Whats and acceptable water temp??

[1971boss]

HI guys and new to the Club Cobra crowd. I just got an Everett-Morrison car which was purchased in '93 and assembled the following year. It has a 460 with a toploader and the previous owner said it had an overheating problem. For all of you guys with the 385 series engines, what kind of temps should I expect? Our radiator is angled like a , excuse me for saying it, corvette. I noticed the previous owner had the fan PUSHING air towards the front of the car and I switched polarity on the wiring to get it to PULL into the engine compartment like it should. I ran it a little and it seems to want to stay between 200 to 210 somewhere. Is this normal or to be expected or is this excessive? Any comments are welcome. Thanks again.

[CHANMADD]

That seems a little high but not that dangerous.If it stays steady at those temps it would seem that a simple thermostat change to a 190 would fix your problem.

[WildBill3]

try some Water Wetter works if your not getting crazy hot or some internal problem ,it breaks the surface tension of your coolant to help it get to hot spots inside your engine better,The farmers use something similare on ther feilds to help the water soak into the ground and break up the hard pan,its called Apsa80 i used apsa in our engine works the same .I agree do the themostat to just to cover the bases..WB

[Tom Wells]

1971boss,

If it doesn't overheat, you're ahead of the game!

The fan needs to blow through the radiator toward the rear of the car. Or pull, whichever its location demands. My main fan is a puller located right behind the radiator.

The next important item is to make certain all the air is out of the cooling system. In a lot of kit cars, this isn't easy. When I put water back into mine it usually takes some squeezing of the hoses to expel air - burp - the system, followed by several heat/cool cycles where I check and add water. The difficulty will depend on how your cooling system is physically set up.

I do have a 180 degree thermostat and a good Griffin aluminum radiator.

If you do this and still have problems, please let us know and describe the circumstances and symptoms in detail.

[1971boss]

I have noticed that after a few startups and shut down/cooling times that after it cools down I need to add some more coolant. Your comments confirm what I thought--the system isn't full still. I'll continue this until it looks like I don't have to. I'll get a 180 degree thermostat also and try that. If it still is running hot, I'll probably have to change the radiator and get a larger or thicker one. We'll keep you posted.

[bobcowan]

Do some research on cooling system design. Simple things like a overflow/recovery tank, proper radiator cap, fill port location, etc, can really make a big differance.

Replace the radiator with a quality piece, like a Moroso high flow. If the engine has a carb, use 180*. Drill a 3/16" hole in it to allow the system to be self burping.

But one comment did catch my attention. "..after it cools down I need to add some more coolant." Why is that? it's a closed system. Unless you've recently drained it, you should be losing an apreciable amount of fluid. Makes me wonder about the head gaskets. Take it to a shop that can check the fluid for products of combustion.

[1971boss]

I guess I should clarify that...I had to remove some additional hoses and piping which the prior owner ran from the radiator outlet rearward, curved around the oil pan and came forward on the passenger side, across the crossmember and finally into the engine! I asked him what was the logic with that and he thought if it had more volume of fluid it would help cool it. I felt it probably did more harm than good and removed it, especially after seeing that the hoses used in this set up collapsed whenever the engine revved up. So, yes the system was pretty much empty when I put everything back in a normal configuration. There was also no thermostat in the housing--just an old one with the valve removed essentially acting as an orfice plate. I took this out and as you described did just what you said--180 degree with a small burp hole drilled.

[freekintoad]

1971 Boss,
I am going to assume that you have a surge/and or a recovery tank
on the car. If you must continually add coolant to the system, after
you shut it down, and the car cools off...you may be over-filling this system.
There must be some room in the system for expansion and contracting of the coolant. 200 to 220 is fine concidering that these cars don't have much room for large radiators. Install a 7lb. cap. If the coolant ever reaches approx.
240 degrees, the cap will release the coolant [boil over] before you damage
the engine from higher temps. If the engine temp is 200 degrees, and the outside temp is 85 degrees, the engine will run 1 degree hotter for every 1
degree hotter the outside temp is. An engine temp of 220 should be the max that you want to see. Any hotter will require changes to be made to your
RAD.

[J Persons]

I didn't see it mentioned, but if you don't have a radiator shroud, install one. Also insure that the incoming air can't divert around the radiator, but has to go through it. Check the sides as well as the top of the radiator, especially on an angled radiator. If the top area isn't sealed, air will spill over the top between the body and the rad, instead of going through the radiator. John

[vettestr]

You are on the right track by refilling after hot/cool to purge all air from system. Bob C mentioned an air bleed hole drilled in the T-stat but respectfully suggest he has a typo on hole size. We use an 1/8 bit and Bob has 3/16 (think he wanted 3/32") air under maybe 15 PSI in a 1/8" bleed will do the job for ya.

I just leared the hard way you can have TOO MUCH radiator to cool properly. Running a 4 core alum. rad. with a fin count of 17 per " was restricting air flow. At 4" thick and a high fin count was slowing the air so much in traffic it would boil over. Company rep explained no electric fan configuration would move enough air to allow heat exchange and this rad. was designed for running at full track speed air flow. Who'd a thunk it !!!

A street car needs waterpump speed to work in traffic and must be a min. of 10 % overdriven, I target 15% for trouble free operation. The waterpump pulley needs to be smaller than crank pulley (by 15%) so these pulley kits advertised to reduce HP loss by under driving the pulley is a kiss of death on street cars in warmer climates !!!

[coco_cobra]

between 180 to 190 but not over

[fordracer]

I would use RMI 25. I use it in my Turbo Buick. With no other change it knocked 10 deg. off my temp. I use about 98% distilled water and the rest for anti-freeze. Adjust anti-freeze levels for your part of the country. I live in Houston where it rarely freezes. Remember, the green stuff is not coolant. It is anti-freeze,detergents, and lubricant. The RMI takes the place of the lubricant and detergents. STAY AWAY FROM DEX-COOL/EXTENDED LIFE CRAP!!I cannot count how many radiators,intakes, and even head gaskets because of this junk...

Also check your radiator cap. For every pound of pressure the boiling point goes up 3 degrees. You could search for one higher than the installed 15-16 lb cap you probably have installed. I wouldn't go over 20 lbs. though.

Also remember, that number stamped on the thermostat is the point it JUST STARTS TO OPEN. Stick a 180 in there if it doesn't already have one. If it does, try a 160. JUST DON"T LEAVE IT OUT COMPLETELY! The thermostats job is to keep fluid in the radiator long enough for heat transfer to take place. Without a thermostat the fluid will not be exposed to enough airflow.