The Importance of The Ground In Your Electrical Circuits...

Oh No...! Another Lecture on Ground!!

I know what you are thinking, yet another lecture on ground, and I have heard it all before, so I will just skip this one. Well before you wander off, here are some real life examples of what can happen without a properly grounded electrical system. If you have read thru most of the tech articles here you already know the importance of a good ground. Here are a few real life adventures that show you that a lack of a good ground affects things in a way that you would not expect. Read on...

You know by now that the ground path back to the battery is just as important as the current path from the battery to the accessory. The ground path back to the battery typically travels thru the frame which is likely painted, rusty, greasy, or any combination thereof. Any of the above named... which are not good conductors of electricity, will restrict the flow of current back to the battery.

Then there are the built-in obstacles like rubber engine mounts, rubber body mounts, and the engine accessories bolted to a painted or rusty engine block all of which can cause high resistance otherwise known as high electrical friction within the electrical circuits, as the current tries to find an electrical path back to the battery.

So why does this matter? Electricity is lazy and will find and follow the easiest path back to the battery. That path might include thru the cooling system which can damage parts inside of your transmission, especially automatics, so if you are having repeated transmission failures of small internal parts check for voltage present in your coolant which is a sign of a poor ground path back to the battery.

You clearly DO NOT Want These Glowing Cherry Red And Breaking!! That Could Be A Very Expensive And Wild Ride.

Not being selective, the return ground path back to the battery might include things like throttle return springs and the like, which is pretty scary when you think about it. Open up the hood some evening after dark and with the engine running look for glowing red/orange throttle return springs and arcing between plug wires and engine block, or any stray voltage. You should NOT see any open voltage anywhere.

If you have an overdrive... the ground is especially important. Ideally the overdrive transmission will be grounded as it is bolted to the engine block which you assume is also grounded to the frame. But remember there are also rubber motor mounts and rubber transmission mounts and the majority of your overdrive transmission is electrical. So if thinks are not working the first place to start is the ground. It's simple and won't cost you much.

I had a customer recently experience this very situation where his overdrive would only work interment. He tried everything to fix it, even swapping around his spare overdrive solenoid and relay along with his kick down switch and nothing seemed to make any difference. I told him to add a ground strap to his transmission and ground it to the frame making sure he had a clean metal to metal connection. Bingo his overdrive now works like it is brand new and shifts better than it ever has. His problem was a lack of ground.

Electrolysis destroyed these Aluminum Cylinder Heads...

Having the return ground path travel back thru the cooling system is also not a good plan especially if you have aluminum cylinder heads. The electrolysis created as the current travels thru the aluminum heads can destroy the aluminum heads within a short period of time. Now that I have your attention you want to know how to check your cooling system for electrolysis.

How To Check For Electrical Current Inside Of The Cooling System

First, remove the radiator cap carefully when the engine is warm (thermostat open) and engine idling. You want to set your voltmeter to the zero to ten scale. Insert the red lead of the voltmeter into the engine coolant making sure to NOT touch the metal of the radiator. Ground the black lead to a good ground location.

You want to check the liquid coolant only. If you have a reading greater than 0.10 you have electrical current flowing thru the cooling system. One of the worst cases I saw was a reading of 0.90
which means there was more than one source of battery ground not getting back to the battery.

Once you identify your reading you need to find the source of the stray ground. Typically it will be from an added on accessory like an engine cooling fan, or accessory spotlight, or fog lamps, and not a factory-installed accessory.

Your job is to turn on each of the accessories one at a time till you find the one that makes the reading drop. If your reading is high there is likely more than one accessory that is at fault. The fix is to make sure there is a clear and direct path back to the battery. A remote Battery Stud works ideal in this situation. You can ground more than one accessory directly back to the battery to insure everything works as it is supposed to.

A Remote Battery Stud can be used to power and ground all types of accessories back to the battery. As shown here you can attach more than one accessory to a Remote Battery Stud.

And The Starter...
This ground thing happens in starter circuits also which is why I tell you to use one gauge cables on both 6 and 12-volt applications and to always ground the starter at a starter mounting bolt and not to the frame or engine block as even the factory did. You can lose up to 40 percent of your cranking power from a poor ground in the starting circuit.

Always remember this...  All batteries are at least 650 cranking amps and your starter should only need 150 amps to crank over the engine so if the engine cranks slowly or not at all that tells you the 650 amps stored in the battery is not getting delivered to the starter...and what has that job...THE BATTERY CABLES...and where is the ground cable connected and how far away from the starter is that? You want to have a DIRECT path between the starter and the battery! If you do that your antique vehicle will start even on 6-volts like a modern 12-volt.

So in summary you need to look carefully at the ground path back to the battery of all your accessories. Once you establish a good ground path all of your accessories will work better. You can be proud you fixed your grounds with such little effort on your part. Once you get things all fixed share your knowledge with your friends who no doubt struggled like you did before you got educated.

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A Carburetor Does Not "Suck" The Fuel Out Of The Float Bowl...

The Carburetor Chronicles...
If you want to start an argument at the next car club meeting, just ask someone to explain how a carburetor works. Most likely you will get the explanation of how the mechanical fuel pump fills up the float bowl, and the gas is "sucked" out of the float bowl and into the intake manifold where it is mixed with the air at a ratio of somewhere around fifteen parts air to one part gasoline.

Well...most of that explanation is correct except the part about the carburetor "sucking" the fuel out of the float bowl. That part is incorrect, here is what really happens. By the way, this explanation is also true of 2bbl and 4bbl carburetors. I am using the 1bbl example to make things easier for you to understand.

Before I explain this... you need to understand something called Bernoulli's Principle. Bernoulli's Principle says that the total energy of a particle in motion (like a particle of gasoline) remains constant at all points along the path that it is traveling. Therefore if the gasoline is expected to travel at a higher velocity, (such as when traveling thru the intake) the pressure around the particle of gasoline must be reduced. Less resistance, more speed. Lost already? Read on.

Suppose you have a formation of soldiers marching down the street twenty abreast. They march until they come to a narrow alley that they can only march ten abreast. Because of the narrow alley, the soldiers will have to march twice as fast as they marched in the street in order to maintain the same rate of travel as they had before.

This same explanation is what happens in automotive fuel applications as well. Keep in mind that a carburetor is a little more complicated than this... but for our discussion, we are just looking at how the air and fuel mix together.

Air is drawn into the top of the carburetor and down into the bottom of the carburetor, into an area known as the Venturi. The Venturi contains a tube that is smaller in diameter than the air intake area so a low-pressure area is created, just like when the soldiers got to the narrow alley.

We know that atmospheric pressure is present inside of the carburetor (and is all around us) which means there is atmospheric pressure inside of the float bowl.  A low-pressure area is created inside of the Venturi of the carburetor because the Venturi tube is smaller in diameter than the carburetor air intake.

The outlet of the float bowl is located inside the Venturi so what's going to happen to the fuel inside the float bowl as a result of the low pressure created by the Venturi?

The fuel is going to be pushed out of the float bowl by the atmospheric pressure into the Venturi of the carburetor, where it will be mixed with the outside air to form the fuel mixture. It is that fuel mixture that then travels down inside of the intake into the cylinders. The intake manifold is a big opening and a high-pressure area so the difference in pressure is what helps draw the air/fuel mixture thru the carburetor and into the intake manifold.

So the fuel in the float bowl is being pushed out of the float bowl by atmospheric pressure. It is not being "sucked" out of the float bowl as many car owners believe. 

This Carburetor needs an insulator and a heat riser

And Another Thing...
If the incoming fuel has a high humidity rate (water vapor often from cheap gas) and the outside temperature is cold enough the cooling effect will cool the carburetor base temperature to below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which will cause the base of the carburetor to frost over. Most of us have experienced that first hand.

Now you know what that ceramic insulator spacer (and the heat riser) is for, that mounts under the base of the carburetor...to prevent the base of the carburetor from freezing up which will cause the air/fuel mixture to stall, resulting in poor engine performance.

The density of the air in the air/fuel mixture will also affect engine performance. If you remember back in your younger days...how much better your car seemed to run on the way home at midnight from your girlfriend's house... than it did when you drove to her house at five o'clock. Chances are the air was much denser at midnight (and cooler) so there were more molecules available to mix with the gasoline. Your car really did have more power... it wasn't just the thoughts of your cute girlfriend that made the trip home seem to go faster.

So now you know how a carburetor really works, why the base of your carburetor sometimes frosts over, and most important of all you understand Bernoulli's Principle, which you should have already known and understood if you paid any attention in physics class. But if you were like me a Hot Rod Magazine was a better textbook than any physics book.

All that doesn't matter now because you learned what you needed to know here, and you learned how you can apply what you learned to something auto-related. They never did that in physics class!!

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Giving The Governor... The Boot!!

  If you have an R-10 or R-11 overdrive transmission chances are you have never seen one of these. That is not surprising, as most of these are long gone. This is the boot that originally covered the top of the governor. It kept moisture, dirt, and road grime, out of the inside of the governor.

As a rule... governors are typically trouble-free and require the least amount of maintenance, of any part of the overdrive, which makes sense because the only job the governor does is activate the overdrive via the relay when the vehicle speed reaches between 28 and 33 mph.

The two things that typically go wrong with the governor are the points inside of the governor housing (which look and work much like ignition points) become coated with oil dirt or road grime and quit making the electrical connection or...the cotton wrapped wire that comes up out of the governor metal cover will lose some of its insulation as it becomes dried out and brittle, causing a "short" in the circuit. The solution for the broken or missing insulation is to replace the governor wire with modern vinyl wrapped wire or new cotton wrapped wire if you want the original look.

The best solution for keeping out the moisture, dirt, and road splash out of the governor in the first place is to have the protective boot installed. But that has been a problem up to now as the originals are long gone and no new replacements were available.

As a replacement, I have seen soup cans, pop cans, beer cans, trash bags, and shop rags, even part of a bicycle tire tube. Most of those ideas were better than nothing but did not do a really good job of keeping the uglies out.

We now have for sale brand new exact reproductions of the rubber boot that once covered your governor from the factory. Installing one will keep out the moisture, dirt and road grime that will eventually cause you governor to stop working. You can find these along with new solenoids, relays, kick down switches, control cables, solenoid oil seals, and the gear oil, and a shop manual in the "parts" section of the website under what else...."overdrive parts."

You should now sleep better knowing your governor is well protected from the elements.

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Series VS Parallel Battery Connections...Which Is Which?

Series vs. Parallel Battery Connections
You have all heard the rules about connecting more than one battery together to either get more reserve power or more more voltage. The confusion lies in knowing which is which and understanding the results. Lets start by understanding how the battery cable connections are different between to two.

Batteries in parallel. When you connect two batteries together in parallel the output voltage remains the same as the original voltage of the electrical system. The benefit is that the reserve capacity is almost doubled. This is common in RV's and trolling motors on small fishing boats where you need lots of reserve capacity to run small electrical loads like interior lights and accessories. Typically you will see two deep cycle batteries in these applications. Deep cycle batteries are made to be discharged / recharged slowly over and over and are designed to deliver a steady output over multiple hours.

Parallel battery connections can also be used in automotive applications. I use two Optima 6-volt automotive batteries along with my 6-volt alternator in applications like antique fire trucks and ambulances That combination  provides plenty of reserve battery power to run the flashing lights and siren during a parade while still providing plenty of reserve capacity for engine cranking.

Each Optima 6-Volt Battery is a thousand cranking amps! So connecting two in parallel along with one gauge battery cables results in 2000 cranking amps! That will start about anything!

To connect two batteries in parallel… connect the positive terminals of both batteries together then connect to the original positive connection of the charging system, which is usually the starter solenoid or starter button on the starter. The connections on the battery end of the starting system are the same as they were originally, there is just a little more help in between.

You want to do the same with the negative battery cable, all of the negative posts are connected together. And as you learned earlier if you connect the ground end of your battery cable to the starter mounting bolt or as close to the starter as you can get..(not to the painted frame or engine block) your vehicle will start much easier, because you have then created a direct path between the battery and the starter.

When you go to the auto parts store to have the battery cables made, be sure take the measurements of the distance between the battery posts. Tell them you are connecting your batteries in parallel and you need the cables to look like the cables they use on golf carts. One gauge cable works best for both the positive and negative cables because now you have twice the current to deliver. Both batteries should be the same size and have the same rating. Adding a second battery will double your reserve capacity or the length of time you have before all of your battery current is gone.

Batteries Connected in Series – when two batteries are connected in "series" it is done most often to increase voltage and efficiency, (just like when the car manufacturers went from 6-volt to 12-volt). To build a "series" battery circuit, connect the positive of the first battery to the negative of the second battery, then on to the 12-volt positive connection of the charging system as it was originally. Connect the negative post of the first battery to the positive post of the second battery then connect the ground end to a starter mounting bolt or as close to the starter as you can get it.

Your goal is to create a direct path between the battery and the starter. You want both battery cables to be one gauge or bigger because now you have twice the current to deliver.  Connecting two 6-volt batteries in series will yield 12-volts. The negative side will work the same as the positive. And connecting two 12-volt batteries will result in 24 volts. Some antique tractors had 24 volt electrical systems, many of the early John Deere tractors for example.

Batteries connected in series should be the same size and have the same rating. The total reserve capacity of the batteries will remain the same even though there is a second battery, because each battery is independent of the other but working towards the same goal. Electric golf carts are a good example of an application that use batteries wired in series to increase voltage. Electric golf carts, are powered by drive motors that are typically 36 volts and require six (6-volt) batteries connected in series to obtain the 36 volts.

As we learned elsewhere in this blog when converting from 6-volt to 12-volts, when you double the voltage, the amperage load goes to half, so in the case of the 36 volt motor in a golf cart, the higher voltage makes the electric motor more efficient and will require less amperage from the battery than it the electric motor was 12 volts. That explains why you sometimes see a 48 volt golf cart.  Those carts (Club Car) is a popular brand will climb hills better and have more power. Many have been converted to off road applications.

The difference in those 48 volt golf carts is how they get to 48 volts. That can happen one or two ways, either (4) 12-volt batteries or (6) 8-volt batteries.

(Now you know where those 8 volt batteries come from that I tell you NOT to put in your antique to try to get it to start better)

You know from reading this blog that the (6) eight volt batteries will have more reserve capacity (more power) than the (4) 12-volt batteries, because the 8-volt batteries contain more lead (more surface area inside the battery so more output). It makes the golf cart cost more initially... and also when it comes time to replace the batteries five years down the road. But think of the fun you had in between!

That is also true in 6-volt vs 12 volt applications, two 6-volt batteries will have more reserve capacity than one 12-volt. Again two 6-volt batteries have twice the surface area so twice the output). That is why you will see off road construction equipment with two 6-volt batteries connected in series instead of one 12-volt battery. The extra cranking reserve will make it easier to start the diesel engines.

As for that 48 volt golf cart withe the 8-volt batteries...that extra efficiency will insure the cart can be driven all 18 holes without a dead battery. That extra reserve may be necessary if the players get extra thirsty, and require more trips to the club house to retrieve adult beverages.

So remember parallel battery connections are the same as you are used to...positive to positive and negative to negative and the resulting voltage will NOT change. The benefit is that you get extra reserve because now you have two batteries to drain instead of one. In applications with a heavy electrical load like an antique firetruck this is almost a must.  To remember parallel... think two parallel lines on the highway, they are both the same at the end as they are at the beginning.

Think of the series battery connections, as like baseball. Every battery connection builds voltage just like every player in baseball is scoring points. The more players that cross home plate the higher the score. In Series battery connections the more battery posts the cables connect to... the higher the voltage. In the example of the 36 volt golf carts described above...the battery cables (both the positive and the negative) will each cross 6 terminals to get the resulting 36 volts.

So...what if forget your lesson here and connect the 6-volt batteries in your golf cart in parallel instead of series? It is doubtful your 36 volt golf cart would even move... because the electric motor would only have 1/6 of the current it needs to operate. Even if it did operate... you wouldn't get very far.

The only reason I bring that up is that every spring I have one or two customers call after they put new batteries in their golf cart and it "is still dead."

Yep...you guessed it... they connected their golf cart batteries in parallel instead of series, They were ready to declare their new batteries defective! Then they realized that the chance of all 6 batteries being defective is pretty slim. It was a simple fix in both cases, they both had made the same mistake, and got the same results.

Here is a simple chart to remind you how to connect battery cables for Series AND Parallel applications. Now you know which is which and why...your welcome!

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Borg Warner R-10 &R-11 Overdrive Wiring Diagram...The Simple Version

The Borg Warner Overdrive Transmission was offered as an option by eleven different car companies. And as you might expect, each of those car companies developed their own wiring diagram for the Borg Warner Overdrive. They added extra relays, switches etc, nothing that improved or affected how the overdrive itself worked. The simplest and easiest wiring diagram to use by far... is the one developed by Borg Warner.

The picture above shows the Borg Warner overdrive wiring diagram. As you can see it is pretty simple and basic. This diagram can be used for most any Borg Warner Overdrive application.

A Few Notes - 

Reverse lockout switches were discontinued by the factory somewhere around the early 1950's. They are not needed and your overdrive will work fine without one. Most original ones no longer work so just bypass the switch. You can either connect both ends of the governor wires going to the reverse lockout switch to the same terminal (which will bypass the switch) or better yet run a new wire down from the governor. Then you will never have to worry about a loose or corroded connection.

There was a recall in the early 1950's... the diameter of the wire that made up the overdrive wiring harnesses was to small in diameter causing, high resistance resulting in an excessive voltage drop and low voltage being delivered to the solenoid and relay,  which in turn caused the overdrive to not work, or only work part time. The fix of course was to use larger diameter wire, resulting in less resistance and full current being delivered to the solenoid and relay. The replacement wiring harnesses were made using larger wire which fixed the problem.

So if you are building your own wiring harness I would suggest using 14 gauge wire. The cost difference is minimal and you will not have any issues with low voltage being delivered to the solenoid and relay due to resistance in the overdrive wiring harness.

Generator charging systems, (which most vehicles had that were built before 1965) have little or no output at idle and low engine rpms. So the battery current to run the overdrive at idle and low rpms (such as in town driving) will have to come from the current stored in the physical battery, which is often less that the required 6.5 volts needed to make the overdrive work properly.

You can fudge a little but if the voltage drop is too great between the battery and the solenoid (which can be caused by (electrical friction) resistance from too small of wiring) your overdrive may not engage and work properly, Or may work only at highway speeds, but will not shift in and out in city driving. Anything below 6.0 volts at the number (4) terminal on the solenoid is a sign of trouble.

Also check the voltage on the incoming side of the relay and the output side of the relay going down to the solenoid. There should be little or no voltage drop between those two terminals. A half a volt is the max, and that is if the output voltage going to the solenoid is above 6.0 volts.

You can buy a reproduction overdrive wiring harness but most are made using the smaller diameter wire. Now that you know better, making your own is easy and you know it will be done right. It will be time well spent!

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What Kind Of Antifreeze To Use In Your Antique Vehicle...

It used to be simple in the old days...all of the antifreeze coolant was basically the same and varied little in price. It usually came down to what was available or what brand was on sale. Not Any More.

Now there are literally dozens of formula's and multiple colors to choose from. So what kind of modern antifreeze should you be using in you antique and more important what kind of antifreeze should you NOT be using in your antique vehicle.

First the Basics...

There are three basic antifreeze technologies in use today, they are as follows....

IAT: Inorganic Acid Technology is the traditional green colored antifreeze that is the closest formula to what antifreeze was prior to the 1980's. The lifespan of traditional coolant is about three to five years. This formula is the antifreeze we want to use in our antique vehicles.

 OAT: Organic Acid Technology is used today because it offers silicate-free protection of all metals, and for a longer period of time: it’s the long life (LLC) or extended life (ELC) coolant and has a service life of five years or 150,000 miles.

Colors in the United States are mostly red and orange, but also green, pink and blue. (modern cooling systems are made up of a variety of different metals and alloys and this formula is designed to not damage the various metal alloys that make up a modern cooling system. This formula has some aggressive cleaning properties that will damage our antique vehicle cooling systems. DO NOT use an OAT formula antifreeze in your antique vehicle.

HOAT: Hybrid Organic Acid Technology. This formula is usually orange, but can also be red or yellow. This formula is a mixture of IAT and OAT, the orange cocktail – and only the orange color -- contains 10 percent recycled coolant. We need to stay away from this formula because is basically a diluted version of the OAT formula.

We need to avoid using both OAT and HOAT type antifreeze.  Even though it is designed for a "longer service life" we shouldn’t use it. The OAT formula includes an inhibitor that attacks silicone compounds that are frequently used in gasket sealants.  In addition, this formula also goes after lead based products like solder and Babbitt material (used in early connecting rod bearings), some yellow metals that may be in cam bearings and radiators, and conventional gasket and seal type packing materials used in some early water pumps.  Your antique vehicle likely contains some, or all of these materials, so using OAT formula antifreeze will eventually result in an expensive headache down the road.  You want to be using only an IAT formula antifreeze in your antique vehicle.

Many early antique vehicles have “open” cooling systems, where the radiator cap doesn’t completely seal the system. This allows for water evaporation, slowly decreasing the amount of water in the cooling system and increasing the amount of antifreeze coolant in the cooling system. The water that is mixed with the antifreeze is what evaporates which can cause you to end up with a higher concentration of antifreeze than the original 50/50 mix. That can cause engine over heating.

Around World War II, automakers began manufacturing cars with a sealed, pressurized cooling system. Not only did that stop evaporation, but for every pound of pressure built into the cooling system the boiling point of the coolant was raised by three degrees (F). As manufacturing quality improved, higher pressures became more common. By the late fifties a seven pound radiator pressure cap was common, which raised the boiling point of the coolant inside the radiator twenty one degrees.

With the addition of coolant recovery tanks in the 1960's life got even better. Now the cooling system was completely sealed from the outside air and dirt and any coolant that boiled over was caught in the coolant over flow tank, which was then drawn back into the radiator as the engine cooled. That solved the problem of air being trapped in the cooling system, and stopped the loss of coolant completely.

Cars and trucks built prior to 1950 were designed to use plain water as the coolant in the summer months and antifreeze only in the winter, in part because there was no such thing as permanent anti freeze in those days. Wood alcohol (methyl alcohol) was the first commercially available antifreeze formula, but its high rate of evaporation (if you did not drain it out in the summer months and replace it with water it would simply evaporate away...) and it's corrosive qualities led to it's eventual replacement by ethylene glycol, which was a year around antifreeze that became the standard up thru the 1980's.

Keep in mind...the antifreeze itself provides no direct cooling benefit. It is there to prevent the water from freezing, and to keep the inside of the cooling system clean so it can work at its most efficient.

That is why using plain distilled water along with a pint of rust inhibitor / water pump lubricant works so well in cars built before 1950. Most early cooling systems were designed to use plain water during the summer and antifreeze in the winter months (hence the name). Typically a early pre 1950's antique vehicle with plain water in the cooling system will run fifteen to twenty degrees cooler that the same antique vehicle with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water. Now you know why.

The radiator tubes in antique vehicles built prior to the 1940's are smaller in diameter as are the water passages in the engine block. That is why when you add a 50/50 mixture of modern antifreeze and water to an antique vehicle it often times will run hotter compared to using straight water. The circulation of coolant is slowed down with the addition of the thicker antifreeze.

When shopping for antifreeze, begin by reading the label to make sure it’s an IAT  formula for older cars. You’ll likely find it to be green, the original color for traditional antifreeze. So when you look inside the radiator of your antique vehicle if you see green, chances are your antifreeze is of the IAT formula.

The next question is whether the antifreeze in your classic vehicle is still able to do its job, which is keep the inside of the cooling system clean. Color is a good starting indicator. Remember.... green is good, brown is bad. Brown means some of the the corrosion inhibitors  in your antifreeze formula have broken down and are no longer able to keep the inside of your cooling system clean. Its time for a flush, and fresh antifreeze.

Next up you need to check your freeze protection. You can buy an inexpensive antifreeze tester (at any local auto parts store) and test the antifreeze in your cooling system to determine whether it’s still appropriately diluted for the protection you need. Generally, the best dilution is 50 percent water and 50 percent antifreeze will give you freeze protection down to minus 40 degrees. By taking a sample of the antifreeze from your cooling system you will know for certain what your freeze protection is.

                           

Examples Of Inexpensive Antifreeze Coolant Testers...

You can buy pre-diluted antifreeze for almost the same cost as regular antifreeze. It is the way to go because it is made with the distilled water and you do not have to mix anything, just open the jug and poor it in your cooling system. It will also be easier if you have to add coolant later on, you will always have the proper mixture on hand.




 A good flush at five-year intervals will keep your cooling components clean and working at their optimum potential. It is always a good idea to put a tag somewhere near your radiator cap with the date of the last flush and antifreeze replacement, and your freeze protection number. You should check your coolant level several times during a season to be sure you are not loosing any coolant.

The corrosion inhibitors in antifreeze will break down over time, which is why you should change it periodically.

If you cooling system needs a good cleaning Thermocure is what you need. It is available in the Parts section of the Fifth Avenue website under "cooling". There is also a Garage Tech "Tech Article" on this product an how it works. Just type in Thermocure in the search box on the of the Garage Tech Home page, and the article will magically appear.
 
The search box looks like this...

One other option is to upgrade to Evans Coolant which is a lifetime coolant that freezes at minus 80 and boils at 370 degrees with no pressure in the cooling  system and is non-corrosive. It is more expensive initially as compared to conventional antifreeze, but it is a lifetime coolant so in the long run you get better protection and zero maintaince for the life of the vehicle.

 Evans Coolant is what we have been using in the Great Race cars since 1993 with good success. It is a lifetime coolant you only have to put it in once and it is non-corrosive and works especially well in antique vehicle cooling systems because it requires no pressure in the cooling system to work.

In Summary
Just remember green is good... and be sure to read the back of the antifreeze container carefully.  You want only the IAT formula! 

You want to stay away from the long life formula, the OAT formula and the HOAT formula. Those are formulas for the modern vehicle with the alloy metals and have additives that will damage our early cooling systems. Follow these rules and life will be good!

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Battery Tenders...What Kind To Buy...

I get asked fairly often about battery tenders, and what kind we use on the cars entered in the Great Race. Well... we have used the same brand for the past 30 years simply because they work. We have tried about every brand, the cheaper to the more expensive but have always come back to the Battery Tender brand because they are simple, they are durable, and they work.

First off we need to talk about why you should use a battery tender in the first place. A battery tender will keep your battery fully charged while your antique vehicle is parked in storage. If you get a good one it will compensate for any parasitic draw such as from car radio memory or an accessory that runs in the background.  Their use is not limited to antique vehicles, they will charge and maintain any battery from your riding lawn mower to your 1950 Buick.

The difference between a battery tender and a small trickle charger comes when your battery becomes fully charged. A trickle charger or small battery charger either charges or it doesn't... so it has no way to "Float" a battery which means just enough current output to keep the battery fully charged... but not overcharged or undercharged.

A trickle charger or small conventional battery charger turn on and off as a way to try and maintain full battery voltage. The result is the battery gets over charged then sits and becomes discharged then the battery charger begins to charge again. The constant charging and discharging shortens the life of the battery, and there is no way to compensate for a parasitic electrical load.

In contrast a battery tender provides a steady voltage that is just enough to maintain proper battery voltage so the battery is always a peak charge. A battery tender will not over charge a battery. That makes the battery last at least twice as long because it is not constantly being charged and then discharged. It is kept at a steady voltage. It also prevents any damage to the electrical system of your antique vehicle while it is in storage.

The technology of how batteries are manufactured has changed a lot in recent years (mostly for the better) and now many of the batteries you buy are the AGM or absorbed glass mat type (Optima) or a Gel battery. So now we need a battery tender that will charge all three types of batteries, the old school lead acid battery, the AGM type, and the Gel batteries.

While we are at it a faster charging rate would help with the AGM and Gel batteries which take a little more current to begin charging. It makes a conventional battery charge much faster as well, Twice as fast to be exact, as compared to the previous design Battery Tender.

The new Battery Tender shown above will also charge BOTH 6-volt and 12-volt batteries...so now you no longer need two different battery tenders, one for 6-volt and one for 12-volt. A battery tender should also come with the correct accessories including...

You should expect to have the short leads in a wiring harness that you can attach to the vehicle battery that hide when not in use, then when you plug into your battery tender you do not have to open the hood  to make connections. The wiring harness that comes with this battery tender is made so it only plugs in one way so you can't get the connections backwards. 

You should also have a wiring harness available for your battery tender for temporary connections to charge a battery most anywhere.

Both types are included with the battery tender shown above. The warranty on this new Battery charger is 5 years. The AC cord is 6 feet long and the battery to charger cords are 2 feet long, which is long enough reach for most applications. If you are into the numbers game here is the physical size of the new Battery Tender

And the specifications...

I have only three of the original old school Battery Tenders left and all three are 12-volt. The 6-volt ones are all gone. So it you want a Battery Tender of the old school design you had better act fast.

If you have one of the old school design Battery Tenders, all of the wiring harnesses from your Battery Tender will work with the new design Battery Tender. If your old school Battery Tender is working fine might as well keep using it.  But... when the time comes to upgrade you now know what you need to buy, and life will be good once again.

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Battery Cables 101

Know Your Battery Cable Sizes...

The biggest complaint that I hear from antique vehicle owners is " my antique vehicle will not start when its hot." This is one of the easiest thing to fix and involves one simple rule and a little common sense, so pay attention here!

First is the rule. The larger in physical diameter that your battery cable is... the more volume of current the battery cable will deliver from the battery to the starter with less electrical friction (resistance). In contrast the smaller in diameter that your battery cable is... the smaller the amount of current it will deliver to the starter from the battery, and the greater the electrical friction (resistance) will be.

My typical analogy is the difference between a fire hose and a garden hose. The water pressure (which is equal to the voltage) is the same on both hoses, but it is the extra volume of water carried by the fire hose that will put out the fire.

We know that the starter on your antique vehicle should not draw more than 150 amps when cranking over the engine. Your battery is at least 400 cranking amps even if you have the cheap one from Walmart, and if you buy the Optima from Fifth Avenue (with the 3 year free replacement warranty) you will have a thousand cranking amps!

So if your engine does not crank over when it is warm the problem is the current from the battery is not getting delivered to the starter...and what has that job...?

THE BATTERY CABLES !!

The next most important detail is the ground. If your battery ground cable is connected to the painted frame, greasy engine block, rusty water pump housing, or the painted firewall... how do you suppose the ground current will get back to the battery? You are expecting the current to travel through rubber motor mounts, paint, grease, and what ever else is blocking the path back to the battery. You can easily loose thirty percent of your starters cranking power from a bad ground path.

So..what you need to do... is replace both of your stock battery cables with one gauge cables (which is about cuban cigar size) and make the ground cable long enough so it goes directly from the battery to a starter mounting bolt or as close to the starter as you can get it. You want to be sure and clean off any paint or grease at the starter where the starter cable is bolted to the starter, because you want a clean metal to metal contact!

What you are doing is creating a direct electrical path between the starter and the battery so the current can't get lost between the battery and the starter.

I always put a toothed star washer under the bolt head at the starter ground to be sure there is a good solid battery ground cable connection.

Both Battery cables should be one gauge or larger.

OEM 6-volt battery cables were typically 4 gauge, and 12-volt battery cables were/are typically 6 gauge. In the lesson you learned at the beginning of this article I said bigger is better. You ALWAYS want use one gauge cables for BOTH the positive and the ground battery cables, and if it is a heavy electrical load application like an antique fire truck... I use 1/0 battery cables which are the same size as welding cables.

This is true for all 12-volt applications as well. Think about the electrical load of a firetruck with lights and sirens. Many fire trucks (even the newer 12-volt applications) will have dual batteries which means many more cranking amps available. In order to take advantage of that extra cranking power you need the 1/0 cables on hand to deliver the larger volume of current from the battery!

This is also true for drag race cars. How many drag cars have you seen with dual batteries in the trunk and the ground of both batteries is bolted to the floor of the trunk. That ground current from the trunk floor will need to travel to the starter then back to the battery. How is that supposed to happen with rubber body mounts, rubber engine mounts, paint, grease, and related blocking the current flow. Have the trunk floor undercoated or sprayed with trunk splatter does not help either.

We know that electricity is lazy and will take the path of least resistance so odds are about half or less of the cranking power from the two batteries in that drag car will actually get delivered to the starter which is why the car owner put two batteries in the trunk. Having a high performance motor only add to the starter's electrical load. Even with two batteries his car barely starts and the owner always wonders why?

Again...the simple way to look at this is you know that the starter should not draw more than 200 amps in a high performance engine application., You also know that a modern 12-volt battery will be at least 600 cranking amps. So two batteries results in 1200 cranking amps or more which is six times what your starter needs to crank over the engine. The weak link between those two batteries and the starter is the battery cables. You need one battery and a firehose instead of two batteries and a garden hose.

If that same car owner would run two one gauge cables to the front of the car and ground the battery ground to a starter mounting bolt he could eliminate one battery and the car would start way better than using the two batteries he has now.

It is common on high performance applications to have car owners treat the symptoms instead of fixing the problem. The problem is easy enough to identify....the engine is cranking slow because the current stored in the battery is NOT getting delivered to the starter! Most drag car owners will put a battery with 800 to a thousand cranking amps in their car with good intentions. With the wrong size battery cables and the poor battery to starter ground, that car owner cannot take advantage of his high performance battery.

The money making fix (for the aftermarket) is to sell the car owner a high torque or gear reduction starter for a couple hundred dollars, and or a high dollar electronic ignition setup for hotter spark, or a host of other goodies to fix the problem when in reality all that needs to happen is to install the correct size of battery cables.

The focus should be on fixing the problem NOT treating the symptoms. When the car owner figures that out his car will start better than it ever has... and his wallet will be a little fatter, because he did not buy the parts to treat the symptoms, which often times does not fix the problem.

Here are examples of the diameter of Battery Cables. Notice the difference  in diameter between the 4 gauge the 1 gauge cables. The smaller the number the larger in diameter the battery cable will be.

You can get custom battery cables made at most any full line auto parts store like Carquest or NAPA and they can build them any length with the ends you need to match your application. They can build them in the store while you wait. They do that for diesel truck and off road heavy equipment applications.

If you follow this simple lesson you will fix your hot start problem once and for all. While you are doing the battery cable upgrade it would be a good time to check out your starter to see what the brushes look like inside the starter and the bushings on either end of the armature.

The difference that battery cables and the proper ground makes to your starting will truly amaze you. It is hard to believe something this simple can make that much difference. And remember...you read it hear first!

And if you want to learn even more ways to fix your hot start problems and upgrade the performance of your antique vehicle's electrical system you can order a copy of my latest book entitled "Help My Car Wont Start When It's Hot! It can be found under technical publications in the "Parts" section of the website located at the top of the home page. It will be the best $15.00 you ever spent!

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