It's time for a new pump. Take the radiator to a shop and have it cleaned out, I'll bet many of the tubes are plugged and a flush with a garden hose is worthless.

you have some real isues with rust and erosion ,the inside of the block will look the same.ther is a remote posibility you could clean the block with a mixture of muratic acid and water mix. leave it for a few days to work. becarfull ,use ruber gloves and gogles.rad is probebly the same.. my guess is you will need to remove the engine strip it and have it hot tanked.also look at front cover eaten up wher water flowes. looks like a case of years of running with no anty freeze and hard water.

I don't know. Obviously I can't see inside the deep parts of the engine. But I've seen a lot of the water passages in the upper part, inside the intake manifold, in the cylinders when I had the heads off.. and this is the first place I've seen this crud. Even that crud that's in the intake pipe, it's only around the first couple inches inside and then it clears up. Here's some pictures of what the water jackets in other parts of the engine look like, they're pretty clean.







Inside the intake manifold ^^^^

block looks ok,tho crud usualley gathers on the outer arias of the block,just remove core plugs to be sure,ther ar ruber expanding plugs so it is easey to replace core plugs.

Half-Dude - this business of finding the pump iron to be much more corroded than the actual engine block, has to do with the chemistry of the iron used for casting each. The blocks are much harder. Your photos don't look too unreasonable to me for an ancient engine block - and many of us are running them "as-is". Tanking is a choice reserved for " total rebuild -as new" - not the usual, work in place - get'er running deal we all get faced with sooner or later.. 

Yes - see if you can round up a newer water pump - you are wanting a cleaner newer impeller for sure (and a fresh shaft seal). I have found that there are several versions of the impellor around - some have more or less vanes in fact, just depends on who made the replacement parts (Ford vendor or others). We've discussed the thermostats before - I believe the right part number at NAPA is a "#6" - which gets a 170º opening model - with a 1.50 poppet opening. Also - look for a set of the "truck" intake manifold gaskets - the exhaust cross-over passage has a built-in shim steel restriction - it helps reduce fuel percolation problems from a "hot shutdown" in summer weather.

When she is back together, consider running the engine with a big dose of white vinegar for awhile. The acidic solution will really release some gunk - keep changing the water. And flushing - and re-dosing with the white vinegar.




 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

So I got some more inspecting done on the Ford.
I got to do some compression testing, I'm a bit underwelmed about the results, most of the cylinders are only getting about 110 to 120 pounds of pressure. But they all seem mostly uniform so that's good I guess.

Here's the real kicker though, it looks like the intake pushrod on cylinder 5 feel off the lifter and wasn't opening, or intermittently opening the valve. I'd just done a valve adjustment on the engine before it started smoking so maybe that was what was casing the smoking.

That can cause smoking.



Lawrenceville, GA

So I've heard. Though I myself don't understand how. It's good to hear though.

I haven't heard of the vinegar trick before, and not to hi-jack this topic what will this exactly clean out?  I thought of doing the acid and water mix on mine since my new rebuilt radiator is already starting to get chunks from the block in the top of the radiator from months of running it and looking at cleaning the whole system out safely without damage to other parts especially the new parts I have.

1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

It's another approach to the acid trick, just less harsh. It will loosen/dissolve rust and whatever else the acid in the vinegar can attack. Be sure to neutralize any acid or vinegar remaining in the system with baking soda when you're through flushing.