bjuice

its really hard to tell cause a thermostate has been known not to perform as it should....Running hot sometimes is hard to define such as a car cutting back...too much fuel or not getting enough fuel.

with this said by eliminating the mechaincal function of a thermostate you will isolate the problem......i know i have went on saying water moving to quickly thru a block will cause heat problems...but also water moving to slow or not at all will cause the same problems..

when you gut the thermostate you are taking the guess work out of the thermostate situation....

i'm i making sense///LOL//or i'm i confusing you ?... :lol: ..

give it a try and see what happens..

let us know.

Brian

WVProStreet

I will let you know how things work. It will be a few weeks since I start night turns tonight :cry: !! Whats your feelings on coolants? Thanks again, Doug

firestone

Thanks for the replys, I am taking the shroud off and adding another pusher fan that I had laying around. I will try a restrictor and a larger water pump pulley if that does not help.

Adam

bjuice

it s probably best not to run the ANTI FREEZE coolant off the shelf..if you ever blow a head gasket it can do some extra damage to your engine such as wiping out bearings etc....

to be honest i have run anti-freeze in some of my motors in the past but never hurt anything such as blown head gaskets etc...if its a street /strip car i would run it in a heartbeat....I WILL NOT run it in my 632..

but we do in our street strip cars "our" meaning me and the wife...
she had an over heating problem with her 406..i had a 160 thermostate..i took it out and placed a 3/4 restrictor..and no more problems with over heating...

its been nice speaking with ya....and remember there is no such question as a dumb question..
i am not a motor builder but i pride myself as a good tuner and maintenance man on my stuff

Brian

firestone

Did a plug check and found antifreeze in the number 8 cylinder. Had the head pulled and the gasket looks OK. The head is off getting checked for cracks. The block was checked before the motor went together so I would think it is OK. The machine shop guy said that there is a chance that the valve guide is leaking. I'll keep you updated.

Adam

WVProStreet

Finally got around to running my new setup with restrictor...now-------I have a 3/4" restrictor (gutted thermostat) and still heats up. Doesn't seem to heat up as quickly but I had to shut it down because temps would start climbing quickly after it hit 200 degrees. Manual fan time or smaller restrictor? I'm about to give up...Help!

mytmouz

Copied this off another site, it may help.

I bought my 80 Bu with 12"dual electric fan unit(Flex-a-lite #210) and now that I drive it on hot days it runs warm..I went to Atco last week and it was 85-87 outside and in that heavy traffic on route 73 the engine temp was up at 205 on some on the trip,on the way home it was 70 out and still ran at 180...now going back to my old 87 SS Monte I tried 2 12" fans and found it wanted to go over 210 all the time,till I remove them and installed a 19+" Flex fan (Flex-a-lite#1319) and that droped the temp a lot.............So I bought one for the BU and it was 83 out today so I went out for a test and even in traffic it would not go over 165 and when the traffic started moving it went down to 155.So you want a hell of a good fan try a 1319 Flex-a-lite............... :COOL OLDHEAD,PS: Thats using a stock shroud with the 1319

Robert1320

firestone

Any updates?

firestone

The problem is solved. First, all of the exhaust valve guides were leaking, the #8 cylinder was the worst. They were bronze. We were told that on big block heads, for some reason this tends to happen with bronze guides. We replaced the guides with steel ones. Block, heads, and head gaskets were checked and were OK. The motor was put back together and it cooled much better, but still had a little trouble. We took the electric fan off and bought a non flex mechanical fan. We had a custom shroud built and it completely solved the problem. It just sits at 185 when the car is moving. If you stay in one spot idling for a long time it will creep up, but if it is driven for 1/2 a block it drops back to 185. I think a larger radiator would solve that but I am happy with how it does now. Thanks for all the help.

Adam