Well it’s about to be summer here in southern California. And we’ve already had temps in the mid 90’s. This is the 1st time I’ve driven the Rambler in those temps. I’ve encountered two sets of problems related to heat with the Rambler. The first problem is when I’m driving in hot weather and in stop and go traffic…. The engine temp has a tendency to run hotter. It’s not out of hand, but it is significantly warmer. When driving for a while and stop and the engine is idling, the oil warning light comes on(which means low pressure). When I accelerate it goes off again. So the heat is causing the oil to become thin enough to not be picked up by the oil-pump. I run 4 1/2 quarts of Quaker State 10W-30 that already has Slick 50 added to it. I also run 1/2 a quart Marvel Mystery Oil. So I’m thinking it I might need to run a thicker oil and fore-go the Marvel oil. I’m also going to pull the oil pan and check the pump to see if it has sludge build up on it. And I’m sure the pump is old, so I may change it while I’ve got it all apart. Hopefully that will fix that problem. I also plan to try a few things to help the engine run a little cooler. There are several things you can do to help dissipate heat throughout the engine bay. You can buy an oil filter cooler, which is basically a piece of aluminum with fins on it that wraps around your oil filter and is held there by a big hose clamp. I’ve seen those in the JC Whitney catalog. It’s similar to fins on a stereo amplifier….. same principle. There are other more complex ways to cool oil, just look up oil coolers. You can get pretty creative here and do things like add heater hoses that collect are from the grill and you can then direct the air to places like the exhaust manifold and oil filter. Or anyplace that you may notice is hotter than average. I’ve done that before using heater hose, and fabricating my own collectors to connect to the grill. Get the biggest heater hoses you can find though. And make sure to use actual coolant in the radiator instead of just water. You can also use a coolant additive called Water Wetter. It’s supposed to drop the temp in the 10-20 degree range.
Now the next problem I’ve had is re-starting the car when the engine is hot. Gasoline boils at roughly half the temp that water does. Their are two conditions that can occur. One is vapor lock, and the other is fuel percolating in the fuel bowl of the carburetor. The manifolds collect a lot of heat, and the carburetor is sitting on top soaking up that heat. And in general it’s just plain hot under the hood. I’ve determined my problem is fuel percolating in the fuel bowl. The fuel basically boils and bubbles. The bubbles are made up of air, and when trying to restart the car, the fuel isn’t properly vaporizing. So that is a pretty easy fix. I had this same problem on my Valiant, and bought a phenoilic spacer to put between the manifold and the carb. Phenolic material is some kind of wierd resin that looks similar to that plastic-like material that circuit boards are made of. But it apparently has great heat dissipating properties. The phenolic carburetor spacers come in various thickneses. Spacers are also made from metal, but I’m unsure how well those dissipate heat. My Valiant has a 4-barrel carb and the spacer solved the problem immediately. I’m not sure if they even make them for the 1-barrel I have on the Rambler. If not, I’ve heard you can basically buy a butt-load of carburetor gaskets and stack them to desired height. However you go about it, make sure you don’t go to thick and raise the aircleaner to high for the hood to close.
Another possible, but less likely promlem… is the fuel getting too hot in the rest of the fuel delivery system before it reaches the carburetor. If you’ve done the spacer trick at the carb and the problem persist, this could be your problem. Now keep in mind if you’re having this problem when you first start your car in the morning you probably have an entirely different problem. Most likely stemming from the ignition/spark-plug/coil/distributor area. The fixes I’m describing are only if you’re having starting problems after the car has been running and is at normal or above operating temperature.
So you’ve done the spacer trick, your radiator is supplied with proper coolant and is operating optimally, and you’re sure the whole ignition/firing chain is good. Now we deal with the vapor lock issue. Just to clarify vapor lock only happens previous to the carburetor, and fuel percolating only happens in the fuel bowl of the carburetor. So when the fuel boils in the fuel lines on it’s way to the carburetor you get those air bubbles(or vapor). So the space those air bubbles are taking up in fuel line displaces the fuel and therefore delivers less fuel to the carburetor. So you end up with a lack of fuel to run the car. Whatdya’ do now? Well the old-school fix was to use asbestos tape on the fuel lines nearest the heat sources. They have a modern alternitive, it’s name escapes me at the moment. But it’s a fabric-ish type tape and dissipates heat and should solve the problem. Another tip is if you have the fiber-glass insulation under your hood, you can remove it. If you live in a place where you experience severe winter conditions, you should take care in removing the insulation. And try to preserve it so you can put it back in the cold season. But in warmer climates such as sunny southern California, you can toss it. I’ve done that on a couple cars and was amazed what a difference it made. If you do all the things I’ve mentioned, you should see a marked difference. Keeping your fuel, coolant, and oil as cool as possible will also lead to better performance too. Hot fluids will rob the engine of horsepower. My Rambler has an air-cooled Borg-Warner transmission. But if your transmission has lines going to and from the radiator for cooling transmission fluid. You can apply the same tape used on the fuel lines. That should help a little there as well. There are many cooling kits you can by that are geared towards hot-rods and race cars. They aren’t that expensive and can generally be easily adapted to your cruiser. And getting your temps in order is the key to a good-running long-living engine. Now this is a topic that I would like to hear from others on. I’m always looking for good ideas in this department. So if any of you have ideas lay ‘em on us. So once I get that sorted out, I’ll report back with the results.
****UPDATE!!! Well I learned a lot about oil, oil filters, and spacers. But I did change the oil and filter, and the carburetor spacer. In total it had the desired effect. Now my car has a Carter RBS one barrel. And no matter the make of car I’m sure many of you do too, or perhaps a Stromberg. I have bought several four barrel spacers in the past and did not realize how difficult it would be to find a one barrel spacer. I searched the internet, and several parts. But had no luck. And most people said they don’t make them anymore. But I found one designed for a Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth slant-six motor. But it worked on the Rambler just fine. I would imagine it will fit any manifold that has a Carter, or Stromberg one barrel. And a nice un-intended benefit is the low-end torque that a spacer can provide. It’s not quite a 1/2 inch thick, anymore than that and you will not be able to thread the nuts on to the studs. By the way the part is a Fel-Pro 60125. Just below the part # on the packaging it says “future No. 13-1207″. Not sure what that means, but maybe they are changing there system and the part # is changing as well. Not sure. As for the oil pressure situation, I did a little reserch, and found that single grade is better than a multi-grade oil. A multi-grade is anything like a 5W-30, 10W-30, 20W-50. A single grade is a SAE 30, SAE 40, etc… Most people think the W in the prefix stands for weight. Actually the second # is the weight. The W basically means WINTER. 5W,10W, 20W etc are viscocity ratings ratings for various severe winter conditions. Dealing mostly with below zerp temps. I’m from Texas, and now live in sothern California. I’ve used 10W-30 my whole life, but I’ve learned that a single grade is better for warmer climates.
So from now on I intend to use SAE 30 in the winter months, and a slightly thicker SAE 40. And I’m also not going to use Marvel Mystery Oil in the summer. It thins the oil. And be careful in general using oil additives, most are just cheap base oil containing teflon. And no one has determined that teflon is good for an engine. It’s that stuff that makes your no-stick skillet not stick. But Marvel Mystery Oil is a bit different apparently, and truly a mystery. But my new oil regimen is straight oil (Valvoline SAE 40) for most of the year. And in the colder months I will use SAE 30, and a bit of the Mystery Oil. As for filters I learned that Fram is now crap after farming out the manufacturing. And there are only 4-5 major oil filter manufactures that make all filters and stamp various names on them. And I learned the best filter is the Mobil 1 Extended Performance is probably the best filter. So for my car I needed the Mobil 1 M1-203. But they’ve discontinued it. I bought the last 2 at my local Kragen store, known elsewhere as Chief, or Schucks.
So most of these old six-cylinder over-head valve engines we have in our Ramblers, Falcons, Darts…etc… require that filter. I’m even finding them on ebay already. So do a little research and dig through all those out of the way parts stores and save em up. They are good filters. Also Wix are very popular, and they are pretty good. But they’re a little pricy. I found out that NAPA Gold filters are the exact same filter, just stamped with the NAPA logo. So when you’ve gone through your last Mobil 1, I would recommend the NAPA Gold. So good luck running cool this summer.
