Losing water- no leaks
 

Occasionally the radiator overflows after 1 mile of riding; other times it goes for 50 miles with a constant temperature of 160. Water pump problem ??

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

Do you move the spark advance to the right position each drive?
Is the coolant boiling, or just filling the top tank and going out the overflow pipe?
If it only overflows when you drive faster than 45 or so, then the radiator doesn't have the flow capacity it needs. It's either too small or plugged.

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

Thanks for the reply. At times it it simply goes out the overflow tube. Most recently it boiled over thru the cap after 1 mile going approx. 30 MPH. Refilled it and it was fine. Spark advance used correctly to the best of my limited experience (500 miles with this car)

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

bad head gasket

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

Too much water. Water expands and needs head space. If you over fill it tends to push out the overflow tube or if the cap is loose or bad gasket, out there. Only needs to be filled to bottom of baffle. Could also be the pump it moving too much water, maybe try installing a thermostat and see if that helps.

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

Do you have a lot of black liquid coming out the exhaust? If so, this could be it.

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

mine would spit water for two reasons:

A) the rad neck is crooked so the cap would not seal well
b) crack in the block-exhaust side.

Mike

Re: Losing water- no leaks
 

You should not ever have water coming out past the radiator cap. It is not a pressurized system so you have a bad cap, gasket or such.
Having water come out of the overflow tube is not unusual. Go ahead and allow water to go out the overflow tube and let it seek the level it is comfortable with. As long as the tubes in the radiator core remain covered you will be fine. If you keep "filling" the radiator to the top you will almost guarantee water will puke out again and again...
Get an inexpensive dial meat thermometer and put it in the coolant in the radiator so you know for sure what temperature you are running.
Tom makes a good point in post number two. Are you advancing the spark as it should while driving?