Well, it's in and running. Drove it around town today and was mostly pleased. After a quick repair of the original BBS accelerator pump (the check ball retainer had become dislodged) and a final application of the timing light it's pretty respectable. Quiet, smooth acceleration, no smoke, smooth shifting, good kickdown, etc.



It starts right up after sitting around, but...it does still have a cooling issue that we can't seem to understand. It starts and then shortly thereafter, it heats up to to the point of overheating. The thermostat then opens and it cools down immediately. We replace the fluids it spit out and then it's fine for the rest of the day. It has to be a bubble of air trapped in the head. We've added all the heater hoses and the heater core seems filled and works very well. I would have thought that by now (several of these cycles) it would have resolved itself but it doesn't seem to be the case. I've read somewhere that removing the temperature sensor should allow for any air trapped in the head to escape. Is that accurate? is there another way to more fully fill the water jackets? Are we missing something?

I would replace the thermostat first thing. It is the easiest thing to do and I have seen new ones that will 'stick'.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

You can also drill a small hole (1/8" or even smaller) toward the top of the tstat unit to let bubbles burp more easily. I have not had this problem, but I would think that would help.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Hello, You Probably Just need to burp the cooling system more to get all the coolant into the engine.

Run it up to temp with the rad cap off.. put a funnel in the rad then fill it while running adding more water / coolant .. if you connect an overflow tank then just fill it up and it will suck out the extra coolant out of the overflow tank too.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Gerg: Thankyou! We're going to run without the thermostat first and then make sure to test anything we put back in it. I will try your filling technique then.

I agree it sounds like a bad thermostat. I don't think I've ever had issues with trapped air in a Slant, but Lou's suggestion is also a good one.

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Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing