VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Car gets hot in traffic

I went to a car show 15 miles from my house ,car ran good ,temp gage half way whole trip till we hit traffic, then got hot pretty quickly. Seems as though air is flowing through radiator while driving everything is OK. Gets hot in traffic and going up hills. I am considering getting a 6 volt 6 inch electric fan and mounting it behind the radiator above the fan blades to help air flow. Any one have thoughts or suggestions? This car has a heater and you can feel heat in the hoses and heater.

Check your timing. Exact problem I had with my 32.

This is common on old cars, especially if the cooling system is not 100%.

the problem is that the stock fan is crap, does not draw enough air thru the radiator when stopped. The 4 blade 1934--1936 truck fan has a bigger pitch to the blades , causing a bigger draw.

MILLIN PHIL from Ohio and I discussed this at length in either 29--32 section or the 33--36 section. , last year.

If your going to 6 volt electric fan, go to 2 of them and as large as you can .

My 35 Chevrolet coupe and my 35 Chevrolet phaeton both run sbc V8 motors with 17" DERALE 6 blade steel fans with 28 degree pitch to the blades. At idle a cloth towel or t shirt is drawn too the grill from 1 foot away and held there. That proves draw. Cars will idle in heat at 180--190

You would have to create an adaptor to bolt to the water pump snout and then have the fan adapted to the adaptor. Would require a lathe or mill to produce the part.

mike lynch

Don't need a new fan blade or fans.
I had a Model T that would continuously overheat.
The problem was obvious as the fan was more like a spinning pie tin........there was barely any pitch to the blades.
I used something as an indicator and twisted the blades some.
End of problem.

OK sounds like from what I am reading here that another fan blade with more pitch would be the better fix. Will the 33 -36 truck fan fit on the 32 car. I recently replaced the water pump with the new one from The Filling Station. If I try to put more pitch in my fan blade can I get it out of balance and mess things up?Does someone make an after market fan blade with more pitch?

I don't believe the 34-36 truck fan will fit in a 32. A longer blade will hit the damper/pulley and there is very little space from the pump to radiator. With the OEM fan it is tight to the radiator to get it mounted . If all components are up to snuff it should not overheat stopped in traffic or pulling hills. Adding electric fans or other remedies will only mask the problem and create more components to maintain.

The experiment that MILLINPHIL in Ohio did , was with his 35 standard and according to Phil it worked.

See if I can prompt him to respond to this thread.

mike

I would like to keep the car as original as possible. It seems to me back in the 30s the car didn't over heat in traffic I will have to find someone to help me check the timing, I have a maintainance book but not sure I understand it exactly!

don't even consider twisting more pitch angle into your fan blades . Most likely you would end up with a fan out of balance and that would cause your water pump bearing to wear out quickly. Put stress on the 4 bolts holding the fan to the hub. Just what you need an item spinning 2500--3000 rpm out of balance and threatening to have bolts come loose.

That bang bang noise you hear is the fan hitting rad core, tearing it up and maybe coming off and trying to launch itself thru your hood !

Timing must be correct.
radiator in perfect condition with full flow
no head gasket leaks
thermostat installed in the 160 degree range.
correct 50/50 water antifreeze mixture.
WATER WETTER coolant temp additive

mike lynch

The service manual settings are not what is currently used with modern gas. The timing most are using is 18 degrees advance with the plugs gapped at .040. That seems to give the best performance . Also I would advise using the spark retard whenever starting..

I just checked my '29 to '36 parts book, and the truck fan blade will fit '33 to '36 passenger cars perfectly! It may fit the earlier ones also, but I do not know that
for a fact; the mounting holes and center hole are exactly the same, the larger blade is 1/2 inch longer and may not clear the crankshaft. My '35 Std coupe
always ran hot, especially in traffic on a hot day, and I was afraid of it boiling! Since I replaced the fan blade, it now runs at 180 degrees while in motion,
it will climb a little at a stop sign or traffic light, but as soon as I get in motion, the temp comes right down, which it never did before! I hope this helps!
Philip Lipton millnphil@yahoo.com

If a 1/2" longer it will not fit...At least not on my 32 as there is only 1/4" clearance to the hub on the crank pulley . I did find a different blade that has a little more pitch and offset blades that does pull a little more air but there are no numbers on it. The offset blades I was told was to reduce fan blade noise. As I see it the problem is not the blade , unless the incorrect one is being used.

Forget the fan. A couple of years back I went though this same overheating problem with my 32. I checked the ignition timing and installed a new FS water pump but none of it helped so I pulled the honeycomb radiator and had it flow tested. The radiator shop told me the flow was fine. Since there was nothing else left to check I decided to have the radiator shop replace the original honeycomb core with a new modern cell core. The new radiator core solved all the overheating problems. It was like night and day difference. Now even on a 100 degree day here in Ca. the hottest it will get is to the center of the gauge where as before If I was stopped in traffic it would peg the gauge. On a normal 75 degree day I think it actually runs a little on the cold side. When the radiator shop gave me the new radiator assembly they also returned the old honeycomb core. The one thing I noticed right off was that the old core was actually heavier then new complete radiator assembly. I assume the old core must have been full of sediment. So flow testing means nothing. Based on my experience I would pull the water pump and inspect the impeller fins and check for any end play between the water pump housing and the impeller. If the water pump checks out I would then be looking to replace the radiator core.

All good information fellas but suggestions are all over the board. I need to think about my next step, maybe easiest is to try cooling system addative and see if it helps. I may call the filling Station and ask about the fan blades. A new radiator is way too expensive for me. One person suggested setting timming 18 degrees advanced not sure I want to do that. Its all a bit confusing at this point.

The Fan Blades seems to do the trick. A lot of guys have done that and it seems to work.

Do you mean changing the original fan blade or adding electric fans?

I mean changing the original fan blade. Electric fans may work but can cause you other problems you don't need.

According to Steve, the above post , the fan will not work on 1932's , as its too long

mike

Well I checked clearance on replacing the original fan and that is NOT an option,just no room. I added purple ice addative to radiator and let car idle and temp gage went to max so no luck there either. I may try running heater fan to see it it helps but may get pretty warm in the car. Dosent seem to loose any fluid so I don't think head gasget is leaking. Not sure what to try next!

The best thing to do is to find the area that is causing the problem and then fix it. Your problem could be the water pump, timing, baffle plate in the cylinder head, radiator, plugged cylinder head and etc. Many good suggestions were made here so you might want to check them out one at time. It was also suggested to replace the radiator core. That would be a good place to start since many times a new radiator core cures the overheating problem.