The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 over heating

OK, here's the situation. 53 Chevy 1 ton with a 59 235 with hydraulic lifters. Don't drive it much, but today I took it out for a short run (like 10 miles). Going out no problems, ran nice. Of course I was only going 10 MPH. If you saw my roads you'd understand. When I finally got on the blacktop, it seemed to be running weak, wouldn't get up to speed (which is about 45 MPH.Turned around and started home, and it was running pretty rough. Finally about a mile from home it died. Steam coming out of the overflow tank, bubbling and gurgling in the radiator, no gas in either the fuel pump or the fuel filter. Certainly vapor locked! I walked home, which took about an hour with my bad hip. Got a couple of gallons of water, a gallon of gas (just in case) and went back up. It took about 1/2 gallon of water to fill the radiator, there was gas in the filter and pump, and she fired right off. Drove it home and parked it.

This is the second time something like this has happened. The first time I fussed with the timing and it cleared things right up. I am concerned that the points might be slipping somehow. Also I have the water pump in the original low location, which might be a problem. And finally, both times it happened it felt like the parking brake had locked up. Plus it was over 90 with high humidity.

So, any ideas, suggestions? I do have an electric fan I could mount in front of the radiator, which might help. Is it possible to swap to the other water pump (with the special plate) without having to pull the engine? And if my roads are shaking the rear shoes loose, how do I keep them in position?

Tim

Are you running water or antifreeze in the rad?

Could be the position of the fan, or a fan that is too far from the radiator, lack of antifreeze. But there is one item you might check first. Check the timing. A retarded ignition setting can cause overheating. The bolt holding the octane selector plate may have come loose and you are anywhere between 1 and 10 degrees retarded. You probably want to be 2-6 degrees advanced with today's fuel, sometimes you can get away with a little more. So ideally you want the octane selector at 0 (center the 0 mark on the octane plate with the hash mark on the distributor pad), tighten down the bolt, and then set the timing to factory specs and see if that helps.