1974 Overheating
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 254
Likes: 4
1974 Overheating
I recently replaced my head gaskets and the car seems to run ok, but after driving for a while on the highway on a hot day, the temp guage goes about half way between 200 and the red mark.
I had a guy at a machine shop take a look at it and he checked the timing and said it was ok. But, we both thought there was too much heat coming from the engine. He then checked with a laser thermometer, and it read 230. We shut the engine off for a while and then it would not start due to the battery, so we let it charge for about an hour and cranked it over a few times, but it wold not fire up. About an hour later I tried again, and I got it running.
I replaced my thermostat a few years ago before the head gasket blew, and I replaced the fan clutch with a new HD AC Delco unit a long time ago, but I don't think I drove it enough for the clutch to go bad.
Someone told me that that even though the timing reads correct, the distributor may still be a tooth off.
Could this be correct?
I had a guy at a machine shop take a look at it and he checked the timing and said it was ok. But, we both thought there was too much heat coming from the engine. He then checked with a laser thermometer, and it read 230. We shut the engine off for a while and then it would not start due to the battery, so we let it charge for about an hour and cranked it over a few times, but it wold not fire up. About an hour later I tried again, and I got it running.
I replaced my thermostat a few years ago before the head gasket blew, and I replaced the fan clutch with a new HD AC Delco unit a long time ago, but I don't think I drove it enough for the clutch to go bad.
Someone told me that that even though the timing reads correct, the distributor may still be a tooth off.
Could this be correct?
Race Director
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 10,628
Likes: 132
From: Duvall, WA
There is really no such thing as a distributor being off a tooth. The timing light will give you the true timing. Do a search for overheating on here and you will come up with some things to look at.
