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56 per the avatar. 83,000 miles; nothing unusual that I am aware of.

Installed sanden/Mark4 underdash a/c last fall.

Just prior to install had the cooling system professionally flushed and was told system is clean and fine.

A/C uses a large condenser, the better to cool a large car.

Electric fan in front of condenser.

6 blade Packard fan on water pump.

Alternator.

New coolant hoses all around.

Started the unit this spring and it cools the cabin very nicely but the engine seems to run too hot. Gauge indicator sits at high noon, at which point engine pings with any load, as in going up a slight incline.

Running 93 octane from Costco.

Mileage is at 12 or less.

Radiator looks fine, reads 212 degrees all over with pistol lazer thermometer.

Car will overheat if left running, as at car wash. Again, just slightly. This with air off and fan off; somewhat better with fan on, but less than you might think.

Carb recently made a quarter turn richer; no obvious effect.

New 13 pound radiator cap (although it didn't puke before and it doesn't now.) Belts are all three years old or new.

I don't want to be cheap, but I can't throw money at this blindly. I could have the radiator boiled/rodded.

Coolant is old style antifreeze (Shell, if I remember). It is three years old.

Please give this a good thought. Clearly I am missing something, but I can't see it.

Before this saga began car ran cool, but would overheat in hot, very slow moving traffic--like a parade or accident.

You've done almost everything except add a fan shroud. Almost all cars use them today and many mfgs even used them back in the day. Packard never saw the need but I'd be curious if your mechanic thought adding a universal shroud would help your situation. There has to be a lot of inefficiency with the fan being a fair distance away and only pulling air thru the center of the radiator.

Good efforts on your part and good advice from Howard. I hate to be preaching the same mantra, but check to make sure your manifold heat control valve not stuck closed. Also check to make sure distributor vacuum advance is working and that it is not retarded. Try hooking it to manifold vacuum instead of ported vacuum from carburetor.

(o[]o)

I might add a couple of thoughts as well. Try using premium fuel, if your car is pinging. Pre-ignition is the cause of pinging, as well as a mistimed distributor (a pinging engine runs hotter).

Also make sure you're coolant is a 50/50 blend of coolant and water. If you're running 100% coolant, that could result in the car running hot as well. You might think about changing the coolant if it is as old as you said (three years). I hope this helps.

One other thing, adjusting the carb air/fuel mixture, only affects the car at idle. The internal pathways and jets handle the mixture above idle.

You stated that your radiator reads 212 all over -if working properly it should read cooler at the bottom. I would investigate flow through the radiator

Heres what you need. See pic. THEN decide what needs to done. .in terms of the ping i think u need a wakeup call from from 1956 to 2013. Fuel!!!!!!!! However since i ca not here the ping i may be off base. Note that the cooler an enhine runs the more gas milrage will suffer.

In any case you need to know the numbers. Thats what it id all about sooner or latter.
Get rid of the toys. The clock, factory temp gauge, and the buck rogers ray gun.

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IMPORTANT:
A MECHANICAL gauge NOT electric.

Put in a new thermostat last month which seemed to solve the problem for a while.

Soooo....going to replace it first since it's simple and cheap.

If that fails, it's down the list.

Please note that I always use 93 octane from Costco; not regular.

An earlier poster suggested Mobil so I tried a tank (again, the top premium grade). I wasn't sure I would get home it ran so badly. No idea why.

What is a mechanical gauge?