Roger,

One of the problems with our 'birds is getting the air out from under the hood. In a parade, many pop the hood open. I've done that stuck in traffic, and even from behind the windshield you can feel the heat hit you on a still day. Some headers make that worse, putting a supercharger or a/c unit makes it worse. But you can still control it if everything is up snuff. Hotter than you'd like, but inside my limits.

The high temp thermostat was probably for extreme cold. You really needed the heater at 20 below.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Nice, I like the back and forth discussion. I have one thing to add.

I've got a reprint of the original service manual. In the part for Thermostats it lists two a normal and a hot setup. Normal opens at °180 and hot opens at °200. Now if °200 were too hot for those engines why would the book even list a thermostat that hot in the first place?

The other thing I"d add is to go buy an inexpensive infrared thermometer. I've got a couple of them, and mine have read within a degree of a really expensive Fluke. The won't take a beating, you have to take some care with them. But it will tell you the temp at the tstat housing, top tank, bottom of radiator. Let's you know where your in car gauge is really reading.

Typical examples at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_1_7?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=infrared+thermometer&sprefix=Infared%2Caps%2C262

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Sorry to disagree - but I do...... my Thunderbird - in good mechanical condition runs 100º-105º over ambient ( right down to the thermostat setting). On a very typical summer day here - 105º ambient - that's 210º. That was probably getting up near to lubrication trouble in 1956 - but not in today's oil formulation. If the coolant mixture is correct - and the pressure cap the same as OEM spec - I'd say the internal conditions are still physically within the OEM design pressure parameters. If there is circulation reduction (or gunk in the block or radiator) - different story. 

What none of us wants is a "boil-over" where the amount of flowing coolant is being suddenly and drastically reduced. It might be HOT at 210ºF but at least the cooling system is still working on rejecting the heat and not losing its fluid capacity. If you need to stop driving and let the cooling system do its thing to drop temperature - you can do it.  
 

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I think its true that most of our vehicles were heat resistant in their "as delivered" condition - but now 60 years have passed. the blocks and heads are rusty - and many radiators full of gunk and water deposits. The older "load-o-matic" distributors are tired and often will run the engines with retarded spark - a very common problem (pre 1957). There are "modern" parts that are not the equal of the originals too........... One fellow that visited here had the impeller nearly rusted off the water pump.

You replaced the thermostat? Well known difficulty here is the small port t-stat that doesn't flow as much water as an original. The outlet from the block is 2 inches for a reason. Cheapie manufacturers put a small poppet in a sheet metal disc - and you lose 25%-50% of circulation flow - even when it is wide open.
This isn't the one you want.....this is a one inch port - and its relatively easy to find a 1-1/2 inch port.

Another idea that has worked well for others - dose the engine with white vinegar or a similar (made for the purpose) acidic cleaner. Try to get the easiest of the corrosion mineral deposit gunk to come free and be able to be flushed out. I'd try several doses of this before I gave up. Getting a good flush of the system is a worthwhile effort. Do this before you rework the radiator........ 

I took my radiator out and to a local expert - and living in the desert - there are some fellows here (Tucson) that can get them cleaned and properly soldered. You need to find a pro radiator shop (Ramone's here in Tucson is recommended for locals), When I mentioned using a lower pressure cap - they looked at me like I was crazy - pressure suppresses boiling, about 2.5º per psi. When the ambient temperature here can reach 120º (freeway in Phoenix) you need every edge. I run a 13 psi cap - no problemo when the parts are in good shape.

Properly mixed  anti-freeze / water mixture suppresses boiling too.... chemistry can help you a lot if you let it. The 50/50 mix - plus a 13 psi cap makes boiling in my t-bird occur at 238º. That's an 18º margin on the Phoenix freeway - hard to pass up. 





 

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Well thanks, glad we can discuss it without an argument. I've been on the internet long enough to know how emotions can get misinterpreted through text. I know you're just another car lover, and it must be painful to think of a perfectly good Y-block being abused somewhere.

I honestly was alarmed by the steam, but I just kept being told that it wasn't a big deal. Plus we were stopping for at least an hour or so at a time. I was just hoping I could keep her below the red-line with the repeated stops.. evidently not.

The car is totally original, all I have are the factory dummy gauges which as you know have no numbers on them at all letting you know what temp is what on the thing. To add to that, every time I look up things about the gauges I'm told how notoriously inaccurate they are leading me to wonder if the gauge just reads on the high end which a lot of people said theirs does. I have a new aftermarket gauge cluster but it needs to be installed, I think that will be my next project. As for water, I could have asked for water, but then again I'm weary of putting tap-water in my coolant system. I guess in that case it still would have been better, but when we were at the restaurant I don't think the coolant was that low yet.

Some good news: I checked the rockers and the engine is oiling, and like I said the light was on because of wiring problems. I got a new 7 pound radiator cap and on another drive today going about 20 miles there and back. The temp guage stayed a bit lower, right around below the H. I have no idea what temp that means on that gauge, but it is lower then it was and when I got home there was no steam or dripping from the overflow and no gurgling or bubbling sounds of any kind. I'll be doing a full T-pipe water flush of the system soon here.. if that doesn't do anything especially after having  been running cooling system cleaner in the system for a couple days now.. I don't know WHAT to try.

Which is true, it didn't come on until then, or the conditions to make it come on happened over that night such as the hot block melting its way through the wire cover. Regardless the thing I corrected you on wasn't even related to that, you mis-read that I had to fill up my radiator that morning which was false.

Look I don't know where this attitude comes from, I'll just assume I'm getting the wrong inflection from you over text, but don't go thinking that I'm some irresponsible jerk who uses and abuses his cars until they die, then moves on to the next one. I love my car, I love all my cars, I may even care about them more then most people I know! I don't know what gave you the impression this is an issue I'm taking lightly but you're wrong. This issue has been on my mind basically all day every day since the issue happened, and if you want to know the truth. I was alarmed by the steam between stops, it worried me a lot! But I had a seasoned mechanic friend with me who didn't worry, so I didn't make a scene. Plus we were in the middle of nowhere, at a restaurant for a cruise night. What was I supposed to do?

One thing to remember, almost all the block and head passages may have some rust or corrosion. I've had heads that took repeated tanking to get even close to clean. A lot of us fight cooling problems, hence all the info on pulleys, bypass restricters, better fans, etc. I'm not so sure these motors weren't marginal when new, depending on ambient temps, traffic, altitude, etc. I'm glad it seems to be coming out ok for you.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

The bolt pattern is very common.  A pulley from any other application, Ford, GM, Mopar, etc with the same pattern and the same or slightly deeper offset can be made to work very easily.  That gives you loads of off the shelf options down to about 5.5" diameter.



Lawrenceville, GA

I changed the Water Pump Pulley on mine to One which is 6 7/8 Diameter instead of the original 7 1/4 Diameter Pulley. Does anyone know of a smaller than 6 7/8 Diameter Pulley from another Application or Stamping # which will fit the Y-Block? I don't see One listed in the Ford Parts Catalog smaller than 6 7/8 as an original Application.