74 maverick grabber. frustrating over heat problem!

Okay here we go. They flushed the motor this morning and Dave said the flow of water coming out of the block wasn't good. They shot some pressurized water and what came out he said could only be described as gritty brown muck. Dave said that might have migrated into the old radiator as well. That would make sense as to why I could drive it around town but not at high RPM. He did say he was concerned about the rear brake line that runs across the rear axle so I told him put one on and I want a separate temperature gauge under the dash and not just a light. Tomorrow they are going to test drive it, make sure it stays cool and call me..... Hopefully.

 

"Fingers crossed"...

 

is fan pulling or pushing air?

 

Pulls air through.

 

Nobody asked if compressed air was put into the cylinders yet. bubble out the rad when done? cracks in theengine block or heads.
it was "slapped" together.

 

Yeah it was tested before the new radiator was put in. with and without (headgasket check, which didn't matter I replaced those) pressure. There was also no sign coolant had made it into the cylinder. They were spotless as were the chambers and spark plugs. I wouldn't necessarily say this motor was "slapped" back together. At least not from scratch. The rotating assembly was together as were the heads and timing gear. It just needed put back together and he did it quickly and while dying so I give him a pass. He'd been an mechanic with my grandfather since the 60's.

 

Did you take the heads into a machine shop when they were off and have them pressure tested?
Remove rocker arms and fill the cylinder with 150 psi of air. Check for cracks that way, with the cylinder heads on.

 

I forgot to respond to you on this, sorry. This car isn't on its third motor because of overheating. The other two were different issues. The original motor the 302 was full of thermactor emissions and someone tried to stick the Thermactor valve open with a ball bearing, which got sucked into one of the cylinders and made a "pinging" noise to the point I pulled the head and found about 1,000 dents in the top of a piston and a small BB buried into it (kept the piston). The second motor was a used one I had from another car, it was a 289. I dogged it for a summer cause I knew it was a very high mileage motor and it was just a place holder for the one I was having built for it, the one in it now.

 

No I didn't take them to a machine shop. They looked extremely clean when I had them off. I know that doesn't mean anything. I am not sure if the shop I sent the car to did. I am going bock over monday to see it while I'm out I will ask. My friend who built the motor had 50 some years of experience, I would at least like to think he checked them. The shop did say there was restriction in the motor, and when they blew it out a gritty muck oozed out.