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Found a shop who can flow test the radiator, so I pulled that out Friday night. It was quite a bit easier than I thought it would be!

1. Drain coolant.
2. Remove hood, and hood support rods. You may have to flex them a little to pull them with the front clip bolted up. Watch the paint!
3. Remove upper radiator hose and thermostat housing.
4. Remove fan, water pump pulley, belt, and water pump.
5. Remove large nut from underside of car, remove 6 small bolts holding radiator to radiator frame.
6. Grasp the radiator upper tank, angle the top back, and pull up.

I used some moving blankets to cover the fenders and grill. I think I had less than an hour in the job, but I've also had the water pump off and on several times in the last year, so I'm getting pretty proficient.

I also pulled the water distribution tube again. Still clean, but there was some sort of warning label in the very last hole! The tube was checked clean about 8 months ago, so not sure where this label came from. Wonder what else is flowing around in my cooling system???

While I have the radiator out, I'm going to make an adaptor that will let me hook up a hose at the rear block drain and the heater hose connection, and back flush the block out of the thermostat housing and the block. I'll flush through each outlet individually, then both together. I may run some more evaporust through just the engine as well, depending on how long the radiator shop takes, and what a visual inspection reveals. I bought a small camera, so I'm going to try and inspect the block via the water distribution path.

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Hello

First a comment and then some questions as a new member to the forum.

Comment: Your two '37's in the garage, I like that picture. I have a 1937 115C, it has the "Six" emblem on the trunk lid, I see some with it and some without. It seems yours has it---maybe it was an option back in 1937??

Questions:
I am updating the doors, I would appreciated anyone commenting on the following:
NOTE: I have some new rubber parts from Steele
-Is it advisable to remove the front door? (seems prudent to get at the door seal on the front face of the door) Someone had glued a seal on, where it seems the factory intent is to use the welded on channel with no glue--right? With unique seal type across the bottom and another one piece covering the other 3 sides??
-I have a new vent seal---no issue so far
-The rear glass run is rigid and straight from upper rear corner to the lower end down inside the door near the latch, right?
-The front glass run behind the vent window is also straight and rigid from the top of vent window down inside the door, right?
-The seal at the top of the glass is what? It seems to have none--is that the factory intent? If there is a seal , is it glued in??
-The horizontal seal along the bottom of the glass opening is what? It seems like it might be accomplished by the seal that holds the bottom edge of the glass in to the channel on the window regulator, true>? Someone on this forum suggested black silicone as a modern day solution??

Any comments appreciated!

(1937 115C 1082 Touring Sedan, good paint, very low rust, needs to glass and seals)

Thanks for the kind words! Wish I still had both '37s in the garage. Unfortunately, that was only a temporary situation.

My 115 did not have an emblem. The emblem you see is on the 120. I don't think '37 115s had a trunk emblem, but I could be wrong on that point.

No data on your weather stripping question unfortunately, but if you posted a question in the pre-war section, there are quite a few experts who may be able to chime in.

Life gets in the way, so it's been a long time between updates.

Got the radiator flow tested. It has good tanks and a modern core. Factory spec is 28-32 gpm; my radiator flow tested at 12 gpm. Thought I had my smoking gun.

Installed a different radiator, along with a freshly rebuilt waterpump, same symptoms: the car is happy and operates at 160-165F at any and all speeds below 45mph. Any increase in speed, and it starts to get hot.

For my load test, in 55F ambient weather, a 15 minute sustained run at 50-55 mph (on the freeway so couldn't go much slower!) resulted in a car that got up to about 200F, and stayed warm until I could park and let it cool off.

I know that one solution would be to never exceed 35mph, but that seems ridiculous, and the car is designed to go faster. Plus, where I live now, and where I am about to move, not exceeding 35mph means getting run over/in an accident or never driving. Not acceptable!

Currently away from home again for work, and getting ready to travel some more, but I have three lines of thought.

1. The car didn't overheat before I fixed the rich running condition. Edit: went back and found this from the summer of 2019 - "Drove to a friend's house, with the whole family (and hood back on!) and she ran just a nudge above 180 the whole way. The drive was in the mid-afternoon with a heat index of 117 and lots of idling at traffic lots. Very pleased. On the way home, nearly the same conditions, except had the headlights on." This was with the heat riser wired open and the car still running rather rich. Fixing several exhaust leaks, which I suspect acted as a sort of "bootleg" heat riser system fixed the rich running condition. Now it overheats in cooler temps at sustained speed. Is it possible that at high speed (i.e. high load) the car is running too lean? Might see if I can get some sort of exhaust gas analyzer setup to test this, or just new plugs and an immediate speed run? Maybe the main jets are the wrong size? The carb was rebuilt a few years ago, and the main jets are sized per the book (looked when I was running too rich, see here:packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... c_id=21997&order=ASC&status=&mode=0) The plugs are a "normal" rich chocolate brown, but my thinking is that the darker color could be from idle time.

2. The new to me radiator also doesn't flow the right amount. It's a new core, but the core is a crossflow type designed for service in heavy and/or stationary equipment. It was built as an experiment to try and obtain better performance than the stock radiator at slow speed/idle conditions, i.e. a parade. No hot weather for stress testing right now, but initial indications are good. To test the incorrect radiator theory requires throwing my checkbook at the old radiator for a re-core, which I need to do anyway, and then re-installing a radiator with the correct core.

3. Something else on the car is causing the engine to work too hard, thus building too much heat. I don't even know where to start here. The oil pressure is fine, no sign of heat on the brakes/hubs/etc, the exhaust system is new within the last five years.... I have no ideas on this line of effort!

... obviously if anyone has any brilliant ideas, or wants to just spitball with me, I'm all ears! ...

In other news, I also replaced the generator bearing (it was original, and started howling) and installed new brushes. The generator bearing is a National 203FF, $8 from my local autoparts store, and I believe may fit most generators. Updated the parts cross reference accordingly. Also put in new brushes, but they weren't exactly a factory fit. The terminal post insulating block failed; I have a temporary repair installed but will need to find a permanent solution. I may re-brush the generator with NOS brushes when I do that, but it's charging just fine for now and the car overheats anyways.

If anyone needs me, when I'm not busy with work, I'll be over in the corner, hitting my head into the wall.

If anyone is following along, one additional point: the recently installed radiator did seem to improve the cooling situation, but it still gets too hot under sustained load.

I did not get the new (to me) radiator flow tested prior to installation due to constraints (out of town for several months for work and getting ready for an interstate move in the next few months!)

Quote:

I'm definitely following, I just have no idea what the problem could be. Maybe it is running a bit lean like you say. I'm following because my car runs on the warm side, especially during the summer. I'll be borrowing ideas from your struggles as I figure my own situation out.

-Kevin

I’ve been following along too just so you know you’re not talking to yourself. My expertise on these earlier engines, though is somewhat faded if it existed at all.

That said and maybe already mentioned, if the engine is supposed to have a water distribution tube, is it there and intact?

Thanks guys! (and sorry for indulging in a bit of whining)

Don, water distribution tube is installed, and verified clean. I've also flushed the block a whole lot and inspected it with a borescope camera - I believe it to be clean.

I've been thinking it over some more - my plugs are chocolate brown, and the carb has the right jets. I'm leaning more towards radiator.

When I get back home in a few weeks, I'll get the original radiator re-cored with an OEM style core, and try again. If it still runs hot, I'll at least know that the cooling system is 100%. Will report back once I know more.

Adjust timing…. Even against specs. See what happens. Had a friend with a corvette that had heat issues…. Adjusted timing different then manual and problem solved and it ran great. Don’t ask me why etc etc.

Hey Hank - I tried that before I dove into the radiator issue! Verified per book, then set per ear, then adjusted a few degrees advanced and retarded. It just ran worse, no change in heating.

After all that was when I started down the flushing/cooling/radiator path.

It's also running well - pulls hard, starts quickly, etc - just too hot - so I think the timing is where it needs to be.