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head gasket leak??

Not familiar with a 37 but could it be your radiator cap? Some radiator filler necks are longer, deeper, than others. I had the loosing water on my 52, made sure I got the long reach radiator cap, still did not completely fix the problem, so cut a round o ring from inner tube to fit in the radiator neck ledge, this now sealed from the radiator cap bottom the the inside neck of the radiator. Not sure all of the parts names so hopefully not to confusing.

2 quarts in 50 miles is not anywhere near normal. Its going somewhere. If its not going up in smoke(steam) via the exhaust, and not going into the oil, then it has to be "leaking" out.

1. overflow system must be validated. somehow duct tape a water bottle and see if its coming out the overflow.
2. I am not happy with bubbles in the radiator flow. That suggests to me air is entering the system, we can speculate as to how/where - but the fact remains that air is forcing displacement of water. Now I am NOT NOT NOT advocating actually testing what I am about to say..what happens if the car is driven more than 50 miles? If I understand correctly, it overheats until more coolant is added. OK, maybe so, but does the coolant level continue to fall? Probably. If so, its as noted by myself and others - its going somewhere.

Well, stop after 25 miles and report finding. Could it be coming out someplace weird, like the road draft tube? I don't think so, but...

Oh, and as for the 38 engine, lets presume for a moment that the waterpump is good...and yes, the 38-later pump is much less likely to be bringing in air. And yes, the impeller is of much different/better design than the 37, so I'd otherwise say this is good.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and help. I will test to see if all the anti freeze being lost is coming out of the overflow tube. I will also check the road down exhaust tube as well.

Given that the test for exhaust gas in the radiator has come back negative could the new water pump that was installed 2 years ago be entraning air but not leaking fluid out? There had ever been and fluid leaking from the water pump. I have had this issue of loss of radiator fluid since getting the car from my deceased grandfather.

I know that one person mentioned this. That would explain why the bubbles in the radiator are not coming back positive for exhaust?

Should I give replace the water pump over replacing head gasket?

Thanks

Looking at the froth in you radiator I would flush your system before doing doing anything. There area few posts on using oxalic acid (OA) for flushing your system and how to neutralize it. Good stuff. Du-pont use to sell a kit. You can buy OA on the internet for ~$20 a lb. You'll need some sodium carbonate or sodium bi-carbonate to neutralize the OA. Make sure you flush without a thermostat in the system.

tolandis - It looks to me like he is using the '37 style radiator which is non-pressurized. It uses a plain cap and not the kind used in pressurized systems. Still, it was a good suggestion.

I wasn't sure if it was pressurized or not. But I know from the 4 or 5 older cars whose cooling systems that I have flushed with OA the average person would be amazed at the junk that comes out after the OA has been circulated in a hot system for 20 or so minutes.

Good afternoon...I like the idea that the water may be going out the overflow and I like the bottle to find out. I do wonder, however, if the radiator might have several clogged tubes or tubes that were plugged because they were leaking...if that is a possibility, then the power of the water pump might well be forcing water out of the overflow. A heat gun might be used to look for hot and cooler areas in the radiator. A strainer in the upper hose might show if the engine needs a good flushing...I have seen plugged radiators cause these sort of overflow problems...Ernie in Arizona

I filled up the radiator yesterday and drove it about 20 miles. I didn't try to catch the fluid coming out of the overflow tube, but today I did take these pictures I didn't add or drain any fluid. I feel the loss of antifreeze is getting worst. Is all that debris plugging the radiator? The radiator is newly cored 2 and a half years ago. I didn't have the engine water jacket cleaned out. My grandfather might have done that 26 years ago. Is this my issue? Plugged passages preventing the radiator fluid from going down the radiator bubbling up and going out the overflow tube.

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Does appear a cleaning of the cooling system might be in order.