VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 help! still heating up. 1930 chev

i have a 1930 chev car, i have checked the timing, it is right on, new water pump, did check baffle which is in place, got honey comb rad check, it is ok. i drive the car for the first half hour or so it runs in the normal temp range, then it slowly starts to heat up. any suggestion before i get the motor tore apart. thanks for everyones input on this.

Four blade Fan? Lean Fuel mix? Back Flush Radiator? Fluid coming out of Overflow? Auxiliary Heater restricting flow? Outside Temp during overheat? Moving vehicle or standing still? Al W.

Al:
I had the same problem with my 1930 Coach. Did pretty much everything you have done. I had just finished restoring the car and rebuild the Eng. Ended up buying a new radiator core from the filling station $1000.00 plus had to find a Rad. shop that would change over the upper and lower tanks. Also installed a four bladed fan. I havn't had any more overheating problems plus I have a thermostat installed. The only time I have an overheating problem is if I let the car sit idling to long on a hot day which is probably normal since the cooling system isn't pressurized on these old cars.
You might want to ask the radiator shop if they did a flow check on your Rad. and also make sure you don't have an air lock in the Eng. somewhere. My car came from Oshawa Ont. with a heater in it and found air was being trapped inside the heater core and worked its way into the Eng. Ended up installing a plastic "T" fitting in the supply hose to the heater so I could bleed all the air out.
I don't now what else you could do! The filling Station have 6 Volt cooling fans but I'm not sure if there would be enough room between the Rad. and and water pump even if you removed the fan blade.
Cheers,
Dave

thanks for the replys ..i do have a 4 bladed fan, how would i know if i have an air lock, my rad was checked and the rad guy said it had good flow...i have no heater in this car

My 30 had heating problems when I got it, did the flush checked radiator flow which looked good, installed four blade fan. Still had problems, would get hotter the longer you drove it, which will indicate plugged radiator. I had the radiator shop install a modern style core and that took care of the problem, which at the time was about $400, I am more into touring and not having it judged.

hello everyone, i just started it up, no air bubbles coming from rad, water is coming out of over flow line, i have cap off, just idling in my garage, still got hot, not to boiling tho, but did get up to 206. then i shut it off. what should the running temperature be on these old cars..the car runs real smooth, idles great, fan is sucking air thru rad. this started when i changed my water pump and put a 4 bladed rad blade on vehicle...i am at a stand still

You might try to find a shop that has the block test fluid that will check for combustion gases in the cooling system. Does it have a heater and if so try turning it on and if it makes it a little better than that would be an indicator that your radiator is not transfering enough heat.

Brandon, I'm thinking your problem lies in the Radiator. Take a household cooling Fan and aim it at the Radiator while the car is running. It needs to be on high and close. See if the car runs cool for a longer period of time. No Load on the engine is the important clue! If it stays at a normal Temp it is most likely your Radiator. Al W.

One thought= you might feel the rad top to bottom see if you have cold spots,most times it will be the bottom.One trick we do at the shop is use the water hose see if it cools it down.

hello oboy, i just took the old car out for a drive, the temp slowly began to rise, i took it straight home, did what you said, use a water hose to spray through the rad and the temp went straight down to normal. does this sound like a rad problem? thankyou for your input on this, i appreciate your time.

Before you sprayed the water on the radiator, was the radiator hot at the top and cool at the bottom or was it hot all the way down?

hello junkyard..it was cool on bottom and hot on top

hello junkyard. i just ran the car til it warmed up. temp went over normal range, rad was very warm on both top and bottom, but bottom was cooler at the beginning until the car warmed up. then the bottom was almost just as hot as the top of the rad.hot enogh that i could not hold my hand on it for very long.

Just a thought, is the fan blade on backwards. Hold a piece of paper in front of the radiator with the car running. It should be drawn towards the car.

Sounds like you need a new radiator.

Are you sure the Temp. indicator in the car is reading what you think it is.
I did my own calibration check on the indicator in my car by removing the Temp. bulb from the Cyl head and placing it into a pot of boiling water with a thermometer and comparing the reading with the cars indicator as the temperature went down.
The begining of the red indiaction on the cars gauge was really 185 degrees which I have made my reference point for driving.

when i test the temp in the rad after the gauge is in the red it was up to 207 degrees, but i had just shut the car off. what is the normal operating temp?

One more thing is the coolant a 50/50 mix to rich on antifreeze will cause it to run hot.

pretty much running almost straight water

I had this problem once.

Drain the entire system.
I had to drill a couple of holes in the outer flange of the thermostat to be sure any air bubbles would escape before the thermostat actually opened.
This eliminated any possibility of an air pocket in the system.
2 or 3 very tiny holes is all you need. This did not alter the overall performance of the engine.
I also went to a 160 deg. temp range.
Flush the system.
2-1/2 gal. of cold water and 1 cup of iron out. Stirr until completely dissolved.
Pour into cooling sytstem until full.
Run engine until normal temp. with the radiator cap off.
Let the engine cool to room temp. using and electric fan in front of the radiator.
Drain the system
Remove the lower radiator hose and flush out the stystem with water using a garden hose. I litterally had chunks of rust flushing out of the system from the head.
Attach the lower hose.
2-1/2 gal of water and 1 cup of baking soda mix until dissolved.
Fill cooling system.
Run engine until normal temp is reached.
Let cool to room temp
Drain system as before
Flush with cold water as before.
Fill with just water for now.
Run the engine until warm with an electric fan blowing into the radiator.
If your problem is resolved your are done. If not, then I would suggest further analysis.
Rebuild your distributor as it may not be functioning properly and it may not be advancing correctly. Retarded timing will cause overheating as well.
Rebuild does not mean just new points. Completly disassemble and make sure the weights are clean and lubricated. I used graphite oil on the pivot points of the weights. And a very small smear of silicon grease on the weight slides.
Also you may want to look at the distributor performance profile on the VCCA web site. I tested both a non rebuilt distributor and a newly rebuilt distributor on a Sun machine. The advance profiles are drastically different between the two.

Check your timing to be at least 15 deg. advanced using a timing light with an advance knob on it for best results.

Now you know the system is clean and rust free. You will see the results immediately if you use this flush method.

If not, you may have a leaking head gasket, or a small crack in the head. I have had both of these problems as well at one time or another.

For the small crack in the head, of which I am still running, I used a product called "CarGo Seal-up" Follow the directions exaclty and you will have success.

I have been running with this cracked head for 2 years now without problems. The timing and distributor were also factors in overall engine temperature.


Good luck on your overheating problem. I doubt that all of your problem is with the radiator unless it wasn't properly cleaned out at the radiator shop.

Flush it out using this system and it will be absloutely clean.

thankyou for the information chevy1778, i am not running it with a thermostat in it, the timing is right on.i will try flushing the system your way and see what happens.and i am going to test my temp gauge to see how acurate it is. how do i drain the block, is there a plug or nut of some sort? thanks for your help on this.

There is no drain on the block because the block doesn't have any side water jackets. The only drain is at the bottom of the radiator.

Pull off the lower radiator hose that connects to the bottonm of the radiator. this is the only way to drain the head. Use the garden hose and force water up into the lower hose to fill the head. Remove the hose and let the water gush out. Do this several times and you will see how much stuff comes out. Also do this with the radiator. Fill the radiator from the bottom outlet using the garden hose. and then let the water gush out. You will see rust chunks come out of there as well. Squirt the hose from the top of the radiator and flush out each tube.

I used the Iron Out method and ran the engine a good 20 minutes before it got up to temperature. When the water turned to a rusty brownish color you know it is working.

You know when your system is clean when the water is as clear as when it went in. I flushed my system out twice so all of the rust was completely gone. The baking soda water neutralizes the Iron Out. Then the cold water flush washes out the baking soda.

When you are sure that it is not overheating then replace the water with an antifreeze solution.

I use a 50/50 antifreeze mixture with a bottle of Gunk Water Pump lube and anti-rust. My borther uses plain water with the anti-rust and water pump lube, but his water still turns brown. My antifreeze is a nice clean green color with no rust. The choice is up to you.

Let me know how it works. I hope you have good results.

Water will always cool down your Radiator. You need to use Fan supplied air. Find a friend with a Infrared Temp device. You will be able to Map the whole Rad. Al W.

well everyone, i flushed the rad with iron out, and then flushed with baking soda, put fresh water in system, went for a drive and there was no difference, still gradually heating up...going to go get car tested for head gasket..keep u posted, thanks everyone for your input, hope i figure this out.