Thread: water pumps????

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Any advice for an old man who has a buddy that has overheating problems with his 52 ford flattie. It has new water pumps from speedway motor and the engiine is stock except for a .030 overbore and a dual intake with 2 94's. The shroud and mechanical fan are stock and the radiator has been flushed. The truck is ok when moving with the temperature around 190-195 degrees but let it idle for a minute and it will boil over. Just running 10 percent antifreeze along with water. We took the engine apart but block looks good with nothing to impare the water flow.

Is he running thermostats? Pressure cap good? Sure the block isn't cracked? If yes to these, the problem could be caused by ignition timing. Has it got the proper year of carb? The '49-up engine with the "stick" distributor uses a different carb than the older engine, the vacuum port draws from a different source, causing the vacuum advance system to work wrong.
How old is the engine? Sometimes the head gaskets corrode through, allowing water flow through just the front of the engine.
What car is it in? Can the hot air circulate back over the top of the rad and be drawn through again? That will usually only happen when the car is stopped. Sometimes the air can come out front under the bumper and recirculate, too. What fan is on it? The stock one moves a lot of air, replacement ones often don't.
If the car is lowered a lot, the air can't get out of the engine room.
A few things to think about, anyway.

Originally Posted by chevy 37

Any advice for an old man who has a buddy that has overheating problems with his 52 ford flattie. It has new water pumps from speedway motor and the engiine is stock except for a .030 overbore and a dual intake with 2 94's. The shroud and mechanical fan are stock and the radiator has been flushed. The truck is ok when moving with the temperature around 190-195 degrees but let it idle for a minute and it will boil over. Just running 10 percent antifreeze along with water. We took the engine apart but block looks good with nothing to impare the water flow.

overheating is when the coolant is boiling. preassure and antiffreeze content have a lot to do with the boiling point. the figure for preassure is 3* per PSI of preassure in the collant system, so say it is a 7# cap, water boils at 212*F so 21* so 233* is the new boiling point, not even figuring the antifreeze content in but if he's got a 4# or even preassureless cap, theres the problem. go 50/50 mix and get a 7# cap, a 50/50 mix of antifreeze raises the boiling point to 235* so add 21* to that and your boiling point is now 256*

New 180 degree thermostats 6 lb. cap, distributor is Mallory #3727501. Engine was rebuilt by both of us and magnuflux with no cracks, head gasket is good, timing is 34 degrees, carbs as stated are 2 94's on an sharp intake, mechanical fan is stock along with the shroud. The engine is in a 34 ford truck.

I ran a lot of flatties dirt trackers back in the day.The problem you have is with 2 water pumps it moves the water too fast before it has a chance to cool, we used to grind off every other impeller on the pumps,(since yours are new don't) use 160 degree thermostats first,the other old trick was to use fender washers with a 5/8" hole in place of the thermostats to slow down the flow.Probably the best thing is go to an electric fan that worked wonders here in Phoenix when I would stop with the A/C on.Good Luck!

Jeff Thanks for the advice. haven't heard about using washers in place of thermostats and I've been around flatties for 45 years, but willing to try.

Originally Posted by chevy 37

Jeff Thanks for the advice. haven't heard about using washers in place of thermostats and I've been around flatties for 45 years, but willing to try.

using washers in place of stats is common in racing, but not so much on street applications. it works but you can run into overcooling on a engine with a good cooling systems, given the flathead Ford V8's are known for overheating due to a poor cooling system design, it might work well, but it could also circulate the coolant too fast and not allow a lot of heat to be absorbed or dissipated, and run into over heating that way.

I don't buy into that logic that the water circulates too fast to cool. Stock flathead water pumps flow about 60 to 65 gal's per minute. The new pumps I have flow about 110. I also run no thermostats, a puller fan and 7lb radiator cap. This is on a full race flattie 3-3/8" X 4" (286 ci). I rarely get over 190 degrees unless I run it hard, and that's on a hot day. She idles all day at 170 with the puller fan on.