Here is a fan shroud on fleabay that would not look out of place.


South Australia

Meteor, I have read much concerning proper cooling, not normally in stock cars. Most of my research is for over 13-1 compression and I do understand what you are saying concerning the research and engineering done when these were built. My father bought a new 1956 Ford Victoria when I was 12 and that car never had any cooling problem no matter what time of year and where we were and we went to the desert a lot. The gauge was always near center and never heated while idling or stuck in traffic. Engine/trans combo in this car is identical to moms. The engine has 4000 miles on it and is stock except for an over bore. It is in proper tune but if you let it idle, the temp continued to go up until it was ready to blow. With the cap off 200*+ with a thermometer not a heat gun came pretty quick. This is when I noticed there was very little if any movement of water. A rpm increase of 200-300 started a water movement and the temp would slowly come down. My wife would ask why did I need to put the car in neutral at a long signal and she started to watch the gauge too; driving for the most part was good but no way would I take on the a freeway and hope not to get stuck in traffic.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

It may be benificiel if you read about heat rejection and the desighn of cooling systems. pushing water threw a rad faster does not increase the efficiency.the water is cooled by going threw in a controled time. Air flow is a major isue. the heat is rejected by air flow threw the rad.even 210 leaving the therm is not harmfull. it is posible your therm is slow to fulley open. that is wher the bypass eliminates cavitation ,the desighn is to keep a constant temp in the engine. my thery is from reading factual enjenering data ,and applying the info in many hot rod builds as well as several y block powered restos. plus 36 years in heavey equ repairs,with lots of heating isues.But if you are hapey with what you have acomplished that is all great .I should try not to be so abrupt and did not try to be rude ,just offer some help. have read a lot of miss info on cooling system cures on this as well as other sites,also some good info, especialy ifo from dyno results,but dynoes usually have huge cooling capacity,un like our old cars

Meteor..I don't believe I screwed it up. The 1/2" bypass is just too much in my opinion. Even after the thermostat opens too much water is bypassing the radiator and continues to heat up the entire system. I have been using a thermo gun the entire time and agree that the back of the head is never as hot as the crossover in front or the thermostat housing. I like the 175* right in the middle of the gauge but before I sped up the water with the new pulley the water would creep up to 200 and continue going up only reving a few hundred RPM in neutral would help. The rad is new and the max cool I could buy. I live a few miles from where they are made and discussed what was best for my use. I read everything I could here and thought of each of the remedies. I don't believe the Ford ever had a fan shroud so that would have been a bandaid too but it was going to look like something that Ford would have done.  As for adding gauges I would just rather not. As long as I know there is no air pockets and what the inside gauge reads to what the thermometer says directly in the water I'm happy. It also has a 7 pound cap which pushes the boiling point up a bit...I shall see as the summer goes on and I cruise in traffic when it's 90* out.....JD 

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

sounds like you have screwed up the design of the cooling system. ther is nothing wrong with 180degrees,blocking the bypas is bad,you creat cavitation,as when stat closed poor circulation  in the engine. i have 2 gauges 1 in the back of the head which always is a few deg cooler.the 1 wher henry put in was never toatly acurate. i drilled and taped int at therm (engine side of therm) on hot day it will hit 200. 200 is not a problem as that area is hotest part. but block the bypass and you realy do not know what the temp is as steam does not activat temp gauge properly. clean rad proper shrouding and fan will not over heat. with air cond you need more air flow in hot humid arias. this is a well discused blog ( just my opinion) buy a cheap heat gun and do your tests it will be interesting. elect guages ar not very acurate.

With all the above I believe I believe actually have my temp gauge/sending unit problem cured.  First the car looked like it heated up in stop and go traffic didn't think it was real but bothered me anyway with the sender bought with the car needle would go past the line aiming at the H. New sender installed read too low for me; 160 was just moving the needle. I remember the 56 we had new and it never had a temp problem. I got the idea to run the engine with the rad cap off and a thermometer in the rad. I would add and remove a piece of card board in front of the rad to assist the engine getting hot and take readings. I noticed especially in gear at idle when the temp on the thermometer was at 180-190 there was hardly any water movement if I put in neutral it would move some but not much; putting the carb high idle on the first spot made it much better and the temp would come down.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Since I mentioned the power steering leak after 2 years all of the P/S problems are hopefully handled. One thing I hate are leaks and the P/S seems to have plagued me for 2+ years. Originally the control valve did not work properly but was repaired when a small burr was found; then minor leaks showed up. The hoses were original or very old so they were changed and less oil was noticed. While doing othe engine work I noticed red oil under the pump when wiped with a white paper towel. So off it came and a new seal kit installed by a brake/steering shop near me. I was hoping the dripping would have stopped off the threaded end of the control valve, in my mind it was coming from the pump and going down the hoses. No such luck.

With a repaired pump the leak was still there. I had bought a seal kit from C & G so I took off the control valve and went back to the same shop to have it looked at. They are able to test all control valves before it's given back. I measured everything and even counted threads too to put it back where it was and now no leaks................:<  

I wonder what will be next....not complaining just wondering...JD

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Don't worry JD, it never ends.  That way you always have something to do and if you pay yourself you'll be rich.


Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

Installed the new one (46 ohms) and it took forever to come off the "C" . Drained down the coolant and reinstalled the original (41 ohms) I put Perm #2 on the top 2 threads just a precaution. Temp gauge stays near the mid range now without much movement and went up as the car heated up. As stated on another thread; reading with a infrared gun the brass on the sender reads about 15* cooler than the the thermostat housing and that's after 20 minutes of driving.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

As a general rule, brass on brass does not need any sealer.  For those applications that are not brass on brass, then I like to use Teflon tape.  By lieu of the tapered thread design of the pipe threads, there will still be some metal to metal contact even when using sealer or Teflon tape on the threads.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)