Steve, Based on the fact that the pump works by drawing water out of the rad by centrifugal force, one has to wonder how restricting the output side with the plate would help flow? I got better results on my pumps by closing down the impeller to body tolerances than any other "trick".

However to cloud the issue, John Mummert felt like the plate worked! I don't have a 'Bird so I really don't have anything to experiment on. I do kinda think that Doug thrasher's got a point with the radiator comments, and a fan shield has to help.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

On Thunderbirds there is a open spacer between the water pump and front cover - moves the pump forward toward the radiator about an inch or so. The spacer creates a huge space behind the impeller - makes it spin in a large very open cavity. Destroys any hope of pump efficiency - in my opinion. There is available a stainless baffle that sandwiches between the impeller and the open cavity to try and cut down on the volume of the swept space. Seems a reasonable idea.....

Accounts vary on whether it works or not. CASCO (t-bird parts supplier) has run a test you can find on their site - and the test shows the baffle failed to solve any problems. They got better results by (1) using a free(er) flowing thermostat and further (2) by using a modified pump impeller that sweeps more of the opening in the spacer.

Baffle didn't do anything for my outfit at all - waste of labor and gaskets. By comparison, the larger flow volume thermostat showed a change for the better on my infrared temp gun right away. It also helped instantly to put an orfice in the bypass tube between the manifold outlet and the pump. Cuts down on a huge "short circuit" that allows for quick warm-ups - but then never ceases to re-circulate the max temp hot water.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

312T tell us more about this restrictor plate. How does it work and is it only used on T birds? Thanks.

Mark

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

Before removing the 1" spacer, put a stainless steel restrictor plate between the spacer and the timing cover housing, this plate can be purchased from Hill's Thunderbird Center and others.

312T85Bird

What?

I'll just keep my eye out for something that may work. Dont think my fan is quite that close to the radiator.. mm have to check? Better make sure the front steady rest is solid too if its going to get that close !



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

Talkwrench...On the Fairlanes no fan shroud should be needed if the fan is close (1/2") to the radiator; but I have thought of one for mine, moving the fan back as much as I could.

I have made shrouds for our 1/2 mile dirt Super Stock using a metal circle 3/8" from the fan and half way thru the pitch. I used styrofoam for the pattern with the ring and fiberglassed over it. Other racers who see them say I have too much time on my hands. Other racers make them out of aluminum tapering from the edge of the rad to the fan circle just as my fiberglass ones do. I just can't weld aluminum. A good fabricator can do this with a minumum of welding and making good bends on a box break. If you live close to a good racecar fabricator these guys can do this and probably will like to help.

I have 2 rads for my Fairlane and neither have the tank deflector; something I never thought of....Good Luck

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

Doug, my 1st year at Columbus was 2005. I remember you soldering your radiator that year.

  Dennis in Lititz PA

Like many others with bird heating issues I have tried most of the fixes. One thing I noticed in the course of all these things with my car was a change in the radiator. My car sat in storage for a long long time and when I first restarted it in 2000 it had the original stock radiator in relatively good condition. The car did not overheat then. However sometime later the rad developed a leak and so I had new copper core put in it. When I got it back there was a baffle in the top header tank missing. Since it was fall and there wasn't a problem. However the next summer the car started overheating. As much as I could see the baffle was a horizontal sheet of brass that covered the core under the filler cap extending left and right out of sight. I think its function was to divide the flow coming from the upper right corner and send part of it over the baffle to the left side of the rad.

If someone still has a stock rad it would be interesting to do a temperature profile from left to right and top to bottom when the engine is hot and idling to see how much temp difference there is from left to right.

Doug T

The Highlands, Louisville, Ky.

Removing the 1” spacer that's behind the water pump seems to be the easy fix while using a stock unmodified water pump. This simply requires the fan pulley to be spaced back forward to get the fan belt back to its original location.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

does anyone make a water pump with a decent modern impeller design for the 312 birds?

mine looks like some metal blocks welded on a disk.