Re: Recent bought 1936 Club Sedan severe overheating???

Posted by shinyhubcap On 2016/10/12 11:29:27

OVERHEATING disc., cont:

By the early 1920's, cooling system engineering technology (well...maybe not so much in the cheaper mass production cars) had advanced to the point where a properly maintained automobile is not capable of over-heating.

For example, the predecessor of the GreyHound Bus company used "stretched" Packards to regularly beat the express trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Even in summer, with the burning heat "climbing the Grape-vine" and tearing across the Central Valley of California.

So what's the problem ? Will even a properly maintained Packard over-heat today ?

Yes - There is a problem that many restorers miss. Simple chemistry.

You can "boil out" and "rod" a radiator till you are blue in the face. But there comes a point at which the tube walls cannot conduct heat away from the water the way they were originally engineered.

Packards, especially the "Seniors" from the 1930s that did not have thermostats in the water line, are UNDER-cooled; hard to get them to come up to operating temp. That fantastic shutter mechanism allows too much air to "bleed thru" the shutters even when closed.

The answer...a NEW RADIATOR CORE ! PROPERLY "sized" for the application. Modern radiator cores are even more efficient than what your Packard had when new.

So - first go thru the "check-list" reference material provided by others in this "thread". Once you have removed the water-jacket plates and ruled that, and the other questions out, you know what you have to do !