Hi I'm helping a buddy with his 64 Riviera. He just bought this car and its been sitting for a few months. When he got the car it ran like crap. We put in 5 gallons of premium to clean out the old crap in the tank. But when he got the car it rattled like crazy (pinging) so we checked the timing and it was about 20 BTDC so we brought it back to 5 BTDC and some of the pinging is gone but now it overheats big time and its still gutless. We threw on a good q-jet but that made little improvements any ideas. thanks for your time
Alex what is the milage of the Riv? Many times the timing chain, if original, is so loose you can lift it off the gears. This will cause the distributor timing to be all over the place, causing it to ping and be lifeless due to cam timing. What temp does it run at? Does it build pressure in the radiator upon startup when "cold"? Let us know. John
milage.... alot speedo works funny. Were going to look at the timing chain, Temp unknowen. one time the rad cap was leting presure off the next time we worked it up a short hill and just got into the driveway and the upeer rad hose blew off and split down the middle ou:
just put on a temp gauge. @ idle it will continue to clime to 220 and that's when we shut it down, The thermostat works and coolant flows thre the rad o No:
I'd be looking for a blockage...start flushing the rad. While you are at it flush out the block to get rid of all the crap in the coolant passages.
When I bought my 64 Riv two summers ago, I couldn't drive it anywhere without overheating. Not even on the 1 hr drive home while the ink on the check was still wet. But I knew I could fix anything. What I found was the numb-nut had a 195* thermostat in it so he wouldn't be cold in the winter, radiator was ballooned and full of crud, 9 psi cap, bad fan clutch, condensor and radiator fins full of bug remains. Fixed all that and I can drive up 6% grades in 100* summer heat at 75 mph windows up and A/C on.
"flushing the block" is easier said than done. You can do the Prestone half ass method, which doesnt do anything. OR take it to a shop and have it power flushed. First you have to get the brass plugs out of the block. Lots of luck with that, they round off just by looking at them. SO you need a lift so you can really get to them. A blocked block symptom is rapid heating from the get go. If you can affect it my slow driving, fast driving, .... then its not the block. MY advice: get the radiator recored to a 4 row. $250 here in Texas. Email me at jartzh@yahoo.com for a shop. Just got mine done yesterday. and its great.
I suggest you install a radiator filter to protect your investment. You'd be surprised how much rubbish you can get in an old motor floating around. I put one called a Tefba on my 66 Riv and it works so well we've done a deal with the inventor to make them available in the USA. See it at: http://www.babymall.com.au/tefba
