fe pulleys whats best

[wrench87]

I took my 445fe for a ride on a 2 lane road at 50mph temp is 85 degrees celcius,highway is the same, around town with stop and go it can go to 100 to 105 degrees celcius. I have a 7.5 crank pulley and a 6 inch water pump pulley and a 2 11/16 alt pulley. I also have the ron davis radiator, 180 t stat'nd a edelbeock waterpump what is the best set up for pulleys and fe's
1to1 , underdriven , or overdriven?.

[FWB]

Originally Posted by wrench87

I took my 445fe for a ride on a 2 lane road at 50mph temp is 85 degrees celcius,highway is the same, around town with stop and go it can go to 100 to 105 degrees celcius. I have a 7.5 crank pulley and a 6 inch water pump pulley and a 2 11/16 alt pulley. I also have the ron davis radiator, 180 t stat'nd a edelbeock waterpump what is the best set up for pulleys and fe's
1to1 , underdriven , or overdriven?.

i had a march pulley on my waterpump, it ran a bit hot so i went back to a 7" factory pulley, it made a difference

[kgs365]

up...looks less blingy ...stays cool...and its inexpensive

[undy]

All March seems to sell is under-drive garbage... Not real "cool" for our over-heat challenged FEs. OEM all the way!

Try to slightly over-drive water pump. Your FE will like you for it...

[SoTxButler]

Originally Posted by undy

All March seems to sell is under-drive garbage... Not real "cool" for our over-heat challenged FEs. OEM all the way!

Try to slightly over-drive water pump. Your FE will like you for it...

Very true. The FE runs cooler with at least a 7" pulley.

[Bobcat]

Guys ... not trying to contradict anyone , but I`ve been running the March under drive pulleys on my Ponds 482 since it went it went in the cars years ago and have no overheating problems . Street , down in SC in the Summer , I`ll get to 190 to 195 in traffic and then back to 185 or less once I get to 40 mph . On the track this past Memorial weekend at VIR , I saw 185 on track temps with an ambient of low to mid 90`s . I asked Robert what pulleys to run when I got the engine from him and he gave me the March part numbers .
I also realize every engine setup is different ... just passing on what I have .
BTW , he told me to not hook up the bypass from the water pump to the intake manifold . Don`t know what else he has done to the cooling system , but it works !

[fordracing65]

Kirkham pullies, billet, look great, work great.

[wrench87]

Well right now i have a 7.5 crank pulley and a 6 inch waterpump pulley so I am overdriving the pump?. Does any one know what size the Kirkham pulleys are?.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by wrench87

Well right now i have a 7.5 crank pulley and a 6 inch waterpump pulley so I am overdriving the pump?. Does any one know what size the Kirkham pulleys are?.

For every revolution of your crank you will turn your water pump pulley 1.25 times, if I did my math correctly. So, yes, you are overdriving it. If you drive your car on the highway, on a hot day, and then you get stuck in stop and go traffic for 10 minutes or so, does your temperature continue to climb or does it level off at 100-105 and hold there? That's a little high, but not terribly so, and if your engine temp doesn't continue to climb and then overheat I wouldn't worry about it.

[wrench87]

pat, i still have to readjust timing and set carb etc, i just took it for its first ride with the big block. Yes the temp does come back down, i dont have a sensor to turn on my fans right now, on my small block i had a aluminum degas tank with the sensor in the bottom. I have to find a new set up i just have the back up toggle under the dash to turn on the dual fans.
I was thinking of one of the adjustable probe style ones?.

[patrickt]

OK, I have a 16" straight finned SPAL puller and the dual pushers up front. The SPAL is on a thermo switch from the lower radiator hose. The pushers are on a manual bypass switch (which also engages the puller as well). This past weekend I took her to a Wounded War Veterans show and it was hot. Really hot. I paid particular attention to my temp gauge and, after driving it at highway speeds, I got stuck in stop and go traffic. My puller fan alone kept the temperature in the low 90's -- I did not need to throw the manual switch for the pushers, which generally brings the temperature down in to the high 80's when I'm not moving. I don't really need the pushers, they're mostly a redundant "backup" system in case the puller, or the puller relay, fails. Once traffic cleared and I moved at a decent pace the air flow alone brought the temps down to 90 or a little below.

[SoTxButler]

Something to think about...cavitation can occur when velocity of the fluid is moving to fast and reaches the point where the fluid backs up as it moves past obstructions (like sharp turns, etc.) rather than flowing smoothly. Turbulence occurs, bubbles form and so forth and so on. Overdriving the pump to this extext could be causing such cavitation and that can affect the cooling efficiency of the system.

Others with much more knowledge than me will undoubtedly shoot this down or explain it better.

Hope you can solve the problem.

[patrickt]

FWIW, the original pulley ratio on my 428, straight from the factory, was 1.34 -- maybe those fancy-schmancy 427s were different.

[tboneheller]

I have a March set-up for street rods that overdrives the water pump. Seems to work good.

[wrench87]

I have the edelbrock waterpump how much more does this flow over a stock fe pump?. I am wondering if i slow it down 1 to 1 or slightly under drive it if the coolant would spend more time in the radiator to cool it down.
any opinions?

[SoTxButler]

Yep, more time in the radiator extracts more heat ..and therefore a cooler coolant into the engine.

[MaSnaka]

I would verify the temps your gauge is giving you before going too far. That is if you haven't already.

John

[Barnsnake]

Something to think about......
If the coolant is slowed down so it spends more time in the radiator cooling off, it also spends more time in the engine heating up.

A radiator can extract a given amount of calories (or BTUs if you prefer) per minute, assuming a constant differential between the coolant and ambient air temperatures, and a constant air flow through the radiator. Changing the velocity of the coolant through the radiator will not change the amount of heat extracted.

A very slow coolant velocity would result in cooler radiator exit temperatures, but very high coolant temperatures exiting the engine. The slow flow also keeps the coolant in the very hot cylinder head areas for a longer time, creating the risk of steam pockets.

A higher coolant velocity keeps the engine temperatures more consistent, front-to-back and top-to-bottom. A higher velocity is increasingly superior right up to the point where pump cavitation occurs, or extreme turbulence disrupts the flow. Such problems would only manifest themselves at high engine RPM.

In short.... If the engine is overheatng at low speed, reducing the coolant flow will make it worse, if anything.

As noted above, the first thing to determine is the actual temperature of the coolant exiting the engine. Don't beat your brains out trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. An infrared thermometer reading a non-glossy area near the thermostat and temperature sender is a pretty good test. Assuming there is no air in the system and the coolant exiting the engine is well above the thermostat temperature, you need more air through the radiator, or more radiator.

[undy]

Originally Posted by wrench87

I have the edelbrock waterpump how much more does this flow over a stock fe pump?. I am wondering if i slow it down 1 to 1 or slightly under drive it if the coolant would spend more time in the radiator to cool it down.
any opinions?

A common wives' tail that seems to continue with internet parroting... Slow down your waterpump and see what happens.

The Edelbrock pump's output increase is minimal.

[wrench87]

I am going to get one of the adjustable probe like fan thermostats so I can adjust the temp the fans come on and off. I noticed on the kirkham site they no longer list the pulleys but i thught they were one to one?

I took the car out yesterday put some more miles on it it runs great, i just have to watch the temp guage and turn on the fans in stop in go traffic until i can get a automatic set up installed.