Aluminium engines will heat up much quicker than an iron one. The downside is that aluminium engines don't last as long and when working on them it can be very easy to strip threads.

Thermo fans ! Saved the day!
Slipping fan belts were so common,Then we had Thermo fans as a back up and cars stopped over heating . Another factor was people have stopped DIY service.
Many people would service their own can back then and have no idea what tension should be on a belt or how to test a thermostat so they just changed the oil,plugs and airfilter and think they serviced their car , very few new cars get serviced at home anymore.
My car does,but I'm an ex mechanic..thank goodness it's Ex!!!!

Pete

As a late teenager and early 20-something, I and my mates used to do everything from a basic service up to engine swaps and putting new seals in master cylinders, etc. Due to the way we used to drive, replacing burnt out diff centres and snapped half shafts also happened sometimes. And wasn't it a pain in the rectum pulling out a diff centre just to clear out the leftover inch of spline from a snapped half shaft?

The most intense thing I have done to my car in the last 20 years was change a leaking radiator a couple of years ago and my back reminded me of that job for the next week or so. Even a six-monthly service is now done by the experts. Let them bugger their backs.

When I was 17 and STUPID  I got into a lot trouble and all from a Radiator,I had a good friend who knew nothing about Cars and very late one night the Car boiled over coming home from a Party . We pulled into a Closing Mac Donalds and "" Todd "'  took the Radiator Cap off before I had a chance to yell NO , He was burnt so badly that the Skin fell off his arm in front on me. I Ran to Mac Donalds to get water, But the door was locked and they would not open it ,, I needed water and I could see them inside still , But they would no open the Door ,So being 17 and with no brains I did a high kick to the Glass door which smashed the front window and I told them to call an ambulance.Well the Ambulance came and Todds Face and Arm was badly burnt,,,Off to hospital he went ...So I go Home and the next morning the Cops are at my Mums door a knocking ...I told the cops exactly what happened and why I kicked the doors down, They told Mac Donalds their wasting their time and I was let off the hook .. Todd was left with Scares on his Arms and fingers but not his face.

Aluminium engines & bits do tend to not last if you leave out corrosion inhibitor. Some of the stupid things of the 60's were aluminium water pump & thermostat housings on iron blocks. The recently removed TE20-D and earlier removed MII Zephyr did not have a mark on them from corrosion. The tractor and the utes blocks were clean. The tractor has a lot of aluminium in the engine, the thermostat housing is 70's an was showing a bit of corrosion, but is back in service. The radiator was not touched (1951) as the corrosion inhibitor had been doing its job.

I still use it in the ute despite everything being cast iron as it clearly has kept the system clean. Tractor still has a bellows thermostat & I have a spare. that tested OK & the cylinder head had no blocked ports.

With the pits in the seats of the tractors thermostat housing (2 bits) I wire brushed all of the pits back to bare metal and filled them with metal putty. That was still cheaper than replacing them at this point. Tractor cylinder head was removed & replaced on site, however the head was professionally serviced and hardened seats installed. That engine was really clean inside despite the water form the head gasket fail (1986 last overhaul) Shell diesel spec oil does keep the engines clean.

Rare for the current fleet to be sent to a garage. The young ones would be all at sea with the ute. Its manual for starters and has ignition points. Bad design award goes to the baby sit (Audi A4 diesel). One has to take the bottom plate off to get at the sump bung and if you do not have a new bung seal, you have a problem.

When I was 20 I had a 6 cylinder Toyota Crown which I bought for not much money as it had a quite bad big end knock.
As they say fools rush in and this was the case with me at the time.
I removed the engine and tore it down completely and when disassembled and laid out took up most of the floor in a double garage.
Pretty much everything was worn out.
Even the timing chain was so loose it could be lifted off the top sprocket without releasing the tensioner.
Amazing that it hadn't jumped some teeth and destroyed the engine.
I had all the machining done (rebore etc), new pistons, bearings, seals, timing chain, tensioner, chain sprockets etc,etc.
Reassembled everything and to my amazement it started and ran beautifully.
These days I wouldn't even contemplate such an exercise nor would my back allow it but back then I did all my own vehicle maintenance out of necessity as I couldn't afford to pay someone to do it on an apprentice wage.

Yes but back then rebuild parts, bearing, Pistons etc were made in Japan and Australia and the prices were possible.
Now the prices are not possible and the cheap Chinese rebuild parts are not worth a pinch of pop in terms of wear and reliability...That's the truth , because I rebuilt endless engines with genuine parts and Chinese parts and there is a huge difference.

Pete

Yeah Pete, while working at Lister Diesels we saw the first influx of cheap spare parts instead of genuine.
Customers would buy non genuine air filters for a few cents less than genuine and then complain when their new engine dusted and wore out at low hours.
You could shine a light through those filters and see "stars"!
The oil filters were just as "good". Micron rating did not come into it!
Bastards used to package the crap in the same livery boxes, the lister green and white but print "Luster" or something as the name.
As for non genuine rod bearings, ring packs, valves ect ect you name it.........made from crap metal and coarse machined.

The Indians were the biggest problem, they made copy cat engines using the fake parts and they were just crap.
There were a couple of firms in Australia that would import the Indian engines but then rebuild them properly so they then lasted.
I personally stripped a couple of T series replicas down for inspection, both engines had stripped studs just hammered over on the end to hold the nut on and casting sand still laying loose inside the crankcases!
File marks on crank pins, parts just hammered in place you name it.

Lister were suffering this crap back in the 1970's before the Chinese got into it.
I inspected some actual Chinese and Korean engines and boy they were just junk, looked the part but they had no idea how to produce the materials or machine them accurately. Some were clones of Japanese Hondas and Robins. Those were top engines in the 70's.
A Chinese or Korean engine would be clapped after 50 hours, all smoke and dripping oil.
Jap engines would do 1000's hours easy.

Fred.

Fred ,
Hi Fred ,,Yep I did Diesel Trucks for awhile , Volvo and Fords mostly , I also did the Hydraulics on those Street sweepers , years and years ago ...It was not a bad job , Just I had other plans and wanted to go O/S so I left ......

Pete