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Old 01-30-2019, 10:36 AM   #21
fortyfords
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

In my opinion, my 40 was designed to run 60 mph all day long according to the owners manual and it didn't overheat. But I always felt like it needed one more gear, it would run 70 but there was just so much more engine noise. I had 3:78 rear but determined that the car was made for old roads and was not comfortable on freeways; also with no a/c the windows had to be open and that's noise also from everyone else going 80 mph. So if you want to run freeways and go fast, build a street rod with a/c and have your old stocker for all the fun trips around town and plain just having fun. Those street rods will spoil you rotten when going fast.
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Old 01-30-2019, 08:30 PM   #22
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Overheating and traveling at highway speeds are two different issues. I think the responses regarding overheating have covered that question. Regarding traveling at faster highway speeds, I'm running a set of 4.11 gears, a 49 Merc O/D trans, and 30" tires. The Tonner can cruise all day at 60-65 MPH in O/D with the engine turning 2000-2200 RPM and no heating issue. Keeping up with traffic if that's a concern can be accomplished in many ways - the use of an O/D trans or similar unit being one. If operating at higher speeds is important, the more important question that should be considered is how fast the early Ford brakes and your reflexes will respond in an emergency while operating at that speed. Its one thing to be driving at 65 MPH in direct drive and another to be driving at 65 MPH in O/D. I can attest to the fact that the effect engine compression has on braking is noticeable especially in a panic braking emergency.
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Old 01-30-2019, 09:30 PM   #23
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Temps aside the hands down easiest way to run same speed at lower rpm is increasing tire diameter. Moving away from the 28" dia 6.00x16 to a bigger tire, even all the way up to a 32" dia 7.50x16 or radial equivalent (if you dare) can make a big change in how hard the engine is working. One has to be cautious to not venture too big in the rear and get too much rake because the rear end gear oil will migrate through the torque tube. So make sure what you select doesn't look goofy for your taste and won't scrub the front end when you turn. Short of tires, the 3.54 gears or a mitchell/Columbia are other bolt ins. T5 plus install kit plus new driveshaft plus open drive conversion plus x member modification plus something to control fore/aft rear axle movement is a good deal of effort and expense. You still have to stop it so keep the brakes in mind. The factory Lockheed brakes not designed for today's cell phone equipped drives that like to dart in front of you and stop suddenly...
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Old 01-30-2019, 09:40 PM   #24
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

I guess I assume most understand going faster means stopping faster.


Brakes before power or speed for urban driving.




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Old 01-30-2019, 11:43 PM   #25
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

As many have said your over heating isn't the fault of your RPM at high speeds, u've either got cooling system issues or clogged up water jacket veins in the engine. Having said that, I did what Tinker and JKFORD51 suggested on lowering rpm, bigger rear tires. I went with the modern equivalent of 750 16's 33"dia. replacing the stock 600 16's 28"dia. & reduced rpm by 15% & speedometer reads 15% slower than actual now. Can run at 60 with comfortable engine RPM (Motor not screaming) could easily go faster but won't with mechanical brakes. As Tinker said unless U have dam good brakes and i'll say updated suspension u probably don't wanna go much over 60.
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Old 02-02-2019, 04:31 PM   #26
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The first thing I ask people is, "did it work at one time setup the way it is now"? Has anything been changed from how it left the factory? Do other people have identical vehicles that are not having the same problem as you? If their flatheads are running cool and yours is not, it nots because its a flathead as most people will want to tell you. Its not because it needs a new $700.00 aluminum radiator. You need to find out what has gone bad on your vehicle?

Before we do any serious damage diagnosing it, make sure you have a 50/50 mix of antifreeze to keep the coolant from turning to steam. If you get it hot enough on a road-test to create steam you are going to crack your block. Steam is something like 1600 times the volume of water. 1600 times as water will not fit into your engine, it will try and it will break your block. Do not let an engine get hot enough to make steam unless its powering a vintage train.

Make sure your base timing is set correctly, the advance is working and not stuck and if it has one, check that the vacuum brake is working. This probably has nothing to do with it but timing can make an engine run hotter so make sure it is working correctly.

When you first assess an overheating problem you need to decide if the problem is in the section that created the heat or the section that takes it away? I start with the section that gets rid of the heat. The first thing you should do is check the coolant level. Is it loosing coolant? Where did this coolant go, did it go out the radiator overflow, out a leaking radiator, bad radiator cap, leaking from a hose, is it leaking inside the engine,down the outside of the engine, is a water pump leaking? No obvious sign of leaks, good! Before you fill it up see if you can see the tops of the tubes down in there, see if they plugged full of stuff. The early Fords have that baffle in the top tank between the built in overflow tank and the radiator tubes. You are probably not going to be able to see much down in there same with a GM style crossflow radiator. If you could get an inspection camera down in there you might be able to see the tubes. I don't have one so I've never tried it. Its one of my next tools I'm buying. If you can see junk stuck in the tubes you have probably found your problem.

Another thing you can do is feel the radiator's core preferably on the frontside where there is no fan to take your handoff. If you have an infrared temp gun instead of your hand that would be even better. Do this when you first start the engine, when its cold. If you don't have thermostats in there compare the temperature in the hoses, top tank of the radiator, and the upper part of the radiator core, they should feel like they are warming up at the same rate. If you have thermostats you will need to wait until they open. Sometimes you can feel sections of the core where the tubes are plugged, there will be little or no heat in these spots. Once after everything has been at operating temperature for a while its not as easy to tell if the you have cold spots in the radiator.

Coolant flows from the engine into the top of the radiator. So the larger chunks of rust get stuck in the tops of the tubes. The entire tubes can get plugged solid. You can try back flushing the radiator by flowing water in through the lower radiator hoses and out the top. Stick a garden hose in the bottom with a rag stuffed in there to make a seal and turn it on. Just remember that radiator is only rated for 4 lb.'s of pressure so don't get too carried away. Make sure you have the cap off. The reverse flow "might" unstick some stuff stuck in the tops of the tubes. It really helps if you can remove the radiator and flip it upside down. You'll also get an idea of how easy the water can flow through the radiator without backing up. It probably will not cleanout tubes that are completely plugged. If you still feel like its not flowing good then it needs to have the tubes cleaned out by a radiator shop. It might even need a new core. You need to flush the block out really good while you have the radiator disconnected, or you'll just plug your clean radiator right back up again.

At 60 mph there is more than enough air flowing through the radiator to carry the heat away from the cooling tubes. You could remove the fan and it wouldn't make one bit of difference at that speed. Before you go on a test drive you could also check to make sure you don't have bent radiator fins on either the front or back side and that they are not plugged up with dirt. The air has to be able to contact the metal fins. If the fins are covered in dirt that insulates them from transferring the heat to the air. If you travel on dirt roads the fins need to be gently spray off, don't bend them. It doesn't take many bent fins to block off 10% or more of the air flow.

At work, I found that nine-times out of ten, if the engine would run cool at idle or low speeds but overheat as the load increased the problem was a plugged radiator. Just a couple miles from the shop was an exceptionally steep hill about a mile long that required the gas pedal to by buried to the floor on a truck. With a bad radiator I could watch the temp gauge climb as I went up the hill, as soon as soon I crested the hill the temp gauge came right back down. That was the main test I used to diagnose a plugged radiator.

If you had a head gasket problem, a crack in block, bad thermostat it would "most likely" overheat at any speed. That's not a rule set in stone but "most" of the time I found that to be true.

I did get my butt kicked one time. I had a F-600 overheating climbing that hill. I thought, It has to be a radiator. So I pulled the radiator, which takes two people to lift out of there. I sent it out and had a new core put in it and it still overheated? Then I tried new thermostats, nope? One time durig 30-year's, I saw the impeller come loose inside a water pump. So I tried a new water pump, nope? One time I had a radiator shop use so much solder they plugged the tubes up. This one looked okay in there. It was not the engine. I took it to a different radiator shop with an old-timer in it. He looked right in there and said, "here's your problem, someone installed a core with tubes that are too small". That fixed it and became my new radiator repair shop. So you also need to make sure the correct radiator core is there with correct number of rows of tubes, the correct size of the tubes and the correct number and design of the fins.


You would be really disappointed if you installed 3.25:1 gears. You'd trade away your acceleration for a lower rpm at 60 mph. It might even overheat worse on a grade with 3.25 gears than 3.78s. If the engine was under a load and trying to pull those higher 3.25 gears, you would need to step on the gas further and under a load more fuel and air would equal create more heat in the cylinder. I'm willing to bet that your vehicle cooled just fine at one time with your current gear's and tire sizes at 60 mph.

The low horsepower of a flathead needs those 3.78.1 gears to help it accelerate. Those gears multiply the amount of torque of your engine by 3.78. With 3.25 gears you will be loosing 14% of that torque. You also need to remember how much larger the diameter of Early Ford tires are compared to say a 1965 Mustang. Most of those early Mustangs had 3.25 gears with a manual trans. They can get away with those high gears because of the small diameter tires. The base model 289 V8 also had almost 2 1/2 times the horsepower of your flathead to pull those gears. You need those 3.78s, especially if your getting a load of lumber, drywall or gravel.
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Old 02-02-2019, 04:31 PM   #27
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

It posted it twice so I deleted the second one.

Last edited by Flathead Fever; 02-02-2019 at 04:39 PM.
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Old 02-02-2019, 06:12 PM   #28
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Hi Flathead Fever, My 47 stock engine/rearend overheats when I go any speed over 55 mph or idles for a few minutes. Any ideas what the cause is ? There about 13000 miles on the engine and has done this since I bought this car. I've been running it with no stats and 50/50 mixture of coolant.The dizzy was done by Mr Linder so should be fine. Moe
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Old 02-03-2019, 06:56 AM   #29
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

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Hi Flathead Fever, My 47 stock engine/rearend overheats when I go any speed over 55 mph or idles for a few minutes. Any ideas what the cause is ? There about 13000 miles on the engine and has done this since I bought this car. I've been running it with no stats and 50/50 mixture of coolant.The dizzy was done by Mr Linder so should be fine. Moe
Have you flushed the cooling system?
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Old 02-03-2019, 10:28 AM   #30
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Hi, thanks for the reply, no, I have not but will have to wait for spring as my little garage has no heat. I had given it a quick flush but will have to do a better job in a warmer month. I was hoping for a few ideas of things that I must of missed. Any other things to check ? Moe
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Old 02-03-2019, 10:39 AM   #31
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Dan 1939, does your pickup actually overheat and boil over or does it just run at a higher temp at hwy speed?
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Old 02-04-2019, 02:12 AM   #32
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Quote:
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Hi, thanks for the reply, no, I have not but will have to wait for spring as my little garage has no heat. I had given it a quick flush but will have to do a better job in a warmer month. I was hoping for a few ideas of things that I must of missed. Any other things to check ? Moe

If you don't backflush the radiator, run water through it in the opposite direction of the normal flow. That is to flush it in through the bottom and out the top it won't push that stuff out that is stuck in the tops of those tubes. Most likely it won't help at all but its something you can try for free. That stuff is usually so packed down in those tubes that a radiator shop will need to remove the top tank and run a rod down inside each tube to unplug them. They might not be able to save the tubes and the entire core of the radiator will need to be replaced. Its not cheap to re-core a radiator. Its not much cheaper than buying a new one. If you want to keep the vehicle as close to original as you can then you re-core the original radiator


This is a good video. Watch this youtube video of a radiator with plugged tubes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUeGbvHfGUA

At lower speeds there are still enough tubes flowing to take away the heat. At higher speeds that engine is under a heavier load, there is more air and fuel burning and its going to create more heat. It needs every tube that radiator has to carry that heat down the tubes where it can be absorbed by the fins.

Is this your problem, there is know way to say for sure. All kinds of things can go wrong. If the problem has been gradually getting worse. Most of the time its the radiator getting more and more plugged up.

You don't see plugged radiators as much as you use to on the newer cars. The tanks are plastic with a rubber gasket making the seal to the core. The seals leak between the tanks and the cores before they usually get old enough to get plugged up. They are just throw away radiators. Some people try to fix them but its best to just buy a new one.

Last edited by Flathead Fever; 02-04-2019 at 02:48 AM.
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Old 02-04-2019, 03:45 PM   #33
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

My buddy has a 40 ford son. and had 4:11 gears. I talk him in putting 3:25 and what a difference. At 60 the engine is still quiet not screaming. My 35 pickup has 3:54 and at 60 the engine is dreaming. I don't like that. I have seen two cars with 3:25 and what a dream. We live in the mountains and no problem.
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Old 02-04-2019, 04:12 PM   #34
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Back in the day we ran 5.86 gears with 32 Inch tires. Speed on the back streight away approached 85 MPH. considering the gearing the engine RPN was qround 5k. Crank driven fans were not allowed, For radiators from Chrysler products that AC which were 4 core. Feacher races were 20/25 laps, At the end of the race oue water temp was 210/220 and the oil 230/240. We took a few cool down laps, but that did't help much. At preset I like running my engines 180/200. Seem to last longer run better get great mileage.
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Old 02-04-2019, 09:51 PM   #35
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

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Back in the day we ran 5.86 gears with 32 Inch tires. Speed on the back streight away approached 85 MPH. considering the gearing the engine RPN was qround 5k. Crank driven fans were not allowed, For radiators from Chrysler products that AC which were 4 core. Feacher races were 20/25 laps, At the end of the race oue water temp was 210/220 and the oil 230/240. We took a few cool down laps, but that did't help much. At preset I like running my engines 180/200. Seem to last longer run better get great mileage.
Ron, I always have to chuckle a little at these semi stock engines "screaming" at highway speeds. Don't think many are accustom to non-overdrive transmissions and lower rear axle gearing. These cars/trucks came out of the factory with these gears and ran fine at higher speeds. To me 2500 to 3000 rpm is not that big a deal.
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Old 02-04-2019, 10:02 PM   #36
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

At 5g's for a rebuild. How long you screaming at 3000 on rpms.

I'm a stocker, but run a mitchell just because it bolts in and lowers my rpms on a new rebuild. No harm no fowl, also give me two gears in reverse, hahaha

I'm beting on torque over highspeed rpms.

Thinking ... back 30's-40s people didn't travel more then 50mph on a road that was less then great for more then a bit. Wasn't till the hwy projects of the 50s that OD even came out on factory production. Maybe a coincidence.
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Old 02-05-2019, 12:38 AM   #37
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Tinker, that's not how the folks I have know drove!
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Old 02-05-2019, 01:00 AM   #38
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

i don't know js, I'm sure guys were doing 1200 mile trips at 60 mph the whole trip in the 30s. NY to LA.


But maybe some Families were doing 300 mile trips in the 40s at 60 all day long. I don't know...


In 1920 most people never lived or traveled more then 12 miles from where they were born. If they did it was a venture.

Not that it was the Oregon trail or anything.

Last edited by Tinker; 02-05-2019 at 01:11 AM.
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Old 02-05-2019, 04:31 PM   #39
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

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Wasn't till the hwy projects of the 50s that OD even came out on factory production. Maybe a coincidence.
Overdrive was in factory production cars in the '30s and '40s on several make cars, notably Studebaker, Lincoln, and Packard. Ford first offered it in '49 when they went to open drive line.

Last edited by 40cpe; 02-05-2019 at 05:59 PM.
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Old 02-05-2019, 05:58 PM   #40
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Default Re: Want o go highway speeds ??? Need opinions.

Here in NZ open road speed is 100 km/hr max. So 55 to 60 mph car runs good and stays up with traffic flow. We're just a small country.
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