My 1966 chrysler town and country Ambulance

Clay,
Your back glass should not have been anywhere near that expensive. Why didn't you inquire on this site as to your needing a back glass for your wagon?? I could have found a used back glass for that wagon for $50 down here.

I will never understand why no one seems to ever post anything in the "Wanted" section on this site!
 
Martin Harvey and nick Robinson sent me this photo of the ambulance at one point in its life. Man in photo is unidentified
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Update 23/08/19

Quick update on current events. I replaced original rad and water pump with aluminum counterparts to fix cooling issues. Also installed 2 electric fans and new thermostat. For some reason, the car still overheats. Does not overheat with the electric fans on. I thought mabey it was overheating due to timing issues an my car was also hard to start. I reduced the advance on the distributor. My starting issue is fixed but still overheats. Timing was never done with a gun but seems to run fine. If you guys have any ideas as to what's going on please let me know. Thanks
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My thoughts on looking at the radiator is you got a 4 core. When going for the aluminum the smaller number or cores are best. One will cool more the 2. But the 2 core B is the next best and seams more common. What are you running for a thermostat? Anything over a 180 deg F is unnecessary on the older car.
 
OK a couple of things. First why has the fan it came with from Chrysler been removed? Second have you made the same mistake a friend of mine did with his Lincoln limo Are the electric fans blowing in threw the radiator or are they blowing forward to the front grill? If so this will not cool it properly. Third in any case without the water pump mounted stock Chrysler fan there is NO WAY it will not overheat unless you run the electric fans. Put the factory fan back on thats what it was designed with. In the day I had many surplus 440 Dodge Plymouth and a few Chrysler cop cars NONE had electric fans (they did not exist then) and they were not prone to overheating. They were idled with the AC on for hours on end with no overheating issues. Also get rid of the cheap lamp cord battery cables and the Gypsy terminal ends find a truck repair shop that makes their own battery cables and have a correct positive and negative cables made before you have a fire and loose that beautiful rig.
 
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Thanks for the reply guys. These are the facts...
-The rad is 3 core
-Im not sure what rating the thermostat is for, I just asked for one at napa and this is the one they gave me.
-the stock fan is still installed. When I took the picture the car was running so my camera did not pick it up.
-the electric fans are helper fans. One blows air towards the engine through the rad and one pulls air from the engine bay through the rad and out(like the stock fan).
-im not sure what lamp cord battery cables and gypsy terminal ends are. I'm sure that the electrical does need a good once over though.
though.
-I try to do my own work and probably contributed to the problem while fixing another, it happened before.
 
In no particular order..

Only use molded radiator hoses, because the flex type of hoses add restrictions to the flow of the coolant. Also find an old lower radiator hose, and cut it along its length to remove the spring inside of it. Put this spring inside of your new lower radiator hose. The spring keeps the hose from collapsing under certain conditions. As a cost saving measure, the hose manufacturers have removed them.

Your car originally came with a radiator shroud, and if it isn't in place, then nothing you do will have any positive results to fixing the problem! With the fan shroud, the fan had a spacer that placed the fan in the optimum position inside of the shroud, and you have to have that also. Your car also came with a multiple blade fan connected to a thermostatically controlled fan clutch. All these components are critical to alleviating cooling issues.

Has your engine block been cleaned to remove rust buildup? Please don't tell me that your antifreeze in new and green, because if you don't properly prepare the engine block, the rust is still in there. Here are the instructions.. http://professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showpost.php?p=841918408&postcount=1

If you care to read the dissenting opinion, (which I don't necessarily agree with all statements within) use this link. http://professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20245&highlight=coolant

Electric fans should both be going in the same direction, and I don't particularly like electric fans in place of the original fan, because the fans draw current, which in turn causes the alternator to work harder, and the engine has to work harder to power the alternator. Ditch the fans! The car didn't have overheating problems when it was new, and if you repair to original conditions, it will not have overheating problems today.

With proper battery cables, you will also resolve your starter voltage problem (hard starting when hot), and you can and should set the ignition to its correct factory settings, and then only tweak them as needed because of the poorer quality gasoline that we have today. Use a timing light, because knowledge is power! Without a timing light, you are only guessing, and not getting the maximum performance that your engine was designed for. Also check your spark plug cables with an ohm meter to see if there are any age related issues there. Get the factory service manual, because it will have information in it that you will not find else where that is exact to your vehicle.

As Pete said, new battery terminals (2 gauge) with properly affixed terminals on both ends.
 
First Definitions: Gypsy Terminal Ends, The cheap battery post cable clamps you are using they corrode easily make poor connection get hot and cause voltage drop. Lamp Cord Battery Cables: The skinny light gage cables in use now cause voltage drop get hot under a load and cause fires. Now on to the cooling. First the stock factory fan does not blow forward it is made to pull air IN through the radiator and help the flow of air through the radiator by the forward motion of the vehicle. Third: The electric fan blowing forward is causing more heat when the vehicle is moving. Put your hand out the window at 40 MPH feel the force of the air on it it blows your hand back. Now picture the air blowing in through the grill at 40 MPH being met by your useless fan blowing outward and stopping the flow of air in NO COOLING. Get the stock Chrysler fan back on it DOES NOT BLOW OUTWARD it pulls air in through the radiator. Junk the forward blowing electric fan or reverse it. As far as thermostat goes NAPA should have sold you a 180 degree one although you could do without it except its needed for the heater to work in the winter. Also with the new aluminum radiator You would do well to use anti freeze not coolant and distilled water as minerals in well water corrode the aluminum.
 
here is what I see from you description. the aluminum radiator is vary efferent. the three core has the problem of the front 2 cores transferring heat to the third one. it is really apparent in the 4 core ones. your fans being right next to each other are fighting them selves. the air needs to flow one direction that is in. if you choose to not run or don't have the stock fan shroud. remove the factory fan. put the puller on the inside. the pusher in front. what the electric fans are doing for you now is the puller is sucking hot air forward it is being picked up by the pusher and going back across the radiator to be picked up buy the puller again. in other wards your running the same hot air around and around the radiator. the stock fan with out the shroud is just moving hot air around the engine room. to confirm this unhook the the one pulling air forward. see if it runs cooler. I understand what you were thinking but to cool it has to have air moving in one direction. so that fresh air is going threw the radiator. but really you need to use one system or the other. the electric fans will do the job as will the stock set up. just don't mix them. then depending on the are of the man behind the counter they may have given you a 195 which is pretty much standard for newer cars. if you still have the box it will tell. I made that mistake on my 75 pon when I re did the system on it. with a 195 thermostat it ran at 210 degrees. the car ran ok but it was way hot for me. things went a whole lot better when we got home and put in the 180. I got no idea what that converts to on the C scale. dd you hook the electric fans up to an thermal switch?
 
Clarence and Doreen Foster, Dunstaffnage, PEI, Canada.
These are the people I bought the car from earlyer in their life when they were using the car for a promotional vehicle.
 
Update 18/05/2020

Hey guys! Thought I'd give an update on the car and what the plans are for 2020. Last month i pulled the car out of the barn, no issues there. Ran just as I left it. That being said, when I parked it, it had an overheating issue. That is still true today. I was able to drive it around for a good week or to, but it soon became apparent that I could not continue to ignore the issue. I was hoping that my issues were not the head gasket but they in fact were. The car is currently back in the barn with the top end disassembled. The gasket is rusted in a few spots, I'm hoping that was the issue. There is no other possible causes at this point. Now I'm ticking away at that in my spare time, trying to get the surfaces of the block and head as clean as possible so I dont have to do it again. While the heads are off, I'm going to replace the valve seals. Hopefully that fixes my old burning issues, or at least slows it down. I'm confident that I'll have her back up and running within the week. As far as repairs for this year, theres a lot of things I want to redo that I screwed up before. My wiring is not great so I'll fix that. I'm gona change my heater box out for a new one. I tried to fix it but it's too broken. I'd like to have defrost again so I can drive it in the fall. Me and my brother plan on doing a road trip with our cars this year so I'd like to wire in a cb radio. I want to hide it behind the dash and route the mic so it looks like its part of the dispatch radio. Still got lots of interior things to do. One thing I have to do for sure is adjust the rear breaks as they are not very responsive at the moment. Because of covid, theres nothing else to do but drive the old cars so I'd like to have it fixed sooner than later. I'll update you as soon as things are done and the car is back in service!
 
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