Reply To: coolant in a 12

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Hello Doug, all the above advice is on target, all the mentioned items can and will cause your engine to run hot..

But the major item in the cooling system has been mentioned, but only in passing: the Radiator.

These old engines produce a lot of rust flakes from the cooling passageways, these rust flakes are usually too large to go through the radiator’s core/tubes… so they sit in the top tank of the radiator, blocking the free flow of water to the cooling tubes..

And, the waterpump grease: it gets washed into the cooling system, it’s liquified by the engine heat, but then cools, solidifies and sticks in the cooling tubes of the radiator, clogging the radiator.

So between sticky waterpump grease in the radiator and the inevitable rust flakes, you most likely have a significant amount of restrictions in your radiator.

So, I’d recommend reverse flushing your radiator to rid it of the accumulated rust flakes in the top of the radiator, and plan on having the radiator out and cleaned professionally if you continue to have cooling problems.

The amount of cooling from a brand new radiator is just enough for hot driving, so if you have any other problems, the radiator cannot keep the engine cool.. It just doesn’t have enough capacity unless everything is clean and flowing well.

Hope this helps..

Greg Long