Thought I would share this as I have never heard of it happening before. Bought a 28 Coupe. Little old lady only drove it to church on Sundays, etc. Supposedly complete rebuild. Had a good paint job, but once I began checking the undercarriage, obviously it had not been gone through, but I won't dwell on that.
Had the original Honey-Comb radiator checked, shop said it was in excellent condition, good flow, no leaks, I felt lucky and very happy. However; when I began to drive it, it would hit 200 degrees (I put a Stewart Warner Temp Gauge on it and verified it wasn't lying to me) within 3 miles. OK, obviously the radiator just wasn't doing its job. I had the engine apart and the cooling jackets in the block and head were perfectly clean. Called the coordinator for the tour we were booked on and said we would have to cancel as there was no way to get a new radiator in three days.
He said he had a newly cored radiator and come on down and we would install it before the tour. OK, we drove the 400 miles and swapped the radiator. Didn't do any good, it ran hot all 5 days of the tour but didn't boil over so we squeaked by. I hadn't checked for the water pump baffle as it was the first 28 I had done and didn't know about it. We all assumed it was probably missing, but not having a press to disassemble it decided to come back home at end of tour and check it out.
I pulled the water pump this afternoon, it has a baffle in it. OK, so now what do I do? Timing is correct, radiator is newly re-cored, block and head are clean, valve timing is correct, so what else can it be?? I turned the pump over to look more closely at the impeller and heard something rattle and then a blurred motion as something exited the inlet to the pump and dropped to the floor. Looked down to see a PECAN NUT lying on the floor. Dropped it back into the inlet and it nestled perfectly in the opening to the impeller and effectively blocks an estimated 90% of the water flow. Anyone ever have that happen??
Ron
