Thread: The problem: overheating at idle in drive – stalling when hot.

Tweet

I have the older style Pertronix electronic ignition in my 57 Olds and while I have not had any problems since installing it about seven years ago, I have had some friends who have run across a bad unit. Although not a frequent occurance they do have bad ones. And they are usually not bad out of the box, seems to take a little while for problems to show up.

On the head gaskets the most common mistake is to install only one backwards. Being some gasket sets are marked "front" some people install one right and one wrong. When you only need to turn one upside down instead. If you look closely where the front of head is bolted to the block...you can see the square edge of the gasket sticking out. It should look the same on both sides. You don't need to remove the heads to see this. If your still not sure send me your email addy. I'll take a pic of my 390 and send it to compare.

We found the problem with the hot stall!!! I removed the Pertronix unit and their high voltage coil, put in a set of points and condenser, new cap and new coil. The engine is still running hot, but it did not die. I'm going to pick up a new unit and coil from Pertronix, my unit was the old style.

Have anyone ever used a HI FLOW thermostat? I going to see if I can get one for my Tbird.

Thank All of You for all the help.

Orlando

TST7626@yahoo.com

Ok, this may sound like a silly question, but the car still has its surge tank for the cooling system, right? I've seen people swap over to radiators that have the radiator cap on the radiator instead of the surge tank and use a plain thermostat housing, add that to the radiator sits fairly low in a Tbird (in reference to the height of the engine) you could be getting air trapped in the cooling passages of the cylinder heads.

Everything on the car is as it came out of the factory. It has an expansion tank, which is bolted to the intake manifold. No cap on the radiator. My HOTROD is nearly 100% stock. This TBIRD is one of 17 M series convertibles to come out of FORD. It came with the 3 x 2 setup, slight cam, high performance heads, and a beefed up trans. Also came with a special distributor CsSF-12127-B that I cannot find. I have the C2SF-12127-A.

The HOT STALL problem is gone. The HOT at IDLE is still there but better. Last night I had the car running in my garage with 90+ degrees for 20 min. I shut the engine for about 5 min (to let it heat soak) and it started right up with the temp gauge nearly at the high nark. I let it run for a few minutes but it did not seem to drop the temp down very much. It did not drop the temp down. I’m going to try a HIGH FLOW thermostat.

Has anyone tried a MILODON HIGH FLOW THERMOSTAT 180 DEGREE PART # 16406 ? It is the only one I can find for a 1962 390.

[QUOTE=tst7626]
Has anyone tried a MILODON HIGH FLOW THERMOSTAT 180 DEGREE PART # 16406 ? It is the only one I can find for a 1962 390.[/QUOT



Good to see you're getting the problems squared away.

Before you spend a lot of money on a specialized thermostat, keep in mind that the stock types have been working well in these cars for many years.

Pull the thermostat you're running and test it in a pan of boiling water.
Use a glass candy thermometer and note the temperature when the stat opens.
Both the start of the open and the open all the way.

It would be nice if you had other stats to compare with.
In fact, boiling two or three will tell you a lot about the one you're running provided they are all rated the same temp-wise.
Not a bad way to go if you don't have a candy thermometer.

Candy thermometers are available at cooking stores for not too much $$ and are fairly accurate.

Get your own, don't be stealing Sweetie's....