Cool/Heat: 54 pick up overheating

[jbjr]

The psat few days my 54 has starting to overheat.The waterpump is woking, the hoses seem fine,but the overflow tank seem to have more antifreeze after it cooled down. Also the drain cock does not seem to be working.I am at a loss any advice?

[mapman]

Be sure the belt is tight, that the lower hose is not collapsing when the engine is revved, it should have a kind of a spring inside of it to prevent collapse. be sure the radiator fins aren't full of bugs or weeds. If the drain cock is plugged when you open it you may have built up enough gunk inside the radiator to plug the tubes. The radiator will need to be flushed or maybe rodded out. Some times the radiator flush you can buy at your flaps will clean it enough to use it but it may need to have the tank removed and the tubes physically rodded out. Most people will have this done at a radiator shop with the right equipment.
Rob

[studebakerkid]

So replace the drain cock and flush the cooling system. I have this adaptor that injects air and it helps break up the crud too.

[PackardV8]

Since it's a '54, that means it came with a 6-cyl. Which one and is it the original engine?

jack vines

[altair]

overheating

The psat few days my 54 has starting to overheat.The waterpump is woking, the hoses seem fine,but the overflow tank seem to have more antifreeze after it cooled down. Also the drain cock does not seem to be working.I am at a loss any advice?

This is a bit of a long shot but I experienced overheating in my pickup and it turnout to be a broken centrifgual spring in the diatributor. It started and idled fine low speed was fine but when I got her up to speed (45) there was considerable pinging and the temp gage started to climb just a thought Dave British Columbia

[jclary]

Hey jbjr!...Looking at your number of posts, indicates that you are new to the forum. So...WELCOME!

I clicked on your profile and went to see the other comments you have made and unless I miss-read...your truck now has a 259 V8 and you have had other cooling issues like replacing core plugs.

If your truck was originally equipped with a small 6 and not the big 6 engine, it would have a smaller capacity radiator. While that radiator could perhaps sufficiently cool the V8, I suspect it would be marginal at the best of conditions. In addition, after all these years, your engine could be suffering from internal rust, corrosion, and some gathering in critical passages of old factory core wire, sand and debris from the foundry process. Couple that with the accumulation of crud in the radiator core, and you have a cooling system with a severe diminished capacity. Some good suggestions have already been made. I suspect that you are due for a complete cooling system flush and cleaning. If you have the light duty radiator, it would be good to locate a heavy duty one from a truck that had the heavy duty one.

I know of no magic trick to replace the hard work to do it properly, but to save the engine from getting toasted and for your peace of mind, it needs to be done. Let us know how it works out.

[jbjr]

No, I put a 259 V8 in it and a bigger radiator.

[jbjr]

The radiator was recored about 1 year ago and is a larger capacity

[PackardV8]

What do you know about the history and condition of the 259" you installed?

Unless it's been rodded out recently, it may be full of sludge. Some I've opened were packed solid behind the rear core plugs.

Having said that, many overheating problems are also from insufficient ignition advance, either centrifugal or vacuum, as mentioned previously.

Also, trucks need a better fan shroud and sealing of holes and gaps around the radiator and in the core support. A good shroud and a six or seven blade fan from an AC car, especially one with a temperature activated clutch can solve many overheating problems. (Of course, when that big fan engages, it's like being dive-bombed by a Stuka.)

jack vines

[jclary]

The radiator was recored about 1 year ago and is a larger capacity

Well...seems like you have taken care of the radiator questions. One other critical thing that is sometimes overlooked. The water pump gasket. I have often whipped out a sheet of gasket material and made my own when I didn't have a "store bought" one available. I learned the hard way that it is not the best thing for a Studebaker V8 water pump. Too thick a gasket will open the gap between the pump impeller and the back wall of the water manifold. That extra space can diminish the impeller blades ability to grab water and send it on its way through the system. Also, there were some replacement pumps that didn't perform to specs circulating around a few years ago. Some one with more specific info on when, where, and how this happened may chime in.

In addition to your block passages, a correct gasket, and perhaps a different water pump, is another possibility.

[jbjr]

The 259 was rebuilt from the block up, everything was done prior to the the install. It has 14k miles on it, and I drive it about 350 miles to and from work.The fan shroud was made to fit and I put on a scope to check the engine and all was well. there are no leaks around the pump and it is working properly. On thursday I am bringing it to a friend to checkthe sensor, the cap gage, hopefully the prpblem will be solved. Thanks for the info.

[JoeHall]

The 259 was rebuilt from the block up, everything was done prior to the the install. It has 14k miles on it, and I drive it about 350 miles to and from work.The fan shroud was made to fit and I put on a scope to check the engine and all was well. there are no leaks around the pump and it is working properly. On thursday I am bringing it to a friend to checkthe sensor, the cap gage, hopefully the prpblem will be solved. Thanks for the info.

Based on your info, that puppy should be running cool as a cucumber. Are you sure the motor is overheating? If you are just going by the guage, it may not be accurate. Put a meat thermometer in the radiator fill hole, or get a cap with a thermometer built in.

Is this the first hot season for the motor since rebuild? Were new pistons used? If piston to cylinder wall clearance was set too tight, it may take 30-40,000 miles to really cool down.
Are you running AC?

[jbjr]

There is no AC and All new parts were used in the rebuild.I am bringing it to a friends and the problem will be solved on thursday. I will post the findings. thanks for the help

[PackardV8]

One other possibility, the gauges and sender were originally 6 volt; is your truck now 12 volt?

Is the sender which came with the engine connected to the original gauge?

It's possible to get a mismatch between the sender and the gauge. I'm using what was supposed to be a new 12 volt S-W sender and it had me worried the first time I drove the truck because the gauge ran up to full hot.

Turns out that sender and gauge reads 3/4 when the engine is at 160 and almost full hot when it's only 190. I'm going to have to try a different sender or a resistor of some sort.

OT, but the electric cooling fan temperature switch which came with the Vintage Air unit was supposed to be a 190 degree, but it turns the fan on at 160, which means it runs all the time.

jack vines

[jbjr]

Woked on the overheat problem on thursday, could not find what caused the problem. We did notice that the engine was missing a bit so we retarded the timing, it was advanced because of the electronic ignition. Went for a spin about 40 miles and it did not overheat. Do not see why the ting would cause the problem un less there was some pre ignition or something else