The downside of the barge...

Did you verify the thermostat was open BEFORE capping and driving it originally? I'm guessing it has a 385-series, and they take a fairly large amount of coolant. I'll look it up in a second.
Pull all the plugs, then crank the engine from the starter solenoid with the ignition off. Look for any coolant squirting out, if the engine spins quickly. If you blew a head gasket, you may have hydrolocked a cylinder. Pull the dipstick and verify the oil level's around the full mark and the oil isn't milky.

 

The 385-series takes 19 1/2 qts with or without A/C.

 

Yeah, they don't have a dislike button... Hey fellas I don't like her not starting either...
When she does drive shes smooth, like she looks at the open road and says "I own you".
I just need to get her back to that, and not having stuff go wrong...
Now that, that's over... I filled it full of coolant 2 gallons, started it, waited for it to warm up, decided it would warm up a bit faster taking it out around the block and around the block turned into hey this is nice and oh crap it's been 7 miles I better stop... and... well you know the rest... like I said no warning and me and my dad who was with me feel just terrible. We did check the oil, not milky or gritty.
I have not pulled plugs though, and I hope I didn't blow a head gasket... I feel like... well I can't put it on words...

 

Yeah, that's eight quarts, and with what was still in the engine after the radiator swap, likely was only about 12 quarts. The coolant you kept putting in kept pushing air out, which only begrudgingly leaves. You always want to keep adding until the coolant level is visible in the tank and is stable (meaning not slowly going down as the trapped air slowly escapes). Then, you start it, turn on the heater, and let it idle, adding coolant to keep the cold level about six inches down. As it warms up, it'll start climbing up the tank level, so you watch and carefully touch the upper hose till it goes warm. Shut it off, let the level go down, then pour more in till the level's at six inches again and restart it. Let it run until the heater blows hot and the upper hose goes hot; at that point, you'll see the level's back down and coolant will be flowing out of the lower tubes. Slowly add enough till the top tubes have coolant flowing out and cap it, then make sure the expansion bottle is halfway between C and H. Now it's ready to be driven a couple miles and rechecked.

 

Refilling is a PITA, and needs to be finished before driving. I've had stubborn engine designs take a lot of time (sometimes over an hour) to be ready to cap. Others, 15 minutes. I've even had engines that have air trap design flaws requiring special fill procedures to prevent air locking. Older carbed Hondas take that cake. I even had a 2.2L Omni that required me to jack the front end so high up off the ground to release the air trapped in the head's water passages.

 

Well my dad called, told me some good news... or at least potentially good news. He said his old man brain is finally remembering stuff long forgotten about carburated engines, and that how it was acting when it overheated was pinging, which caused what he thinks, vapor lock. Said it happened to his uncle once, took a trip to white bear Lake, car overheated, and it vapor locked, said he had to stay overnight and the next day he held a handkerchief over the carburetor and had a buddy start it up.
I'm hoping that's what happened here with her.

 

As Silvertwinkie mentioned, check the thermostat or just replace it.

Also about vapor lock. I had a GM 327, I could drive to work and back and sometimes all day. Seems like if I got in traffic it just stopped running. I'd wait awhile then it started right up. Don't remember what I did but I believe it was something to do with rerouting gas lines. It was in a 1957 Chevy.

Yours seems like one of those two problems. Next time take shorter trips and get temp guage.

 

I just drove the wagon 1,000 miles last weekend and it was fine, but it did start with difficulty when pulling off of the highway to get fuel. Seemed like the fuel was boiling in the carb, spilling into the intake and flooding. It would fire quickly if I cranked it at WOT. Had the same type of behavior with a 78 Lincoln a few years ago. That too had a 460. They throw lots of heat.

On the wagon, I installed a 6.9 diesel thermostat. I'm going to add a temp gauge for peace of mind.

 

Will the engine crank? That's all that counts right now.
Gauge wouldn't have showed overheating without coolant around it, almost worse when they're ice cold/no coolant.
An idiot light wouldn't have lit, and unless you watch a mechanical gauge it's hard to catch, why you always check your coolant levels.

 

She is cranky, and does turn over, first attempt you get a real fast spin like she wants to catch, then she acts like battery is low, just low cranking but doesn't die off like a dead battery would... and ford didn't put gauges on her, just idiot lights... and this idiot did idiotic things... trust me fellas, no matter how much y'all could beat me up over it and say I screwed up, I'm beating myself up much worse.

 

Have you changed the thermostat yet?
Did you check the oil? It's possible it sat before from a bad head gasket or head.

It's not your fault. I've had 350 GM's with a similar problem. They get an air bubble around the temp gauge also which restricts water flow and give a false reading.

 

Have you cranked it with the plugs out yet?

 

Not yet, been working... I grabbed my socket set earlier and one of my boys must have played with it, no spark plug socket
So tomorrow before I go to work, if I can find the socket tonight, I'll crank her with the plugs out, I was going to replace them anyway.
Edit: found the socket, tomorrow I will pull plugs.

 

Update for y'all, I pulled the plugs, and no fluid came popping out, but her battery is running low, got that on a charger now. While I had the plugs out I changed them, mostly they where just a bit carbon up, look like she needed to hit the freeway and blow all that crap out, or get an Italian tune up.
As I was replacing plugs I noticed the wires where very old, and some of them a but burnt, so I replaced them too. I also noticed number two plug, one being bottom right if you're looking at engine, two being above that, was a bit toasty...
Other than that she wants to start, but with a low battery she's not starting. Making progress at least.

 

Yeah, it needed some more TLC. Another reason not driving home was a good idea.