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By RossL - 5 days ago
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I am considering removing the freeze plugs and to inspect the coolant passages and clean if necessary, as described in this article. Has anyone tried this? Any suggestions? I am not going to remove the engine.
https://www.ctci.org/gilsgarage/1955-56-57-thunderbird-overheating/ (see "Plugged Water passages")
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By miker - 3 days ago
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Just removing and replacing the core plugs in the car is a pita. If it’s rusted bad enough to go into the passages, I’d have it down to a bare block. I’m not saying it can’t be done, just that I wouldn’t try it. I’d run a flush through it first and see what I had. I’d also be worried about knocking stuff loose that I didn’t get out, and then having it plug the radiator with everything together and in the car.
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By KULTULZ - 3 days ago
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Is the car a BIRD and you are having overheating problems?
The condition shown on the BIRD site is years of cooling system neglect. Once it builds to that point, it will be difficult to fully flush without tanking the engine. It will also be in the cylinder heads.
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By MoonShadow - 3 days ago
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If you pull the freeze plugs put a finger in the hole and reach down. You will probably find rust and scale almost level with the hole. That is a collection point in the Y-Block that will only get removed if the engine is stripped down and having the bare block cleaned and flushed. First go through the rest of the cooling system to make sure its efficient. There are a lot of Y-Blocks on the road with the water jackets full of rust that still run cool. I had my block flushed and added an aluminum radiator with an electric fan. It runs about 160 all the time with a 190 thermostat.
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By RossL - Yesterday
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KULTULZ (5/20/2025)
Is the car a BIRD and you are having overheating problems? The condition shown on the BIRD site is years of cooling system neglect. Once it builds to that point, it will be difficult to fully flush without tanking the engine. It will also be in the cylinder heads.
Yes it's a 55 TBird. It's not overheating, it's vapor locking. The vapor lock seems to follow the temperature gauge once it gets over 200 degrees (not sure of exact temp). I am using an after market CASCO gauge and sender
I've been through the entire fuel system multiple times and I am fairly confident it's caused by heat. I'm in located NJ drove the car last year in 95 degree weather with the AC on without any issues.
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By RossL - Yesterday
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MoonShadow (5/20/2025)
If you pull the freeze plugs put a finger in the hole and reach down. You will probably find rust and scale almost level with the hole. That is a collection point in the Y-Block that will only get removed if the engine is stripped down and having the bare block cleaned and flushed. First go through the rest of the cooling system to make sure its efficient. There are a lot of Y-Blocks on the road with the water jackets full of rust that still run cool. I had my block flushed and added an aluminum radiator with an electric fan. It runs about 160 all the time with a 190 thermostat.
I pulled the 4 plugs. First I flushed each plug opening in the block with a garden hose. Then I connected the hose to the heater hose outlet on the intake (hopefully this cleaned the water routes in the head (??) and ran about 40 gallons of water out the freeze plug holes until the water was clear. After 10/15 gallons the water was very clean. I also used a small magnet and fished out whatever particles I could reach.
Today I will start installing new plugs
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By KULTULZ - Yesterday
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"Yes it's a 55 TBird. It's not overheating, it's vapor locking. The vapor lock seems to follow the temperature gauge once it gets over 200 degrees (not sure of exact temp). I am using an after market CASCO gauge and sender"
The fuel vapor lock/phase separation is caused by excessive engine compartment heat (the BIRD has a very poor engine compartment air flow).
There are many corrections that can be done to have one cool efficiently. The BIRD had design flaws (cooling system) and there are upgrades that can be done to cure them.
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By RossL - Yesterday
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KULTULZ (5/22/2025)
"Yes it's a 55 TBird. It's not overheating, it's vapor locking. The vapor lock seems to follow the temperature gauge once it gets over 200 degrees (not sure of exact temp). I am using an after market CASCO gauge and sender" The fuel vapor lock/phase separation is caused by excessive engine compartment heat (the BIRD has a very poor engine compartment air flow). There are many corrections that can be done to have one cool efficiently. The BIRD had design flaws (cooling system) and there are upgrades that can be done to cure them.
I already have the paragon spacer, high volume water pump, auxiliary electric fan, 6 blade mechanical fan, re-cored original radiator. Something has changed in the car because I didn't have any issues driving in much hotter weather last summer.
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By 55blacktie - Yesterday
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Did you check the timing and the thermostat? It could also be a faulty gauge/sender.
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By KULTULZ - Yesterday
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"auxiliary electric fan, 6 blade mechanical fan"
You have a mechanical and electric fan? Is the electric mounted in front of the radiator? If so, it blocks air flow through the radiator. All of the front sheet metal and shrouding is on the car?
You have the upgraded WP spacer and a HI-FLOW PUMP? Did you rework the volute opening on the front cover? You also need (IMO) a wide mouth thermostat.
The way FORD positioned the WATER TEMP SENSOR on the FYB, it will not give you a true coolant temp reading.
AND, as mentioned above, if you are still running the LOAD-O-MATIC DIST, if defective will cause overheating (poor timing advance).
Is this BIRD a survivor, restoration, resto-mod or just driver?
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By Daniel Jessup - 11 hours ago
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Are you running "gasoline" that has ethanol in it? If so, the boiling point of your fuel is much lower than pure gas would be. If this is the case I have some videos to show the issues firsthand.
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By RossL - 7 hours ago
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55blacktie (5/23/2025)
Did you check the timing and the thermostat? It could also be a faulty gauge/sender.
The car was restored 15 years ago, mechanicals deteriorated due to long storage. The car will be used as a driver/
The car has AC and the electric fan is in front of the radiator and condensor. The electric fan is turned on by the AC "OR" there is also a thermostat in the radiator. It's wired to the battery the fan will run a few minutes after I turn the ignition off.
Timing is fine, thermostat is working fine. The vacuum advance was rebuilt last year.
The opening for the spacer was "cleaned up", per Paragon's instructions. I have an upgraded thermostat with larger opening.
Everything described above worked fine last summer, it was much hotter last summer that it is now........... The car never sputtered or stalled out, something had to change/break from last year.
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By RossL - 7 hours ago
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Daniel Jessup (5/23/2025)
Are you running "gasoline" that has ethanol in it? If so, the boiling point of your fuel is much lower than pure gas would be. If this is the case I have some videos to show the issues firsthand.
In NJ ethanol fuel is very hard to find. I might use a half a tank just to find a gas station that has it. Anything you can share about the subject would be appreciated.
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By RossL - 7 hours ago
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I got all the plugs back in. I had to make this tool to be able to drive the plugs in around the Chassis and Power Steering stuff. There was no way to drive the plugs straight into the block (the plugs are angled). They sell a tool to install the plugs but since I hope to never do this job again I opted to make the tool.
I sacrificed a Socket, 1/2" to 3/3" adapter, and a 3/8 extension. I had to weld it together to keep everything firm when I hammered the plug. Heating up and bending the extension was trial and error. I had to rebend it for the plug over the oil filter. I had to rebend it for the plug over the oil filter. I had to grind down the end of the socket because the plugs compress when they are driven into the block.
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By Hoosier Hurricane - 2 hours ago
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Are you still running last year's gas?
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By Daniel Jessup - 1 hour ago
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This post will help explain some of the dilemma: https://www.hotrodreverend.com/post/2019/07/13/1955-ford-part-81-running-with-the-devil
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By MoonShadow - 18 minutes ago
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Get a set of these.
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