Technical Sbc overheating issues possibly due to lake headers

So here's the deal guys... We bought a late 20s roadster last fall with a 327 sbc ran great no issues. This past winter we switched the sprint car style headers for some lake headers... Nothing else has changed... No it instantly overheats... Anyone else ever heard or have had this problem did some searching on here but didn't find much

Thanks
Mike

 

What do you mean Instantly? As soon as you start it?, I could see new jetting may be needed but Instantly?? More info? Dumb question have you checked the coolant? Air pocket maybe?
I had a SBC sit for a couple of years and the head gasket was leaking enough to loose quite a bit of coolant into the cylinder, then into the crankcase.

 

As soon as it is started it builds heat to the point where it over heats checked over everything from coolant to having the radiator flushed...

 

Put the original pipes back on and see if it fixes the problem?

 

Put some statement of time in mins to this.


Lakes headers aren't going to do that. So get that out of your head.

Double check the cooling system again.
Water flow, stuck thermostat, rotted water pump, keep looking but not at the exhaust pipes

 

Well we are going to keep looking tonight...
We have already taken the thermostat out checked waterflow and everything was fine water pump seemed to be working fine but we are putting a new one on today to double check... I am only asking about the headers because that is about the last thing we can think of possibly a scavenging problem but we were not sure if it ever has happened to anyone else before.... Will shoot you guys an update after tonight with more info

 

Something else changed while it was down for headers. Can't think of a reason where header change will cause that quick overheating.
Keep us updated, maybe im wrong, I learn new stuff all the time

 

How old are your radiator hoses? You could have one collapsing internally. Cheap enough to replace if you don't know how old it is. Had a car overheating all day and as I pulled in the driveway it blew up the upper house! It looked fine all day

 

Well you better be careful you'll burn your valves.

This is how myths get started. You have a problem for sure but I will bet dollars to donuts that the headers are not causing it. I am not there to help you check it but I would suggest that you are either not circulating water or you have poped a head gasket. There is a slim chance that you have jumped time but usually when an SBC jumps time it won't start at all.

 

how hot is it getting?

 

We have been shutting it down before it gets to much above 210 but the thing never used to break 180 last fall

 

Can't be the pipes...

 

I'll throw this at the wall ....is it possible they could have cracked a head with too long a bolt , too much torque onthe bolt ... I'm not familiar enough w/ internal water passages to know ???
dave

 

Sounds like it may be a head gasket issue if it keeps heating up with no end in site. Does it have enough coolant in it? Or has it pushed it all out the new lake pipes?

 

Gauge working properly?

 

Cooling system problem , Never heard in all my years of lakes headers or open headers causing a problem like yours. Maybe air in cooling system? Is it pushing coolant? Air bubbles in system?

 

like oldrelics asked, is the gauge working? I can't see the headers causing the overheat problem. Where is your temp sensor located?

 

I say let it run....maybe it needs to get above 210 [on the gauge] before the T'stat opens because of a small air pocket ....let it run to about 225 ro so and see if the thermostat opens and life returns to normal. If not, toss the T-stat into a pot of boiling water to see if it works.

 

post some pics of engine, both sides

 

Haha thanks for the optimism but it is... We can tell by the chrome we cooked off the headers that is running more than a little warm

 

We took the thermostat out right away to see if it not opening was the problem didn't even matter

 

Thinking further on a head gasket,as mentioned. Have you checked for water in the oil? If it sat over the winter didn't it have Antifreeze in the engine?

 

Running lean or retarded timing cooks the chrome, also heats the engine excessively. Just swaping Headers might mean you need to richen up a tiny bit, not a gross chrome burning amount. Dizzy weight plates can stick easy enough & they would have stuck in the retarded position when not running for a while.

Now That might burn the chrome

 

Well then by info that I would say timing or burning lean if you are cooking chrome off

 

Timing is right on ill tell him to try and adjust richness

 

I am of the opinion that it is something in the cooling system . some blockage an air pocket or blown head gasket something of this nature. a water pump as long as it turns it works it may leak out of the weep hole or the bearing may go bad. but I have never in over 50 years of fooling with this junk seen an impellar slip on the shaft. I am thinking new t-stat and let it run see if it backs down 250 will not hurt it as long as it is not an extended period of time tom

 

What was the temperature outside last fall compared to now???

 

Yep, you're on it George!
That question remains a wonderment.
He said he went from sprint car headers to lake headers and nothing else was changed.

If the sprint car headers were attached to a set of leg burners or inserts that's a quite a bit more than "nothing else"

 

Sorry for the lack of info not my vehicle don't know all of the details called and asked he had a pair of muffler inserts in the old headers and running the exhaust open right now. He asked me to post asking for a solution beings that neither of us knew the issue.... I will talk to him after work and see what else I can fill you all in on

 

Too far retarded and/or too lean will cause the exhaust pipes to run really hot and increase water temp. But for a simple change of header styles to suddenly spike your engine's water temp by 30* and render the car undrivable says either the thing was way lean/retarded before and this more open style exhaust just pushed it over the edge or something else is amiss and I'd bet the later. Compression bubbles in the radiator? Radiator clogged up? Water pump shitting the bed? Air pocket in the engine? Just some things to look at...