Farmall A Getting Hot

My 1945 Farmall A seems to be getting to hot. Radiator is full, it has no water pump but fan turns freely. Radiator gets hot at top, but stays cold at bottom. Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated. Thanks

Thermostat maybe sticking on it, or the fins are clogged and need to be blown out, or the cooling system may need to be flushed. But from what you have said it sounds like the thermostat is not opening up so water can flow like it should
Hobby farm

Sounds normal to me. The radiator is cooling the water as it moves from top to bottom like it is made to do. That is how a thermosiphon system works. If the fan turns free with the engine stopped, tighten the belt.

If the radiator core tubes are scaled up with deposits, it will act like that. Look in the radiator (with enough coolant out that you can see the tops of the cores. If they look a bit plugged, it is time to test it for flow. Take out all coolant. Remove the bottom hose at radiator. Get a five gallon clean bucket filled with water. Begin pouring in water into the cap opening about as fast as you can pour it without spilling a bunch. If it backs up and takes it slowly and does not run out the bottom freely. it is plugged. 2 or three gallons a minute is minimumish. If plugged, try a real rad flush product to see if it helps (follow all directions to a T. If still no help, it needs to be cleaned by a Rad shop. JimN

How hot is "hot"? Unless it is boiling, it isn't too hot and is working normally.

No way to tell safely without removing the grill so you can get your hand on it but it sounds to me like it's working just the way it's supposed to.

Yours is a non-pressurized thermosiphon system and does not (or at least should not) have a thermostat, nor a water pump. Works on the basic principle that heat rises. Your coolant heats up around the cylinder sleeves and in the head. As it heats it rises to the top and passes out the front of the head to the radiator. As it cools in the radiator it falls and re-enters the crankcase at the bottom. The rising in the motor and the falling in the radiator is what creates circulation in the system in the absence of a pump.

If you have a good muffler tightly clamped to the pipe, you'll notice at high RPMs that your fan is actually noisier than your exhaust. I know listening from the house to our BN (same motor) out cultivating that, except when the governor would cause her to belch, you never heard the exhaust. All you heard was the steady roar of the fan.

Point is that the fan is over-efficient for the size motor, which is what gets the thermosiphon circulation going. I've noted the same thing as you, that the top of the radiator will be hot while the bottom will be comfortable to the touch, even after a hard run, and even cool to the touch if she hasn't really been working hard. And that's with a clean, good working system.

Yes, it's different from automobiles, where we're accustomed to the whole system being under pressure and hot every where but, myself, what you describe sounds quite normal for a non-pressurized thermosiphon, so I'm not sure you have a problem.

Hope this helps.

Someone on here posted about an "A" getting too hot because of wrong head gasket. Missing some holes or extra holes.