Well that's an interesting point..

I'll see if I can find myself a good timing light. When I did it with a buddy of mine awhile back it was with a crappy dim Harbor Freight light.

if the rad has not bean roded (top tank removed and small flat rodes pushed down the tubes) it is not clean.you would be better off to replace the rad with the aluminum replacements,they are reasonably  priced. most rad shops in bc, only  use sonic cleaning which to me is a wast of money. If the rad is not clean inside,and out side you are wasting  your time doing any other hoped for a cure.
 and yes ford picked a poor  placement for the temp sender,as charley stated,as well only showing temp on 1/2 of the engine.
 so be consistent in curing your issue. good luck

I cured my over heating problem with a smaller pulley. 5-1/2" from a 60's Mustang, chromed ones are on line along with a spacer kit. I just painted it black. The original one on my 56 was over 7".

There is a supplier in Texas that makes a "plastic" 2 piece fan shroud. I bought one and spent some time taking all the flashing and sanding smooth with filler primer. The top fit fine but the bottom hit my power steering pulley. Apparently I have an incorrect power steering pump. It's now a wall hanger. I will say it is a nice piece if you don't mind playing with it. I found out about the smaller pulley at the same time I was working on the shroud. I also have the upper radiator seal and the 2 panels under the radiator to the engine.

My engine takes about 3-4 miles to get up to operating tempature.,Good Luck.

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

dry lakes has good info,but trying to pump more water threw a inefficient rad has marginal effect. new rad good them, sound engine original shrouding no over heating. to many short cuts does not do much but run up the bill. those who are getting big power from there ys of coarse need more cooling. my 47pickup has a alumn rad good for 350 hp, so they say.

My overheating problem was well documented here. It was a water movement at idle that was my problem and I had the best ultra cool radiator from US Radiator. Since my car was 99% in town and high traffic of So Cal I needed a fix and Green Birds here

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

Told me of that fix. Ted came in later and said how any different water pulleys there were because of different climates. For me I'm happy with the smaller pulley and glad I don't run the 6 blade noisy fan any more. I also put a plug in the bypass and then drilled a 1/8" hole in it. Perhaps that's the origami problem here. That bypass with no plug and a 180 * thermostat could help with heating up quicker which is what started this topic...

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

I came incredibly close to getting a new radiator when my old one was off the car. Like so close that I'd won one in an Ebay auction and barely managed to back out of it at the last minute. : \ I would have NO problem upgrading my radiator to a more modern design, just as long as it looked original. But every radiator I seem to find is this chromed out, weld-mark visable ugly looking eye sore! I mean just look at this thing, YUCK

I agree, they aren't very nice visually. I ended up putting one in my 57, I'd rather be able to drive my car then sitting on the side of the road looking pretty. I took a chance and bought one, it isn't chrome its aluminum. I don't put a lot of miles on mine, just hit 8000 after three years and no problems.

Yeah yeah I know. : / That's the big decision. Be totally original and keep your drives short, or get an actual working system and be able to drive as far as you want.. that is unless you wanna shell out $500 dollars for a US Radiator that looks stock..

I guess even the cheapest modern radiator has to work better then and old 50s radiator that's probably kinda dirty inside.. maybe.. maybe the best course of action would be to get a cheapo radiator like that one in the pic. $150/200 one, just to see if it even fixes the issue. Because as it sounds, the radiator may not even be my whole problem.. hate to spend $500 bucks then have the radiator not even end up being the problem. Hell that's why I backed out of getting on earlier, because I thought I'd figured out the overheating was actually being caused by the exhaust valve not opening. Which WAS adding to the problem, but keeping it open didn't totally fix the problem.. just postponed it.

Hey I found this one.. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1954-1955-1956-FORD-SUNLINER-CUSTOMLINE-MAINLINE-CRESTLINE-VICTORIA-RADIATOR-/291531588311?fits=Year%3A1955%7CMake%3AFord%7CModel%3AFairlane%7CSubmodel%3ABase%7CEngine+-+Liter_Display%3A4.4L&hash=item43e0a302d7:g:UKwAAOSwp5JWaZJI&vxp=mtr

It's not completely original looking but at least it's stamped metal and similar looking. I suppose it could also be painted black if it really bugged me enough. What do you guys think? Do you think it'd do the job? Is that a good brand?