Running without a thermostat ok?

I have also brought this up MANY time here.....yet it too gets run over and ignored. Look at newer cars. From about the late 70s on up......and sometimes even before, grill openings got smaller. Front ends dropped, engine bays got smaller.....heck vehicles got smaller on the whole.

Look what the factory did to over come overheating issues. Air dams were added. The open area between the bottom of the front bumper and valance was blocked off. The open area between the valance and the frame main cross member was blocked off. Yeah, they mightta been little plastic or sheet metal afterthoughts, but they WORK!

The air dam and all of those panels work together to help push more air into the grill and through the radiator and over the engine, instead of around the car or straight out the bottom of the open area in front of the K frame.

When you build a higher performance car than what the factory did, you are venturing into an engineering no man's land. Look around at what the factory did to overcome these problems in later years. It's really not rocket science. Those of us who've been in the industry a long time know this......and TRY to give advice around it. It works.

As you change one system to make more power, you are also creating more heat. Pissy electric fans under 100 bucks ain't gonna make it. You need around 4000...that's FOUR THOUSAND CFM of air flow to keep a hot V8 cool at idle, PLUS something better than a Volkswagen radiator. I bring up the Volkswagen radiator, because believe it or not the Volkswagen Scirocco used to be a popular swap for the Chevy guys. How in the WORLD this ever came to be is beyond me. I've heard guys say "it's a big radiator". Yeah. Ok. Let's hold it up to a 4 row Griffin.

And that's another thing. When looking at radiators, don't cheap out. How much did your engine cost? Just because "so and so" had good luck with a total chinkesium radiator doesn't mean you will. Griffin is about the best HP radiator you can buy and they have affordable universal down flow and cross flow models that will fit if you have the fabbing abilities of a chimp.

For every person whose had success with an off shore radiator you can find one that still has trouble. We've all seen it right here. You spend THREE THOUSAND plus dollars on your engine rebuild and then want to run a hundred dollar radiator. With no thermostat, old radiator hoses, a 29.95 electric fan and a used wore out water pump. Not saying any of this is true for the OP, just giving and example.....and we've ALL seen it!

I can take any car overheating in front of me, diagnose the problem and fix it. It all depends on the customer. Do they want to spend the money to fix it? My question is if you don't want to spend the money to do it RIGHT, why in the world did you even build the car?

Again, my apologies for the arguing. I am still TRYING to contribute in a positive way here. It gets frustrating for those of us who have been on the line thirty plus years and see this kinda thing when people argue, ask the same questions repeatedly, or just slap don't listen. I am going to adopt the "say it once and move on" attitude I think.

Like I said, all of this isn't directed at the OP. I think he is soakin it all up.