I'm working on a 1932 PB that has a history of overheating. I removed the cylinder head and flushed a larg amount of rust &scale from the cylinder block. There was an especially heavy accumulation at the rear of the block behind cylinder #4. The cylinder head was checked for cracks and surfaced.
My question regards and coolant circulation. Does this engine use a water distribution tube? There isn't one in the block and it seems to me that without it and coolant flow to the back of the engine block won't be very much.
Thanks for the advice, Regards George
I don't think the four cylinder Plymouths had water distribution tubes. It wasn't until the third model year of the six cylinder in 1935 that it got the water distribution tube.
I don't know about the four cylinder Plymouths, but the 1933 Plymouth had a boss on the back of the head with the cast label of "heater". Since my car came with a heater (plumbed in an odd way), I drilled and tapped that boss and put my heater feed there. I never close the valve on that so even in summer I get flow from the back of the head through the heater which I hope gives a bit more cooling to the rear valves.
In your case, I think the thorough cleaning of the block you just did, along with back flushing the radiator, will go a long way. I have never heard of the PA or PB having cooling issues.
Over heating on 4 cyl Plymouths is usually a pluggled up radiator. The waterpump impellers also like to break off. If the block had a bunch of junk in it, it is now in the radiator.
On my 30U it had a cooling problem. Took the water pump off, flushed out the engine (couldn't believe the stuff that came out, had the water pump rebuilt, flushed the radiator, and no more problems.