double question (long)

About 2 weeks later, I took it out for some exercise, just to hit a few spots I missed in the pasture and give it a chance to run (as it is at a week-end only place)...started and ran well, but boiled over after about 10-15 min....back to the archives...found several admonitions against filling rad to the top and even against using 100% antifreeze (guilty of both), and probably not water pump since no signs of weepage or noise...OK...back up there this week-end...after watching deserving WVA clip my undesrving Deacons Saturday night, I went out to the barn and started her up...my intention was to watch the liquid (had added about 1 gal or less water after first boil over, but still filled near the top of rad) in rad and see if it started to circulate....after about 10 min...I think it did but immediately thereafter it spit probably 1/2 gallon right out the top....continued running fine for about 5 more min did not add more liquid, no more came out....shut down...it was steaming from the stuff that had got sprayed all over...decided it was as disappointing as the deacons, and went to bed....next morning...one bitty cough and then no start...ether no help...and confirmed no spark at the plugs....juice at the top of the coil...took out distributer...dried it out with haidryer and sitting in the sun...did not do multimeter diagnostics, but points gap was OK and everything looked good and dry...put it back in...still no spark....

Questions: 1) what about this running 3 hrs with no over-heating and now overheating in 10 min (I forgot to say...no water in oil or at least on oil stick)

2) I assume it stopped sparking cause some thing got wet...I guess I'll have dist back off and multimeter check it...but any other ideas as to what should I check first???

Thanks...Rusty

Do you smell exhaust in the radiator? Did you retorque the head after running an hour or so? You might retorque if you haven"t. And remove the water down to the radiator core. And not a cup more or you will just complicate matters because she will spit out any excess and you will imagine it"s "boiling over."

So retorque the head, get the coolant level correct, make sure you release the brakes, and see what happens next time.

I will follow your advice, once I get her running again, thanks.

Check the belt tension. 1/2" movement half way between the crank pulley and generator. Put both hands on the genny pulley and try to turn it. It shouldn"t slip.

Sounds like you aren"t moving air across the radiator when it"s sitting still.

Maybe it"s a thermostat problem but I don"t know that it could be.

I'm curious if you can see water circulation or movement in the radiator prior to the boil over incidents, indicating a functioning water pump and thermostat.
I'm thinking that maybe if its a water pump/thermostat issue, when the water in the block gets real good and hot, its popping the thermostat and dumping real hot water into the radiator, where it quickly forms steam- resulting in boil over. Just a thought.

I'm guessing that that burp you saw and then it belched out the excess half gallon of water really wet the ignition good.

Use your vom, and check the voltage at the top of the coil.. turn the engine over by hand and see if the voltage changes.. if it doesn't.. points arent closing, or ther eis no contact from the pigtail wire to the points screw, or you have something broken connecting to the points.

If the voltage does change.. you really should be getting spark.

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Soundguy

Soundguy