1973 F-250 - Turbo BBF - It's off to a new home!

[Beagle]

I'd be curious what 3 gallons of regular old 5% acid content Vinegar (6.00) would do for it after a week or so and a good rinse flush ... flush again with baking soda and a small pond worth of water afterwards to neutralize it. I've been pretty surprised at how well that stuff works on small engine junk (rusted to * gas tanks and the like).

[BBR]

I am going to hang on to this one. If the new one proves to be insufficient, I will see about getting it rehabilitated.

The super cooling radiator is big. It has 4+ square feet of core.

[Deaf Bob]

Take it to a radiator shop and have them rod it out. Remove tanks and clean fin piping.
used to be pretty cheap to get done

[BBR]

Drove the truck back over to the shop. It made the trip without any issues. Temp outside was cool and I didn't hoss the gas to the water temp did not do any thing weird.

Yesterday I drained the water out of it and started looking at stuff. I pulled the electric fan off and that revealed several placed the radiator is seeping. Not full blown leaking, but definitely an indication that all is not right inside. Once the water was drained, I looked in the top of the radiator. Ewwwwww. It would probably cool better is the water could actually flow freely through the tubes. As far as I know this is the original 1973 radiator, so I figure it is due for replacement. I really wanted to replace it with a super cooling radiator like this one. It is huge, 25" x 26" core. Unfortunately there are NONE available. Every site I looked at said "Out of Stock". So I decided to get the smaller 19" x 26" core version. This is the same size core as the 31x19 crossflow radiator that I have had in the 83GT for years. I figure the regular size one will work ok.

[Deaf Bob]

I added some Rislone Super Coolant to it. It is the Rislone version of Water Wetter. I fired it up and let it idle for a long time. Temp sat steady at 179 the whole time.

Then I backed it out of the garage and loaded the converter in 1st 5-6 times pretty hard. Temp slowly started climbing. It got to up to 190 and I put it in park to see if it would recover. No dice. Temp kept creeping up to 205. Outside air temp was ~90.

The Rislone bottle said it might take several heat cycles to get it fully circulated. So I will run it a few more times and see where I am at.

Edit: I just read some tips on 460 cooling issues and will be implementing some of those. Main one is blocking the bypass hose and using a bypass thermostat or a restrictor.

We always cut up a thermostat or used a washer in our derby motors. They get hot too fast without the restrictions... Amazing how it works..

[BBR]

I added some Rislone Super Coolant to it. It is the Rislone version of Water Wetter. I fired it up and let it idle for a long time. Temp sat steady at 179 the whole time.

Then I backed it out of the garage and loaded the converter in 1st 5-6 times pretty hard. Temp slowly started climbing. It got to up to 190 and I put it in park to see if it would recover. No dice. Temp kept creeping up to 205. Outside air temp was ~90.

The Rislone bottle said it might take several heat cycles to get it fully circulated. So I will run it a few more times and see where I am at.

Edit: I just read some tips on 460 cooling issues and will be implementing some of those. Main one is blocking the bypass hose and using a bypass thermostat or a restrictor.

[BBR]

In the 83GT, I did a lot of blocking to make the air go through the radiator instead of around it. I may need to do something similar with this one. Seemed to work well in that car.

I am going to deal with this in steps. First water wetter, Second fan relocation, Third air management, Fourth more drastic measures.

[CTX-SLPR]

Add a close out panel to keep the air form overtopping the radiator on it's way through? Even if it's block direct line of sight, you can still get the air up in there with some management.

[BBR]

A full shroud might work, but space is surprisingly tight up there. You'd think a full size truck would have lots of room, but that is not the case.

[Beagle]

clutch fan? Any chance old age got to it?

/edit - nevermind, I see electric now. The last time I looked it had what looked like a clutch fan on it. I can't find a picture, maybe a full shroud on the electric would help?

[BBR]

I've been driving it on and off around the neighborhood for a few times in the last few weeks. Took a buddy for a ride and ran out of gas of course. Haha. I've been working on the acceleration enrichment to get it to run clean when you roll into the throttle and stab the throttle. It seems to run really good when cold and then the acceleration enrichment seems to be lean once the motor warms up and the warm-up modifiers are no longer in effect.

I drove it for quite a while around the neighborhood today and the temperature slowly kept creeping up. It almost seems like a heat soak issue because the water temp comes up kind of stabilizes for a while but then starts creeping up again as you drive it more it slow speeds. It was at 219 deg. when I finished my drive. It stayed at 170 for a while then started creeping. On the second drive it stayed at 214 for most of the drive then slowly went up to 219.

The electric fan is located on the lower part of the radiator pulling air through the intercooler and the transmission cooler, so I feel like it is just pulling hot air, and the heat transfer isn't as efficient as it should be. The fan doesn't completely cover the radiator and I think I'm going to slide it up where it is pulling air through the portion of the radiator that is not covered by the intercooler and the transmission cooler to see if it keeps the temperature more stable. This upper part of the radiator is concealed by the front of the hood, the grill and the core support so it gets very little air flow anyway.

[BBR]

Drove it around the neighborhood for a while and it behaved itself. My neighbors probably *love* me now. Haha. I richened up the idle area a little and it is much happier when warm. It was trying to idle at 14.8-15.0 which was no bueno. I also leaned out the accel enrichment quite a bit and it ran much cleaner. WOT is still a little on the rich side, but not spluttery so.

It did die just as I turned into my driveway, but it fired right back up, no sweat.

[BBR]

Washed the shop dust off.

[BBR]

With the GT500 no longer in my garage (Jake has it with him at his summer assignment in Mississippi) I decided to take the truck home. I made it almost home when it died at an intersection. Boo. Starter wouldn't spin it over. Rolled it out of the way sort of and waited for Jonathan (JWS4621) to come rescue me. Haha. The tow of shame. Got the truck home and waited for it to cool off but it still wouldn't turn over. Hooked up the jumper cables, waited a bit and it still wouldn't turn over. Monkeyed with the cables a bit, still nothing. Moved the neg cable from the battery post to a bolt on the accessory drive and zing it spun over and lit right off. Parked it in the garage and then moved the cable to the other bolt. Fired right up with ease. I took a closer look at the block where the cable was attached. Yep. Completely painted. Such a rookie mistake. Doh.

[BBR]

Hitch is done. My 1/2" drill destroyed 2 bits and a step bit drilling the frame holes. (Not to mention my hands)

Anyway, it fits as expected, looks decent and it is super solid. There are nine 1/2" bolts holding it to the truck so I figger it will be ok.