Thread: getting cold, anyone ever make a grille cover/screen for a 1930s Ford?

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first thing i would check is flow at start up. i have never seen an air cooled sbc . i have seen more than one hung thermostat over the years.

I had a BMW 318 while in Germany. It had a weird thermostat set up. The thermostat was in a housing which was suspended between three hoses. The car was running hot, so I paid the big dollars for a new tstst housing assembly. No improvement. So I paid $5 to get a used one from a junkyard, just to see what happens. Problem solved.

Anyway: the moral of the story is that even new parts can be defective.

Good luck.

Re reading the post:

One reader chimed in that he had experienced similar trouble resultant of poor combustion from cold air intake. It might be interesting to cobble up an intake hose to draw warm air off the radiator. It wouldn't have to be pretty just for a quick test.

block off the coolant and it will burn down at hwy speeds. hung open will run cold in winter , come spring it will burn up .

You didn't mention which edelbrock I take. If it is the air gap you can get drivability issues with it. Hopefully it is the performer.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

You didn't mention which edelbrock I take. If it is the air gap you can get drivability issues with it. Hopefully it is the performer.

It is the air gap.

But I am replacing it along with the carb, with a performer rpm.

The intake has had a small oil leak at the rear of the intake manifold since I got the car, nothing major a few drops a month I find in the driveway.

However when we removed the fan switch we discovered it was not the correct one for the intake, it was cross threaded and the threads are really boogered up. It was being held in with a thick wrapping of Teflon tape.

Removing the carb also shows the mounting bolt locations are thread damaged another set of stupid fancy chrome Allen head bolts that were metric and forced in.

While I can re-thread the manifold, for $300 I can replace it, and use the proper bolts and gaskets.

Plus I’m not a fan of all this chrome, there needs to be a little color to draw your eye IMO.

So I’m replacing the intake manifold and carb with edelbrock block powder coated parts. Also replacing the waterneck with a taller one with a 45 degree angle to take the 90 degree bend out of the hose, with replace with the aforementioned better thermostat and the correct fan switch.

Man that car was buggered up. The air gap intake is great for racing. But hell on a street car. A bend in the top hose on top of the other "issues" is like salt in the wound isn't it!?!? The car runs an electric fan for cooling the radiator?

If so consider one of the adjustable fan controllers to start / stop the fan on your setting(s). You can dial up the temp in the winter and lower it for the summer.

Originally Posted by 34_40

Man that car was buggered up. The air gap intake is great for racing. But hell on a street car. A bend in the top hose on top of the other "issues" is like salt in the wound isn't it!?!? The car runs an electric fan for cooling the radiator?

If so consider one of the adjustable fan controllers to start / stop the fan on your setting(s). You can dial up the temp in the winter and lower it for the summer.

Yes electric fan, nice suggestion on the controller;

Something like this?


https://www.summitracing.com/parts/prm-21276

Wow-finally at least one answer to questions I asked back in post #18---------"what type of sealant on temp sensor?"

Teflon tape----------no ground to the sensor so the reading isnt valid-------also, what are you using to read the temps???? dash guage?

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Wow-finally at least one answer to questions I asked back in post #18---------"what type of sealant on temp sensor?"

Teflon tape----------no ground to the sensor so the reading isnt valid-------also, what are you using to read the temps???? dash guage?

There was a ground on the switch, it was a 2 pole switch, not grounded by the thread seat.

One Temp gauge is installed on the other side of the intake, the other at the head and stated earlier in the thread.

As I stated everything is being changed out and we will see if it addresses all of these issues.

Originally Posted by DennyW

What year is the motor, and what is the motor, you have in there ?
If you don't answer this one, I will not ask you any more questions. hahaha

Stated in post #19.

Chevy 350 out of a 1970s Camaro according to the casting numbers.

So I guess you don't want to reply to questions-I'll just check out of this unless you decide to answer my questions----------

By the way-ask your friend if he ever heard anything about me-------

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

So I guess you don't want to reply to questions-I'll just check out of this unless you decide to answer my questions----------

By the way-ask your friend if he ever heard anything about me-------

I answered your question above in post 43

as for post 18. I thought I made it clear I don’t have all the answers.

Doesn’t matter it’s at the shop. I work 2 full time jobs 16 plus hours a day, and just don’t have the time.

It’s obvious the motor build has issues, the builder was an idiot. And at this point I am not throwing any more money into repairs or rebuilds. I’m replacing everything that is at issue or could be remotely related to the problem.

FWIW. Here is a picture of the motor when I bought the car ~2 years ago

A2CF6F2D-CCE6-4A9E-B21A-CACD5D4BABE8.jpg
2012725B-5907-4642-B973-58F9AE244159.jpg

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

So I guess you don't want to reply to questions-I'll just check out of this unless you decide to answer my questions----------

By the way-ask your friend if he ever heard anything about me-------

First off his friend told me he didn't know much about you other than you don't post pics either.....

Second of all, there is a 90* coming right off the radiator, and then 2 45s before it gets to the t stat housing.

3rd, those center bolt valve covers can be put on older heads with adapters. That intake doesn't look like an air gap either. But it does resemble some chinese wanna be air gap types I saw a while back.

Do you just feel like busting this guy's balls or what?

It's too bad the previous owner jacked this car up so bad, From the pics it looks like it presents as a really nice car!
.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

First off his friend told me he didn't know much about you other than you don't post pics either.....

Second of all, there is a 90* coming right off the radiator, and then 2 45s before it gets to the t stat housing.

3rd, those center bolt valve covers can be put on older heads with adapters. That intake doesn't look like an air gap either. But it does resemble some chinese wanna be air gap types I saw a while back.

Do you just feel like busting this guy's balls or what?

It's too bad the previous owner jacked this car up so bad, From the pics it looks like it presents as a really nice car!
.

Thank you:


spent half the morning at the shop working with Jeff tearing down everything. 6 hours late for my primary job, but made it here at least for the last 4 hours.


The casting numbers on the motor are from a 1970-1973 Camaro.

The heads are L31 Vortec Heads according to Jeff.

The intake is a Edelbrock RPM model not sure of the actual model because he polished it and rubbed off the casting numbers, but it looks like he might have cut out the divider in the square bore himself, as I can't find any images online that match what this one looks like. The performer has a solid divider in the bore, the rpm has a cut out, but doesn't have the heat passage inlets on either side of the mounting pad, Could be a performer RPM, that is the closest I can find to this one, but it isn't stamped as performer RPM, and it has the bore cut. Anyone's guess. If I get time next week, I will get some pictures of it. not going back to the shop until after the holidays. Parts won't even be in until then.

The carb is a Edelbrock 1406 that was mounted on some weird ass spacer plate made of copper then had a round bore gasket, a square bore gasket, then another round bore gasket on the top and bottom of the copper plate for a total of 6 gaskets of different designs.


The water neck to radiator hose sits at a 45° angle then snakes into a 45° bend then another bend that is 53° to the 90° bend into the radiator, all angles were measured this morning. to many turns in the hose and too steep of an angle to the radiator from the intake, likely the issue with the under heat problem, water can't make it up and back into the radiator and is falling back into the motor.



The plan:

1. replacing the intake manifold with a 71163,
2. replacing the carb with a 14063,
3. replacing the water neck with one that is 1.5" taller and has a 45° offset neck so the hose will be at a roughly 45° angle and a single bend to the radiator,
4. replacing the thermostat with the "sleeve" style one suggested by 34_40 (BTW Jeff 100% agrees with you on this point, he rarely suggests it because people don't want to spend $40 on a t-stat).
5. adding a cool-view water neck spacer so the thermostat action is visible and I can check if it gets stuck open (https://coolviewthermostat.com/), this might be temporary as I am not keen on gimmicky stuff like this, but Jeff suggests so we can verify weather or not the t-stat is sticking.
6. removing the carb spacer which was there so the air cleaner could clear the distributor,
7. Adding a air cleaner spacer for the clearance issue, so the carb will be sitting on the new intake with no spacers or added junk, as designed.
8. replacing the fan switch with an adjustable one also as suggested by 34_40,
9. replacing all the crappy fancy chrome allen head bolts all over the motor with normal grade 8 bolts hopefully in black to match the new intake and carb.

I want to thank DennyW, 34_40, and 40FordDeluxe for their assistance. sorry if pictures and info wasn't more forthcoming from me, but as stated I work 16+ hours a day


as for Mr. Clayton:

I don't care you who are personally, celebrities and entitlement minded people who think they are special don't phase me, I could care less if you are the President of the USA or some industry god to others, to me you are nothing more than a grumpy, crotchety, old fart with nothing better to do that be an internet troll and bully..