cooling headachs

[moparsquid]

imving cooling issues im running a mild 383 2 4 bbls 4 core factory rad 160 therm 4 blade fan electric fan on tranny cooler i drive the car about 20 miles and it starts to over heat i've boiled out the rad flushed the engine several times and it seems to be filled with mud i don't know where its coming from im planning on doing a block test soon as the kit arrives i'm running 4.30 gears with a hughs 3500 stall converter i didn't have this issue when i had a 500 stroker in it

 

[R413]

Pop the core plugs and clean out the mud and crud from the block. It's heavier than coolant and laying at the bottom of the water jackets.

 

[Photon440]

Pop the core plugs and clean out the mud and crud from the block. It's heavier than coolant and laying at the bottom of the water jackets.

Although it's true that it is heavier and settles at the bottom, that's also where there is less heat. Lots of people run with the bottom of their blocks filled with Rokblock on the street without heating issues.

Moparsquid, do you have an outside transmission cooler as well, and with vacuum advance in the distributor?

 

[snakeoil24]

Is the clutch fan bad? Is it boiling over at idle?

 

[PurpleBeeper]

"mud" is rust, so flush with an acid based coolant flush....flush, rinse, repeat. I also don't think a 4-blade electric fan is enough, or at least it wasn't enough for me.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Is the clutch fan bad? Is it boiling over at idle?

electric fan....but good question. Overheat at idle or overheat while highway crusing?

 

[snakeoil24]

if boiling over at idle look at impeller and also run a head gasket test for monoxides.

 

[moparsquid]

Although it's true that it is heavier and settles at the bottom, that's also where there is less heat. Lots of people run with the bottom of their blocks filled with Rokblock on the street without heating issues.

Moparsquid, do you have an outside transmission cooler as well, and with vacuum advance in the distributor?

yes i do

 

[moparsquid]

electric fan....but good question. Overheat at idle or overheat while highway crusing?

both

 

[moparsquid]

"mud" is rust, so flush with an acid based coolant flush....flush, rinse, repeat. I also don't think a 4-blade electric fan is enough, or at least it wasn't enough for me.

its not an electric fan its the stock 4 blade im planning on getting rid of the heavy brass rad and getting a aluminium with 2 electric fans and shroud

 

[moparsquid]

Is the clutch fan bad? Is it boiling over at idle?

its not a clutch fan stock 4 blade

 

[snakeoil24]

Does it have a shroud and u way want to do the sampling of cooling water for head gasket leak

 

[Geoff 2]

You will NEVER get all the mud out of a block. The best fix: put a filter in the top rad hose. Periodically clean it out; this will stop the rad from getting blocked.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

You will NEVER get all the mud out of a block. The best fix: put a filter in the top rad hose. Periodically clean it out; this will stop the rad from getting blocked.

And yet you can get 95% pretty easily by popping the freeze plugs and flushing the block.... I've done it many times & it works...

Before you throw a new radiator in only to have it plugged up by crap floating around in the coolant pop the plugs & flush the block....

Filters in the upper hose are good, I have one & use it for a short time when ever I install a fresh engine... The machine shops do what they can to clean blocks but the EPA has taken away all the chemicals that were really effective at getting rust out of the cooling system... So now you get a block back & the crud has been loosened but not removed... So a few heat cycles & it plugs the radiator....

 

[R413]

Now after you clean out the block use this. Now you are 99% clean, this stuff works, I've done it on 4 engines, 2 were pretty bad.

Summit Racing SUM-TC001 Summit Racing™ EVAPO-RUST THERMOCURE | Summit Racing

 

[snakeoil24]

I b gradients in this product are perfect for cast iron just not so for aluminum

 

[Geoff 2]

When you take an engine to 5-6000 rpm, the water pump develops tremendous pressure & stirs up dormant sediment/sludge that cannot be accessed by removing freeze plugs & getting in there with a hose. The fix is to run a filter, post #13.

 

[Photon440]

Even if the water pump managed to reach 60 psi. as in a nascar engine, it isn't the pressure, but rather the velocity of coolant flow that will stir up the sediment. As suggested earlier, using an engine flush additive will do the job. But we haven't yet established whether the O/P's problem was caused by sediment.

 

[Wietse]

Check your lower radiator hose to make sure that also gets hot, if not first put a new thermostat in try again.
If that does not solve the overheating your radiator core could be (partially) blocked or there is very poor air flow going through.
Even a externally dirty radiator would still have sufficient capacity to keep the engine from overheating at low loads or idle.
The 160* thermostat you currently have was probably installed when you started facing issues with overheating, but a lower temperature thermostat does not help at all in these situations as the cooling system cannot get a balancing flow to keep the engine cool, not at 180 and neither at 160 or any other temperature for that matter.
I recommend to keep using a 180* thermostat after solving your issues so the engine runs at this temperature, too cool is also not good.

 

[cosgig]

No shroud, 4 blade fan, 160 thermometer……what could possibly go wrong? The thermostat is always open at 160, not allowing the coolant to stay in the radiator long enough. The 4 blade fan doesn’t pull enough air to cool what’s in the radiator, and if you’re not running a shroud the fan is not drawing enough air through the radiator anyway. If I had to guess, you do not have the upper and lower radiator support seals in place either, which helps funnel the air trapped in front of the radiator support through the radiator. Think of the fan and shroud as a vacuum, drawing trapped air through the radiator. The shroud acts like a funnel, the fan draws air through, and straightens the flow of air, which draws the air more efficiently. Kinda like swirling the water in a funnel, as opposed to dumping all the air in at once, creating a dam. And the seals don’t allow air to go around the core support.

Don’t buy an aluminum radiator with electric fans mounted in a flat shroud, that just compounds your problem.