56 buick over heating

[smaltzie]

I have a small problem besides a 17 year old driving a pretty 4 door pink buick. It living in texas, houston and the old buick getting hot sitting in traffic. She runs about 160, but when stuck in long lines of traffic rolls up to 190 to 210. The silly kid almost ruined the engine, thank god she didn't.

I have put on a clutch fan, had the radiator boiled and removed the therostat, the heater is not hooked uped. I would like to put in aire conditioning. Thinking of putting on an electric fan, but my friend said that that clutch fan is pulling in air fine. He thought that a new water pump may solve the problem. I remeber Roberta said cleaning the radiator did it for some one she knew, What do ya'll think.

[JohnD1956]

Hey there Smaltzie, first things first. Put that 160 thermostat back in. No thermostat allows the coolant to pass through the radiator too fast with insufficient time for cooling. Then based on other threds I've seen here, try to seal the fan shroud against the radiator so that when the fan is pulling it had to pull air through the radiator cooling fins. I believe the person ( whom I cannot remember) filled the gap with black window foam tape. Something denser than the light celuose material.

Also, did you do a valve job on this car and replace the valve seats with hardened seats? I did and now I think this is the cause of my 56 running hotter than it used to. I now have a three row core and I'm still hotter than I want to be. But I'm resigned to live with it. Of course in NY that's a lot easier said, than done in Texas.

The other thing you should consider is popping the freeze plugs ( soft plugs) on the motor and flushing out the coolant passages in the block. After 50 years of all types of water, chances are the bottom of the block has filled with debris making water circulation difficult or non existant. I haven't done mine yet, but if you do I hear you have to put in new plugs. Since the factory thermostat is 160 degrees you may be able to get away with some of those rubber expanding plugs in your neck of the country.

JD

[The Old Guy]

190-210 is not a problem ,if you have a 50-50 mix of antifreeze and a good pressure cap. The system will not pop until it gets in the 250-260 range. My 40 runs 200-210 on hot days, and I have put LOTS of miles on it with no adverse affects.

[old-tank]

190-210 is not a problem but is worrisome, because the stock guage is 'pegged out' at ~200. I drive my 55's thousands of miles a year, but mostly on the open road. All will run much hotter in congested traffic which I avoid. If you want to add A/C and drive in congested traffic, consider the biggest custom aluminum radiator you can find, external fan, 160 thermostat and increase the idle rpm to 750 to increase circulation. These old Buicks are great road cars but are not well suited for summer driving in city traffic.

Willie