also, speed way has a shroud kit to fit that radiator... Aluminum Fan Shroud Kit for 26 Inch Radiator, Engine Driven Fan (speedwaymotors.com)
so whats the ol wives say about shrouds??? I happen to have an ol wife and she didn't have an answer,... I've always used the instruction that the fan needs to be in the shroud a half inch...????
Young (intelligent) wives say that if there is a cooling issue and there is no shroud, "Call me back after you put a shroud on that thing". Hahaha
Proper and complete combustion in a SBC is 205°F. Running at 210°F is 5° over ideal, and well within the accuracy range of your gauge. It is not overheating until water or steam is coming out.
For those claiming that they have an engine running fine at 180°F, you don't. You are making less power while wasting fuel doing it. Don't tell me your plugs look good, either. Modern fuels make traditional plug reading nearly useless.
I got rid of the whole cooling system... rad , fan, stat, water pump and all.... had the block filled put a blower on it it ran over 200 mph...
Why not have both Street/Drag! On SBC , You can drill, tap ,plum temp gauges in between 2& 4, 6&8 , 1&3 5&7 @ thermostat, All 4 corners of the intake Between runners 4&6 3&5 You will get all different coolant temps , Typically 30 deg swings/differences. Sometimes it's best not to know this,!!! With a lot of testing & and experimenting you can get temps close & equal, But most only use One gauge & are Happy or Not what they See!.. SB2 block design solved a lot of the coolant inconsistent temps in block & heads , ""Nucleate boiling in cylinder head""
So today I installed a new 195* stat which is what I installed last year with the new intake. Tolerances soo tight between rad and fan I managed to pinch my index and middle fingers between the 2. Luckily the wife and my youngest was in the garage. I was screaming like a bitch cause I couldn't just pull my fingers out. Took an breath as she was freaking out about what to do. I told her to grab a pry bar and ended up using a large wrench to pry it just enough to slip out my fingers. 2 small cuts and it's good. Brainfart! lol Installed the radiator and hoses. 1 gallon of antifreeze and 2 gallons of water. New rad cap as well. Took it to the liquor store and back and the temp gauge was all over the place at first then calmed down to 195. Let it cool a lil bit in the driveway. Removed the cap and added more water to top it off. Fluid was light green no brown. The temp sensor is in the intake where one of ya'll is running the bypass. The camel back heads are the early era with no ports on the sides with the spark plugs to install it there. Also the front of the heads don't have the acc holes drilled. 4 trips to the parts store to get the right size belt. I will run it this week and drain it next weekend.
I looked at the flow simulations that GM did on the SBC, once they had the compute-power to do so. The results were a complete mess, with recirculation eddy currents at the back of the block. It's pure luck that cooling works at-all. None of what was forecasted in the early 1950's for how the cooling works proved to actually be valid. There is a solid reason why even the most demure LS, in stock form, makes more horsepower than most engines from the muscle car era, and why they can be pushed over 1k, at 210°F, all damned day.
Took it out today to grab lunch. Noticed in 3rd and 4th the clutch is slipping a bit. Never dealt with the Z bar style clutch. Is there any adjustment? It's fine in 1st, 2nd and rev.
There should be an adjustment somewhere. How much freeplay is in the pedal? Slipping in the higher gear's usually means it's time for a clutch. Hopefully you get lucky with the adjustment.
If the clutch is slipping in 3rd and 4th gear, but not in 1st & 2nd, the clutch is nearly toast. If the clutch has been slipping, it wasn't helping with your over heating problem on the highway either, the motor was working harder to maintain the speed.
I will check for an adjustment in the morning. I do know the rear main is leaking and that ain't helping the clutch either. I will make sure the timing is spot on as well. It should be fine as the motor fires right off.
One thing you might try sitting still is setting a big portable fan in front of the radiator running full blast and see if the temp drops. I've got a big squrrel cage fan that I set in front of rigs that I am running for lengths of time while working on them and that thing puts out a lot of air. We used to use a square fan on a home made stand with the cars we did AC work on in the 70's in a shop I worked in. The idea is that will show you if low speed air flow is the issue. I still say that a lot of newer engines are pre disposed to run at the temp that they ran at in the donor car they left the factory in and we sometimes expect too much when we think that they should run at what we see as "old car temps" rather than their own age group temps.
No........ It's in there for a reason. Leave it in. Just make sure you have the correct temp thermostat in for your engine and check that it is actually working properly.
Just read this on another thread and had to put it up here too. Excellent and correct info. All credit to @FrozenMerc
This is just another proven way to cool one, at least for me. Here in Florida the heat can get brutal, my A-Bone had no mechanical fan just two used swap meet 10" pusher fans. It could sit all day in 90+ temps and stay well below 195 with the full hood on. I used 10" pushers on two other cars as well, zero issues. The fans will only fit if you have a 32 grill shell. I use tap water and antifreeze coolant nothing fancy. It has a 350-350 for power.
You do not have the bypass hooked up, So make sure you have drilled atleast 2x 1/8" holes in the flange of the thermostate. You have to make sure the engine is running when you fill the radiator and put the cap on before you shut the engine off. Then get a recovery style catch can to ensure you don't get air in the system anymore.
All is good in da hood with the roadster now. Pulled it out of the garage this afternoon. Topped off the radiator put the front grill back on and went down the road. Topped off the tank and a 1/2 mile later it burped again through the cap and drain line. Sent a spritz of coolant onto the windshield but nothing more after that. The gauge stayed at 200 the whole trip about 30 miles. I will be changing the clutch soon to get rid of that issue.
Add an over flow bottle or a coolant recovery tank. Doesn't have to be fancy. That will keep from dumping coolant onto the ground so it can blow back at you.
Those engines overheat too, and when they do they usually don't warn you sh*t is about to go down by simply boiling, they go straight into meltdown mode.
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