VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 36 truck fan blade help passenger car heating?

I had posted the Wanted section for a 36 truck fan blade--but I'm not sure if it will help in any event.

My 36 passenger car will start heating during hot weather if it has to sit around idling (as in a July 4 parade with 90's temps)or in long, slow sustained pulls (I live in the Appalachians and tours sometimes involve being behind slower cars and a miles of steep climbs).

It never has boiled, but I can watch the temperature climb from 170 or so on well past the last register on the gauge(accessory temperature gauge). In the past, before installing the gauge, I had no idea of the temperature and blissfully idled along in summertime parades. But it still never boiled.

Could a 36 truck fan help pull more air through the radiator? Does the truck fan blade have a coarser pitch?

The truck blades are longer and wider. Also makes more fan noise.

howdy
i would say if your temp needle is maxing out and your not pushing any water out your over flow, your gauge is not working properly.
being that the 207 engine is not a preasurized water system with a preasure type cap you would be pushing water out your over flow.
on another thought i see guys on here with over heating problems always to quick to think it's a mechanical problem when it's a flow problem,due to the fact that in the old days they used alcohol as a anti freeze.from what i can see these engines rusted year after year inside the block very bad.
the point i'm trying to make is i think alot of times over heating problems are from the engine block clogged with physical chunks of rust.
i just cleaned a 207 engine block out and there was i would say a gallon can of chunks of rust in that engine block.
some of the rust peices are so big they won't fit threw the water ports,you have to take a screw driver and break them up to get them out.
but i would say your gauge is not right if your not at least pushing some water out of your over flow if your gauge is reading over two hundred.

jeff korner
southeast indiana

Suggestion to test the accuracy of your temp gage:

Does your temp gage read zero (or less)when the engine is cold?
If not, you are getting a head start toward a higher than actual reading. I had this problem with the '41 which, gave me a false high reading. The following test proved the gage was wrong and giving false high readings when the engine was not overly hot (Not the first temp gage I've found doing so.)

Old gages get tired and give false readings. (The same can be true of oil pressure gages.)

Obtain a quality stem-type thermometer. With a cold engine, remove the radiator cap and insert the thermometer (make sure it is in the coolant). Start the engine and set the idle screw to a good, healthy idle speed (for lubrication).

Begin to constantly watch both the gage and the thermometer. As the engine begins to build heat, record both readings side-by-side on paper (a 3X5 card is perfect and you can keep it in the car later).

Record temps every 5 or 10 degrees all the way up to "normal" temp. When you are done, you'll know whether you engine temp is high or the temp gage is simply reading higher than actual temps.

Yeah, it is a bit of trouble but, you'll be glad you did it. I do this anytime I question a gage reading.

The '41 was doing as yours - reading toward the hot side but never boiling or overflowing.

'Hope this helps.

I may have misspoke about it overheating--being a non-pressurized system it did lose coolant out the overflow if the radiator was filled to the top. And during hot weather it would burp out more than if in cooler weather. Perhaps I'll try some of the ideas about verifying the accuracy of the gauge.

I've since installed one of the reproduction Chevrolet overflow tanks (1938 and up?)so it no longer loses coolant. But after one of those hot summertime parades and shutting the car down, I can definitely hear the coolant gurgling around like it is hot. But nothing like my brother's brass Model T F**d which can become a real steamer :-)

If the noise is not too bad and enough clearance, and if I can find a truck fan blade, I might try it to see if more air would be pulled through at slow speeds and at idle. My speculation is that these cars were not designed to sit idling in hot weather, or deal with long, hard sustained pulls in hot weather.

It has a NOS radiator, head (with 160 degree thermostat), and water pump. When rebuilding, I cleaned out all the water jackets as best I could by taking out the sand plugs and scraping around, although by no means perfectly.

One factor that could be affecting the cooling effectiveness: It has been bored out .060--so the stock cooling system may not be able to keep up.

I had the same problem. First read your book for the car. It will tell you not to fill the rad. to full to begin with. It needs air space at the top for water expansion. Secondly, I pulled the head to find huge chunks of rust blocking the holes from the block to the head (even after repeatedly flushing). Rad was partly blocked by the same broke loose rust chunks. This caused the spray of hot water coming out of the engine not to "fan out" in the top of the rad. properly. The brass spray nozzles in the head that spray onto the "hot" spots in the head were blocked by rust. After getting all that gunk out she ran very cool all the time! Thirdly, timing is most important to keep in the temp. range. Check out your Octane Selector Knob near the Distributor Cap. Wrong setting will make it run hot. I wish you luck and no rust.

Terrill,

You may have a thought about the timing. After rebuilding the engine and setting timing, it seemed to have very little power. So I advance the timing using the octane selector. Now it has plenty of pulling power. But perhaps need to back it off a little.

The head is NOS and I cleaned out the block as best possible, so shouldn't be too much crud. Although one of the culprits I've found for stopping up the cooling system is grease--got to be careful not to over-grease the water pump.

My truck fan blade is a two bladed fan. Do not know about pitch but it is original. Four bladed fan may pull more air but I have heard that it will not, too. Back flushing the radiator will not move rust chunks past the water "fan out" in the top tank or out the top hole or out the hole for the top hose. Looking down into the top water inlet hole to see the rust chunks in the top tank with a light. If they are there you need to pull it and get it to the shop to boil out. They float around in there and block the holes that the water goes down in the core. Good luck!

Yep, and that stuff is even harder to get out of the water galleries in the block. It all works together to make these ol' engines run hot!

Something that I did for my '27 to keep it cool was to put a modern transmission cooler inline with the engine oil to cool it off.

Cheers, Dean

Dean, good idea!
A lot of folks never realize that oil does a lot of cooling.

The motor oil does about 25% of the cooling. It cools parts such as the crankshaft bearings and areas of the pistons. Thats why a thinner, fast circulating oil is desireable.