Engine: engine over heating

[daniel deyarmin]

I have a 1964 Daytona with a 289 v8 4 barrel carb the engine has been over hauled .030 over every thing internal is new.the problem is sitting still or at 35 mph the temperature is fine (180degrees) at speeds 45mph and higher the temperature rises it will go to 250degrees almost immediately.i have checked the timing several times, I put new upper and lower radiator hoses, new heater hoses, new heater core,the radiator has been boiled out and checked for flow.new high flow 160 degree thermostat,dual electrical fans with shroud,two temperature sending units. one for the electric fans the other for the temp gauge .I also put a new temp gauge in.usually engines heat up during idle ,stopped ,or in stop ang go situations.this the first I have had one heat up at speed.i have done all I know to correct the problem.any help or suggestions would be appreciated .I have owned Studebakers for many years but I am new to the forum. thank you danny,

[hawk58man]

Hey daniel, you might see if belt is slipping,with every else you did its still a hard call. Also did you replace the water pump?Was it measured for the proper clearance to the housing. Was it new or rebuilt.? Some rebuilds were done incorrectly. Check out past forum threads on overheating..and water pumps, keep us in the loop. There should be more forum members chimimng in to assist. Stay tooned, Welcome to the Studebaker Drivers Club forum.. Mike..

[daniel deyarmin]

mike, thank you for the info. but I did forget to say I checked belts and I purchased a new pump from phill harris i also forgot that I installed a recovery tank.

[daniel deyarmin]

joe,thank you for your input .that's very possible thank you means more checking.

[hawk58man]

Very good..

[Gunslinger]

Usually when an engine overheats at speed it's the lower radiator hose collapsing under vacuum. You said you installed a new hose but does it have the metal spring inside? That's necessary to prevent the hose collapsing and creating a blockage.

[studepack]

Crack from the exhaust side into a coolant passage causing hot exhaust to enter the cooling passage?

[StudeRich]

Overheating

There are tests for Compression or Exhaust in the Coolant, if that shows nothing, then...

Whatever this "High Flow" Thermostat is supposed to do, I think it is not. Too fast a flow is not good for max cooling, in your climate in the Winter especially, I would use a Std. 180 degree Stat, ditch the electric Fans and make it run as it did when new.

[5brown1]

You did not mention radiator cap. I think a 13LB. cap is specified.

[R_David]

First place I would start is to run it on the highway and let it get nice and hot (as indicated by the temp gauge) then pull over and immediately pop the hood and using a handheld IR thermometer check the temp of the radiator, hoses, heads, and water pump. Did that to my Hawk 2 summers ago and found that my radiator was staying pretty cool and the block was getting hot. My problem turned out to be a water pump with incorrect impeller clearances. It was keeping the engine cool at idle, but not under load at higher RPMs. Replaced the water pump with one from SI and now the temp never gets above 180.

While you have your IR thermometer out take look at the exhaust manifolds just for fun.

[Mike Van Veghten]

Dan -

You mention timing. Is the point plate solid and not moving around (changing the timing)? Also, you say you "checked it". What does that mean ? While OEM timing should be fine, it's not the best for much of anything. You'll see slightly better milage, better throttle response...and maybe a few less degrees of heat. Give about 34 degrees (total) a try, then bump it another 2 degrees more. Note that there is no mark on the balancer for an 8 or 10 degree mark. One old fashioned way is just to start the engine with the distributor slightly loose....and advance the dist. As you do this, the engines RPM will increase. Do this untill the RPM stops getting faster then back it off about 1/16" of an inch at the vacuum canester rotation.

Also as mentioned -
1. Collapsing lower hose
2. Bad water pump clearances (has been a long time problem)
3. Running lean (fuel)
4. Bad/wrong radiator cap

Mike

P.s - I've never been a "fan"...of those crappy little fans you mention. Just not good airflow. If nothing else works, try a real full sized fan, see what happens.
If you want an electric fan, go to Chevy, Ford or Chrysler and get a properly designed fan.
I'm putting a 19", 2 speed fan out of a Mustang into 54 wagon, inside the stock shroud.

[WCP]

250F? Where and how are you determining that temp? Is it simply a faulty sender? They do go bad by losing resistance across the temperature range. Check the "cold" resistance to ground at room temp. If it is substantially less than 780 ohms, then that is the problem. At 250F, I think you should be seeing some evidence of coolant loss, depending upon you rad cap pressure relief.

[Dan Timberlake]

It is not clear to me how any method of "optimizing" the timing at idle ( max vacuum, max rpm ) would help identify whether a centrifugal advance is working, or has a "good" curve.

[willbhere4u]

I put a new radiator in my 57 Packard clipper supercharged 289 and it started over heating at highway speeds only! It turned out to be the radiator cap was not sealing to the bottom of the radiator neck I had to make a rubber space to get it to hold pressure. That fixed my problem

The neck on the new radiator was to tall for any newer radiator cap to seal.

[Xcalibur]

In addition to All the above... if using electric fans, use "pullers" if at all possible... more efficient than "pushers." Also, I've seen water pump impellers that have come loose (who knows how or why) and spin on the shaft at high speed. Finally, do you or anyone who worked on your rebuild KNOW postively that the block and heads were actually cleaned out appropriately? Not just "hot tanked," I mean all the pressed-in AND screwed in plugs removed and EVERYTHING physically cleaned AND inspected? Also, something foreign in the waterways at critical places could block flow allowing enough to pass at low speed but not at high. Sooooooooooo many possibilities.

Best of luck!!!