New guy-over heating Florida

[cocoaed]

Ok, so I decided to take Sid's advice and put in longer bolts for the fan blade, locking up the fan clutch. I don't want to take the chance of it not working and here in Florida, we need all the cooling we can get.
Anyway, I messed up on one of the gaskets so I did not get it put back together today. Making new gasket, will finish in the morning.
Can anyone tell me what the torque should be on the nuts of the thermostat housing? I'm guessing 20 pounds but, I have no idea.
Thanks.

[cocoaed]

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE TORQUE SHOULD BE ON THE NUTS FOR THE THERMOSTAT HOUSING?? THANKS!

[notoptoy]

I don't know a torque value, but 20 pounds seems about right to high. I usually go by feel with these, as long as you are even you should be good, and they don't need to be muscled down by any means.

[Skyman]

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE TORQUE SHOULD BE ON THE NUTS FOR THE THERMOSTAT HOUSING?? THANKS!

I don't see any torque settings for that particular part, but if it is aluminum, 20lbs may be too much. I don't think they would require much more than 15 lbs if the gaskets all seal correctly. The experts may chime in.

[cocoaed]

Well, got it all back together yesterday. I was afraid to over tighten it so, I just "snugged it down". That was a mistake. Started it up and it leaked like a sieve! Took it all back apart and added another layer of gasket sealer to both the top and bottom gaskets (had to make my own as I didn't wait for the snail mail to bring me some).
That plus cranking it down seemed to do the trick.
--Ed

[cocoaed]

HEY EVERYONE! I FINALLY GOT THE CAR BACK ON THE ROAD YESTERDAY! No more overheating BUT, I'm still not convinced I don't have a head gasket leak. Still trying to determine that. Another question; The car is very easy to start when cold but, once it gets hot & is shut off, its then very hard to get started again. What would that indicate? Thanks for all the tips and advice, you guys are great!
--Ed

[notoptoy]

Sounds like a possibility of vapor lock. Where is your fuel line laying and also do you have the heat shield in place between the carb and the exhaust manifold?
You should still try to get a leak down test and a compression test to rule in/out the head gasket issue.

[RobertAuclair]

Awesome news for you, the clutch just went out in mine. Hopefully just needs to be refilled and bled.

[spl310]

Bummer on the clutch Robert! Let me know if I can help.

[Gregs672000]

HEY EVERYONE! I FINALLY GOT THE CAR BACK ON THE ROAD YESTERDAY! No more overheating BUT, I'm still not convinced I don't have a head gasket leak. Still trying to determine that. Another question; The car is very easy to start when cold but, once it gets hot & is shut off, its then very hard to get started again. What would that indicate? Thanks for all the tips and advice, you guys are great!
--Ed

You should be able to go to an auto parts store and rent a chemical sniffer that will check for hydrocarbons in your coolant, indicative of a blown head gasket.

[pebbles]

pull a spark plug and check for rust.
As far as starting hard when hot, the fuel pump diaphram may be shot. or the valves may be too tight and you dont have enough compression.

[cocoaed]

Well guys, after weeks of working on it, I'm still having overheating problems! I'm running the original fan direct, I eliminated the clutch fan. Had the radiator recored. Flushed out the whole system, including the heater core. I borrowed a good pressure tester from Auto Zone, pumped it up, it held 7 lbs pressure overnight (12 hours!). Put in new 180 degree thermostat (could not find a 160 that fit). I put on a new fan belt and made sure its nice and tight. At first I tried running just straight water since I wanted to make sure I didn't have any leaks and I didn't want to waste antifreeze since its now $11 a gallon. It seemed to run fine and did not overheat. But then after a few people told me it would ruin my water pump bearings to run straight water, I drained the radiator and added 50/50 coolant. NOW IT IS OVERHEATING AGAIN!!! DAMN! I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT! I can only drive it for about 15 minutes and then it gets up to around 200 degrees! I'm wondering if it could be the timing? It doesn't overheat if I stay at low speeds (under 50mph) but, if I push it to 65mph or more, it overheats quickly. The engine "pings" a lot when I accelerate hard and "diesels" when I go to shut it off. Does that mean the timing is off? If so, what is the timing supposed to be set at and is there a way I can aproximate since I don't have a timing light?

[tjp]

If you are pinging, then your timing just might be out.

You can also over heat, very easily, if you are running too lean (sorry, don't remember if your covered this or not).

Your timing will be determined by whether you have points or an EI dizzy. (I have an EI dizzy and do not remember what the timing should be for a stock dizzy.)

Did you ever rent a chemical sniffer to check to see if you have a blown head gasket?

Do you have a shop manual? Scott Scheeler's set is great. It is full of it,,,,er,,,I mean full of GREAT info. I have two copies of the first two parts: one for the shop that can get dirty, and one for the house (including part three) that stays clean.

tim

[sfdaugherty]

Did you remember to "burp" the system when you added coolant? It's a step you need to do on a 1600 to get the air out of it. There are a number of threads on the process on this forum.

Shannon

[cocoaed]

If you are pinging, then your timing just might be out.

You can also over heat, very easily, if you are running too lean (sorry, don't remember if your covered this or not).

Your timing will be determined by whether you have points or an EI dizzy. (I have an EI dizzy and do not remember what the timing should be for a stock dizzy.)

Did you ever rent a chemical sniffer to check to see if you have a blown head gasket?

Do you have a shop manual? Scott Scheeler's set is great. It is full of it,,,,er,,,I mean full of GREAT info. I have two copies of the first two parts: one for the shop that can get dirty, and one for the house (including part three) that stays clean.

tim

Tim, I think the car is running very rich because it goes thru gas very quickly and the plugs get black pretty quick (not an oily black but a dry, sooty looking black).

The car has been converted to electronic ignition so no points to worry about.

I didn't rent a chemical sniffer but I did rent a very nice pressure tester. I pumped it up to 7lbs and it held the pressure all night. Wouldn't that mean no head gasket leak? Also there is no sign of water in the oil when I check the dipstick.

No shop manual yet, I need to get one.

Shannon, I tried burping the system but, perhaps I'm not getting all the air out. It seems that if I overfill the overflow tank, it would suck in the extra water need when it cools down and eventually level out, no? I've never had a car that was so hard to get the coolant system just right. As I mentioned earlier today, I think I finally had it all good when I was running straight water but, as soon as I drained the radiator and added antifreeze, then it began to overheat again. ARGG!
--Ed