(1971 ford ranchero. Small block 302 with 4150 and stock internals. Had sat for 20 years when i got the thing) 

Anyone know what the hell is going on?  the thing is getting on my nerves. 

Forgot to mention it was doing this before i replaced the t-stat aswell. 

Also pulled all the plugs, 7 of which were a tan or brown colour and 1 was oil soaked and black... Leaky valve seals? Rings? Head gasket? ill comp test it. There was no evidence water was getting into the cylinders aswell.

How would i even begin to clean the coolant passages in the engine? if thats the issue. Complete tear down i assume? 

 

But sometimes these drain plugs are rusted or corroded onto the block and they can be difficult to remove.

There is also a way to use the coolant system cleaners without removing the engine drain plugs.

 

If the engine coolant psssages are badly rusted and/or corroded, the coolant system cleaners might not help at all.

 

That one spark that is black and oily might be a fouled plug. You can try to replace it with a new or good used plug, and see if it becomes tan colored like the other plugs.

As for the plug, ill replace it. The plugs were replaced 2 years ago, and then sat untill now. Ive recently noticed burning oil smoke out the tailpipe. Not enought to warrant me replacing the valve seals yet. 

Should the water in the rad be dropping dramatically when i open the throttle with the cap off? and then come flying out lol...

 

The hole in the thermostat is almost mandatory on a lot of GM's. The thermostat is the highest point in a lot of their coolant systems. I read years ago about how it frustrated owners and the hole was the solution.

 

 

 

Did some searching and direction is ambiguous. For the pump itself I could only find rotation direction an option for the '65 to '76 352, 360, 390, 427 and 428. I didn't find anywhere where the pump was available in CCW for 302, 400 or any 351 except for '69 when the 351W was CCW with the inlet on the passenger side. Appears the 69 pump can be adapted to other years but the pump needs the '69 timing cover also. Then it gets a bit confusing since it seems whatever was stated about what a year had someone would join in with their exception.

 

The consistent exception was the Merc Marine engines. Engine rotation could be changed for prop rotation when running multiple engines.

 

Anyway, if the Ranchero engine is original the pump should be running CW with the intake on the drivers side.

 

This was nice distraction though from the head gaskets I'm changing right now. Appears whoever else changed the gaskets recently thought torque specs and bolt order are suggestions along with the RTV called for on the intake gasket.

 

Don

 

Agreed. But if the thermostat is closed how well would the pump have to work? With the only noise mentioned being gurgling the pressure doesn't suggest the cause being heat.

 

John, good catch on the hose. I'm usually working on engines that use the direction of heat flow, "hot to cold or hot to less hot," to assist coolant flow.

 

Don

The water pump couldn't be reversed, Im 90 percent sure its the stock one on the motor.   

I mentioned your problem to someone that knows these motors and the first thing he had to say was make sure the water pump and crankshaft pulleys are the same size. The W and C had different sizes because the C was higher reving. Both should be 1 to 1 though.

 

He also asked about an engine swap. In 70 Ford went to a cross flow radiator and the pump inlet went from the passenger side to the drivers side. If your engine is pre 70 it may be plumbed wrong. He added the type of radiator used should match type for engine year unless there is an aftermarket radiator installed. Then if properly matched to the engine differences should be compensated for.

 

Also said was the spring on these engines should be in the lower hose. If the engine runs fine in town but overheats on the highway the spring is probably missing.

 

The vacuum line syndrome.

even though you have water flowing thru the radiator, you may be partially obstructed. I've never made a geyser, revving the engine with the cap off. suction thru the radiator to feed the pump is usually enough to keep most of the water in the radiator. overflowing yes, geyser no.

 

it's absolutely possible to mount a reverse rotation water pump on a std circulation engine. I'm not sure about the passages lining up or not but the big difference is where you can't see it, the blades of the impeller are curved / angled the opposite direction

 

with all the trouble you're having i don't see that removing the water pump for inspection and to verify that you don't have scale blockage is outrageous? take the pump to the parts house and compare the impeller to a fresh correct pump for that engine

 

it wouldn't be the first time, and yeah the geyser is pretty crazy

 

the simplest explanation from way out here is that the pump is moving coolant into the radiator instead of pulling from it .... ?

I dont think its moving coolant into the rad from the drivers side. Because it sucked into the lower hose when i revved it up a bit. and it does come out of the thermostat once it gets hot.

The thing is the car was driven as a daily driver 20+ years ago with no major issues with the cooling system. It was my uncles car when he was my age and he never had problems like this. Im beginning to think there was a lot of air in the water jackets and there is a bunch of scale and calcium built up in there somewhere. The rad has some in it. 

 

I agree with John. If the thermostat is opening and coolant is coming out the cap, coolant isn't getting through the radiator. The 2 options are the radiator flow is blocked or restricted or for some reason the pump is impeding coolant flow. The radiator is the most obvious suspect.

 

The engine may well have blockages but I don't think the engine is your problem unless there is a problem with a head or the block. Your description suggests this happens to fast for an overheating issue specially with the heater bypassed.

 

I was told to asked you about this. Does your car have AC? If it does it should have come with a flex fan and no shroud. The flex fan had issues with throwing blades and no shroud had it's own problems. It was common for people at the time to try their own remedies that were commonly failures. The wrong fan blades and too big or too small spacers were often used. I can't tell you anymore then this but if you have questions I can find out but I don't think this is your problem. Your issues again, happen too fast for this.

 

Forgot this, make sure your head gaskets aren't on backwards. You should be able to see this, square in the front, something else in the back, sorry forgot what. Apparently this is common. 

No AC. 

Im going to take off the rad and pump and see just what the hell is going on. 

 

There also might be a casting number for your engine block down near the starter motor or in the upper rear/back of the engine block near the cylinder head.

 

The casting number might say E7TE-8425-A or D1TE-8425-A or D3TE-8425-A or another number.

Mine is FUBAR and gets timed by ear.

Oh, some of the older ones are on the driver side...

Can't be consistent...

Time to tear this thing apart i say.. New rad and water pump is on my to do list now. 

 

Again, this suggests the radiator can't handle the flow created by the pump. Either the radiator has clogged tubes or it's flow rate is too low for the pump. Since you said there's a history of coolant problems I'd go with the problem being in the radiator. If you can get the casting numbers for the engine and heads this can be easily evaluated.

 

Do you know anyone with a radiator with a row or 2 more of tubes running through it that you can borrow? This may not identify blockage or flow being your problem but it may help to isolate the problem to the radiator or remove the radiator from the list of suspects. With the updated descriptions of your problems the potential for the off the wall possibilities seem less likely but doesn't eliminate them IMO.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP54nqkE9Uc&ab_channel=BreenMachine" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP54nqkE9Uc&ab_channel=BreenMachine

 

Now that you mention it the pulley for the waterpump does look a little bigger than the inner pulley on the crank. But its hard to see. 

Id post a photo on here but im not sure how exactly. 

 

 

 

 

Next you will have to click the post reply button at the bottom left of this post. Do not use the "quick reply" window/option at the extreme bottom of the screen to post pictures. Because it does not have an insert image button.

Next, you will have to click the insert image button at the top of the post. The red circle below is the insert image button.

 

I understand that much of what I wrote has nothing to do with your immediate problems. It has more to do with your comment about the car history with cooling difficulties.

 

About the taper. Look at your video at 15 seconds. The see through blur of the of the running fan blades can be seen right at the top of the screen. The taper, getting smaller is towards the radiator. Typically the taper, a getting smaller profile is in the direction of air flow. I don't pretend to know a whole lot about these cars so what is typical for me may well mean nothing with your car but I would make sure.

 

I picked up George Reid's book on small block Ford's the other day and in it he writes about water pump casting numbers and states to be careful when using them. Apparently there are a fair number of companies the rebuild the pumps to specs that aren't consistent with the original to improve cooling. People do this to keep the original parts on the car while achieving the better specs of aftermarket options.

 

A last reminder, if your car has the plastic flex fan there should be no shroud per Ford, but some say it should anyway. I'm told Ford says no because the angle or pitch of the blades changes with the RPM's and the shroud screws with that. Your car has no air so as I understand it should have a shroud but if the fan came with the engine, who knows?

There we go. Here are some pictures. If ya see somthing wrong pls let me know thanks/; 

Your fan is the right direction for non-serpentine.

I took my radiator cap off and played with my car, and I can't duplicate the Volcano. It will "Burp" a little after the thermostat opens if I open the throttle and then let off hard, but not much.

 

The part number says that the water pump is from a 1977 ford truck such as an f-150, f-250 or an f-350. But as another member said it might have been replaced at some time in the past.

 

spew is a fair description

 

what happens with the cap on & tight?

 

 

i found the conclusion too bad the pics died but what he's describing is that the holes in the block deck surface were blocked with sl*g that he dremel'd through http://www.network54.com/Forum/119419/thread/1065402298" rel="nofollow - http://www.network54.com/Forum/119419/thread/1065402298

Took me forever to get it cleaned up nice. A little scared that the motor might have some spots like this... But ill be able to see it when i take the heads off to do a gasket swap. 

Thanks for all the help guys! 

 

might wanna check the oil screen in the pan for timing gear teeth & valve stem oil seals

 

those may need replacing too