wags70ss
Well-Known Member
Need a little input here. I worked on a guys 68 GTX 440 auto a few weeks ago. He said it was overheating and losing antifreeze. Here's what I did to it.
Removed the water pump housing and water pump from the front of the engine. The housing had some cavitation damage on the back side of it, so I sanded it down until most of it was removed. Then I reinstalled it, along with new gaskets, a new water pump, new t-Stat (160), new t-Stat housing (it had cavitation damage as well), and new antifreeze. I also had the radiator cleaned. Then I had him buy the correct metal fan Shroud from Dante's and I installed it.
I let it sit and idle for 2 hours and the temp guage was barely above the lowest mark. Ran great not getting hot.
Now he's telling me that when he drives it & shuts it off, it pukes out AF on his garage floor. He thinks it's running hot. I don't believe it is, but I haven't seen it for myself either.
BTW, This is a numbers matching 440 car that he paid a ton of money 12 years ago to have a ground up restoration done on. And he's probably put less than 1000 miles on it since. It only has 80,000 miles on it so they resealed the engine and put a new camshaft, lifters, timing chain, oil pump, etc. On it. So it's basically a stock 68 440 engine. Cast iron intake, thermo quad, cast iron manifolds, stock distributor, stock fan with clutch, (7 blade? Or 6?)etc.
My question is this: if I filled the radiator full, would it puke out a little antifreeze until it got an air space inside the radiator? I'm thinking that's what's going on.
Also, would it be a good idea to add an overflow bottle to it?
Hes going to bring it back to me and I need to know where to start. I'll let it run and shoot the engine and hoses with my heat gun so I can see how it looks. I'm thinking that an overflow bottle would remedy the antifreeze loss problem.
What advice can you guys give me? Thanks in advance!
Removed the water pump housing and water pump from the front of the engine. The housing had some cavitation damage on the back side of it, so I sanded it down until most of it was removed. Then I reinstalled it, along with new gaskets, a new water pump, new t-Stat (160), new t-Stat housing (it had cavitation damage as well), and new antifreeze. I also had the radiator cleaned. Then I had him buy the correct metal fan Shroud from Dante's and I installed it.
I let it sit and idle for 2 hours and the temp guage was barely above the lowest mark. Ran great not getting hot.
Now he's telling me that when he drives it & shuts it off, it pukes out AF on his garage floor. He thinks it's running hot. I don't believe it is, but I haven't seen it for myself either.
BTW, This is a numbers matching 440 car that he paid a ton of money 12 years ago to have a ground up restoration done on. And he's probably put less than 1000 miles on it since. It only has 80,000 miles on it so they resealed the engine and put a new camshaft, lifters, timing chain, oil pump, etc. On it. So it's basically a stock 68 440 engine. Cast iron intake, thermo quad, cast iron manifolds, stock distributor, stock fan with clutch, (7 blade? Or 6?)etc.
My question is this: if I filled the radiator full, would it puke out a little antifreeze until it got an air space inside the radiator? I'm thinking that's what's going on.
Also, would it be a good idea to add an overflow bottle to it?
Hes going to bring it back to me and I need to know where to start. I'll let it run and shoot the engine and hoses with my heat gun so I can see how it looks. I'm thinking that an overflow bottle would remedy the antifreeze loss problem.
What advice can you guys give me? Thanks in advance!
