it will puke out the coolant to where you can barely see it.
You should fill to 1" below the seal ring under the cap. Any more will puke out even with the system working perfectly.

As long as you run on open roads it won't heat up but if you drive in town it will.
You need a fan shroud and a better fan. My preferred upgrade is a 6-blade clutch fan with a thermal clutch. Not the cheaper non-thermal clutch. Do NOT get one of those POS "flex fans". Even a rigid 6-blade would be a better choice than that.

I have a new radiator, thermostat and water pump.
Changing the water pump has zero effect on cooling.
The thermostat should be a genuine Ford 190° unit.
What radiator do you now have?

I have tried removing the thermostat and that did not help.
No, unless the problem is a defective thermostat, running without one makes it worse, usually much worse.

I'm gonna take a guess here that your engine is rebuilt, and has been bored out .030-.040"?

 

The shroud is missing and I have one on the way. As far as I know everything is original except the water pump and radiator, which came from NAPA. The thermostat is back in. And I do fill it to the recommended capacity.

I am going to see how it does after the shroud is installed.

 

well, good guess ! my friend has similar problem described here, except radiator (new) is not puking out the coolant but still in traffic jams and while driving slowly on the parking lot, changing to reverse, drive and so on it does overheats ! His engine has been recently bored out to 0,40".

why rebuilt engine which has been bored out to i.e. 0.40" is connected to overheating issue ? pistons and rings to tight in cylinders ? Any cure for that ?

 

youre not supposed to fill the radiator. for starters, it must be where it says cold and not where it says hot, reason being water expands.

 

once you have the shroud in there make sure that the fan you are using is half inside the shroud, half outside the shroud (might need a different spacer between waterpump and fan). then check on your timing as mentioned above. try 10 degrees initial with a stock engine. then check your carb is not running lean in idle. that will cause overheating as well.

if it's a holley or an edelbrock carb, at warm idle start closing one of the idle mixture screws fully. the engine should cut out. turn it back to where it was. Then start the engine again and try the same on the other side.
If it doesn't starve for fuel (cutting out) on either side that means you have trouble in the idle circuit (dirt). if it cuts out on either side. switch off engine, turn them both in til seated and turn them both out by one and a half turns. see if that is better. if that is where it was try giving it a bit more. check for vacuum leaks (open ports on carburetor etc)

 

is the flow in the right direction? Water should be coming from the bottom to the top, not the other way around.

I forget what year but depending on the engine code you could use either a clockwise (standard) or counter-clockwise pump. They are not typically interchangeable.

What part number did Napa give you?

 

When you say "bottom to top" you mean the lower hose should be feeding the motor water and the top hose should be feeding the radiator, right? So flow should be from the top of the radiator to the bottom. Top hot, bottom cooler.

 

Thanks for all the tips. I went ahead and ordered a six blade fan. I'll try to remember to post the results.