Overheating

[tbirdman]

Well I have been having fun driving my 32 Packard and attending car shows/cruise ins with it. It does sure draw attention. I think I get about 10 smiles to the mile. I also have been getting attention from the hot rodders and the muscle car guys. I even get thumbs up from kids in their rice burners <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyway the car has been running fairly cool except yesterday we had 100 desgree weather in Oregon. The car was running a little warmer than normal especially going up hills but still was in the driving range on the temp gauge. The last hills (about a 1/4 mile) going into my neighborhood it is pretty steep (10-14 degree)plus I was going slow, the temp guage climbed to hot. As I entered the garage, the radiator burped over the the floor and you could hear the radiator boiling. Since the car has run so well in normal temp conditions, should I consider this just an abnormal condition with the high temperatures and the fcat that the car was sitting in the hot sun all day long. The day before the car ran fine in 90 degree weather.

Also the day before, the clutch pedal didn't return. This only happeny once, but I had to lift the pedal with my foot. It seemed to work fine after that. I assume that it might be weather related.

[52deluxe]

you could have scale buildup on the inside of the block not allowing proper heat transfer. im working on converting my 52 to 12v for a number of reasons one big one being the heat issue, its fine while driving but i get in stop and go traffic and that gauge "mechanical aftermarket" gets a bit higher then i would preffer. ive heard you can get 6v fans and you might be able to squeeze one between the radiator and grill if it has one allowing you a bit of extra cooling on those hills. also check your timing as if its a little late it can cause a engine to run a little hot, combine that with the heat you have and hilly roads <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

just a thought

tom

[tbirdman]

I just thinking that it may be just the unusual hot weather. The car ran fine before. In fact when the car was having the coil issues, I ran the car in the garage for 30 minutes with no issues. I would think this would be the worse case scenerio with only air from the fan being drawn through the radiator. I do plan to flush the radiator. The engine had been rebuilt fairly recent so I hope they would have cleaned the block.

[Guest imported_PackardV8]

Plugged radiator or late engine timing. What do u know about the radiator??? Also cheque valve lash. If valves are too tite that can cause overheating as well as late timing or loose fan belt or loose impellar on pump. As for the clutch i don't know. Cheque the floor clearence to make sure the body hasn't shifted and thus binding on the pedal stem or other obstructions near the floor.

[mrpushbutton]

TBirdman-A parade on a hot summer day is the worse case scenario. Second to that would be the Woodward Dream Cruise (or the "nightmare crawl" as we call it, other call it the "redneck traffic jam"). I would pull the water jacket plate

(drain the system first) and get a look at what's going on inside your cooling passenges.