I am running a 440 (approx 700 miles) , Howe Aluminum Radiator, Aluminum Shroud, a flex fan, and Vintage Air in my 60 Dodge. After replacing the thermostat with a new 195 I thought I had the problems taken car of The past weekend drove about 100 miles to a car show left in the am ran 70 without a/c temp stayed close to 195 but by the time I got in the gate and parked it was pushing 240 Coming home temp was in mid 90s ran a/c and as long as I kept the speed around 65 and had airflow across the radiator temp was about 205 when I got off the interstate and caught the first light jumped to almost 230 while idling waiting for light to change It appears I am not getting good circulation at low speeds. I have no room for a pusher between the grill and radiator. Without throwing a lot of $$$ at an unknown what are my options? High flow pump? Appreciate any ideas Thanx
..get rid of the flex fan and use the Mopar non-flex and a thermal fan clutch, used to be a package from Ma Mopar, I've used that on tow rigs, street rods, muscle mopars both BB and SB and on my Hemi-Charger. Workee FINE !!!!
ditch the flex fan. has this engine always run hot? years back me and a buddy were given a 455 olds. the guy we got it from said it runs hot and he couldnt figure why. we took the intake off because there was blue silicone oozing from everywhere. we found the coolant passages through the intake were plugged with silicone that was smeared all over the intake gaskets. new gaskets and no silicone. that 455 ran 190 all day long.
Definitely toss the flex fan and go with the clutch fan. Flex fans are not worth the time it takes to put them on,especially in a fendered and hooded car. Some work okay in an open engine compartment hot rods but if you have ever seen one come apart,you"ll never use one again.
Never had good luck with flex fans on any of my RB's. Get the big fan and clutch from Mopar. And post some pics of your rig.
seriously, switch to a 160 or 180 stat at most. 195 is to hot for an old 440. change the fan and make sure it has a shroud. im not a fan of aluminum radiators but making other changes should cool you off and you can keep the rad.
I have a stock "big ass" dodge wagon clutch fan on my truck and that thing NEVER gets hot (when the clutch is working). Not sure if its the viscus fan or not but, it worked for a 383 in a wagon with A/C. One of my last trips the clutch went out and it got a little warm in the middle of july I-80 sac traffic, but once I started moving it was A-OK. Just another thought, is your motor .060 over?? What about exhaust (size and mufflers), my truck ran cooler when I took the flowmasters off and put on some dynomax ultra-flo mufflers.
Years ago I had a flex fan on a 72 AMX and done fine while moving but as soon as I stopped it started getting hot,put a stock fan on it and no more problems.
Thanx for the inputs The engine was built by the local Mopar guru, who is also is the inventor of the JVX shifter The engine is .30 over with a 6 pack cam, stock exhaust manifold and running 2 1/2 exhaust with magnaflow muffler Clutch fan sounds like the way to go for a start. Will try and get some pictures up in next day or so
take the HUGE wind breaker-heat maker condencer off the front of it {ac}and i bet it doesnt get hot.to me hot rods and air just dont get along.if you want to drive around town with the air on just go buy a new car.if you want to drive around town with your air on your hot rod plan on troubles unless you put a 4 banger in it.sorry just my 2c.
Sounds like a stock 440 Magnum with good exhaust, should be ok. My bet, ditch the fan for sure and get a good stock A/C fan.
I'm running a 30 over '66 383 with a flex fan and shroud..82,000 hot rod miles and never overheats, but did experience a problem a few years back and discovered even with 36 louvers on each side of my 32 Stude President, I was "trapping and stirring" heat under the hood in slow traffic..put a pusher fan on front of the ac condensor and flip it on when driving slow..Presto it pushes the hot air out and stopped the problem. I am running a 180 thermostat and 50-50 antifreeze/distilled water..I flip the pusher fan off while on the road and consistantly run 190-195 on a 95+day...but will gradually creep up to 205-210 in lots of traffic. Talked to Walker Radiators and he said son, the new alkygas we're running is good for an additional 15 degrees over what us old timers are used to. I know I don't like 200 plus, but he said lots of his customers are running 220-225 consistantly...I agree with the others also on the timing...these big block Mopars like a lot of timing..mine is 12 1/2 BTC..too slow will definitely cause the temp to rise...I also run air and can't tell much difference with the compressor off vs. on. Also be sure the vacuum advance is working to advance the timing with a little throttle..Hope this helps..
It does sound like the fan you have on it isn't moving enough air. And I am another one who says go to a clutch fan. I actually have a clutch fan off an 85 Dodge Van on my 71 GMC (I had it) and that thing will just about suck a cat through the radiator. The 48 with a 250 six in it and a skimpy flex fan (no space) does exactly what you said your car does. Good on the road and as soon as you slow down the temp gauge starts to climb and as soon as it is moving and catching some air again the gauge drops right back down to 180. That is with 120 louvers in the hood. The flex fan just doesn't pull enough air.
I didn't see what water pump you are running. Are you running one of the early aluminum water pumps from "440 Source"? They had some horrible cast flashing problems internally (CHINA) and hampered flow at low speeds.
Flex fans should never be used on for anything that sees freeway driving. The factory A/C clutch fan was invented for a reason, take advantage of it.
go to hf tools and get one of those inferred laser temp scanners and look for cold and hot spots. you will be able to find them fast and it is a lot cheaper than changing parts
my 2 cents worth ditch the flex, go clutch install a 180 stat got room for a oil cooler? cool oil cool motor
X 2 also make sure your bottom rad hose has a coiled wire in it to keep it from colapsing. Rev up motor and watch you rad hose,with out the wire the hose will flattin out,no water moving,heats up real fast............YG
Make sure u have water pump for ac .Dodge ran a different pump for non ac engines.Run an ac water pump with a mopar clutch fan.The ac water pump had less impeller fins.Jimmie King
Thats just a dumb statement, what about the millions of cars on the road with a/c that cool just fine. He obviously has another problem. Just my 2c
I would check the thermostat. I have bought new ones that don't work. I knew a guy that was having overheating problems with his Hemi. He was going nuts trying to find the problem. It was his radiator and it was a new one. Good luck. Lust 4 Rust!!!!
Another thing to look at is that radiator. Put an external fan of some sort in front of it and see what kind of air volume you have. I just had a 57 Chevy in the shop doing the same thing. It had some sort of aluminum radiator and there was almost no air going through it. What it came down to was too many fins per inch. This one had 19 and another one we had only had 12 per inch. There was a huge difference in air flow. Some manufacturers do it this way for whatever reason. I talked to a tech guy at Ron Davis radiators and theirs are the same way. When he was questioned about a car that had the same issues you are having, he got all bent out of shape and said they build race car radiators and they really don't work that well on the street. I agree with the others about the flex fan, and quite possibly a clutch fan could solve your problem, but I would check air flow just for the fun of knowing.
I had a 440 CHP spec A38 '78 Monaco. Factory max cool pkg equipped with giant 7 blade fan/clutch, 26" radiator and shroud, PS cooler, separate engine oil cooler, external trans cooler, AC compressor cut-out, even had a thing called a Thermo-guard to protect the battery, and foil covered insulation under the floor mat, and in the wheel wells to protect the front suspension bushings. That thing created lots and lots of heat. As I remember I ran 36° total advance. It ran cool regardless. That fan/clutch moves an incredible amount of air.
If everything else checks out OK, this is what the 7 blade max cooling fan looks like-very aggressive blades, but one belt may not turn these things. Mopar made a stout flex fan if space is critical, but it is noisy. The aftermarket aluminum fan is positively wimpy compared to max.
The 383 in my truck came out of a 68 polara wagon with a/c. I saved everything for my transplant. It came with the 6 blade clutch fan and a small diameter water pump pulley (4.5-5"), so it spins up good at idle.
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