The impossible to solve overheating problem
I am about to give up and put the car in long term storage, I have an overheating problem which came out of nowhere and it seems like I cant affect it at all. I only have one more trick up my sleeve. Tomorrow I will be booking the car into a garage that is going to take samples of the coolant and determine if there are high levels of co2 in it (ie. leaking head gasket or a crack in the block/head)
------The engine:------
¤ Motor: Chrysler Smallblock 360ci - 5.9L
¤ Heads: 915J machined to 56.8 CC Std 1.88 / 1.60 valves, compression 9,8:1
¤ Cam: CompCams Xtreme Energy XE262
¤ Carb: Carter ThermoQuad
¤ Intake: Edelbrock aluminiumintake
¤ Ignition: Mallory
¤ Transmission: Torqueflite 727
¤ Exhaust: Doug`s long tube headers, 2.5"system
-----The cooling system:-----
¤ Radiator: Big *** aftermarket aluminum one (think its actually for a 96 ford mustang) so big that I had to widen the frame a little to make it fit
¤ Overflow tank: Nissan s14
¤ Fan: Not sure what size, pretty big anyway
-----The problem:-----
¤ The car overheats while standing still or moving at a constant speed for example 45mph
¤ It takes under 10 minutes of driving at constant 45mph to get to 220 Fahrenheit
¤ If the car stands idling it gets to 220 from a cold engine pretty quickly too
¤ If you keep driving or idling it will just keep rising from 220
-----When the problem started:-----
¤ The car came with the original cooling system (4 years ago now) and would overheat once in a blue moon I dont know why.
¤ I upgraded the cooling system (2 years ago) and it never overheated, well, it did a few times but I had the timing to lean
¤ The car has stood still two years with the engine out while I did suspension upgrades. After putting in all back together the car now has a massive overheating problem. The following was done to the engine when out:
1. Changed some freeze plugs
2. Re tapped the manifold bolt hole which goes into the cooling system (front right farthest from driver)
3. Re built the carburetor (it is tuned well, not running too rich/lean)
-----What I have tried doing already:-----
¤ Run with/without thermostat, have even tried with various restrictions to flow
¤ Checked that the lower radiator hose does not collapse stopping flow
¤ Tried putting ignition to very rich-lean and everywhere inbetween
¤ Checked that the temperature gauge is not off with an I.R thermometer
¤ Tightened all the hose clamps for the cooling system
¤ Taken apart the cooling system checked if hoses were ok
¤ Checked the water pump (it was totally fine)
¤ Checked that the radiator is not clogged
¤ Replaced the cooling system with the original cooling system, radiator etc. (same result)
¤ FYI The engine has been flushed a couple of years ago
¤ Compression tested the engine biggest difference between two was 11.2 Bar and 10.3 Bar
Does anybody have any theories? If there is no co2 in the coolant and if maybe changing spark plugs doesnt make a difference I will be giving up and parking the car for the next few years, which kinda sucks after spending so much time and money.
I am about to give up and put the car in long term storage, I have an overheating problem which came out of nowhere and it seems like I cant affect it at all. I only have one more trick up my sleeve. Tomorrow I will be booking the car into a garage that is going to take samples of the coolant and determine if there are high levels of co2 in it (ie. leaking head gasket or a crack in the block/head)
------The engine:------
¤ Motor: Chrysler Smallblock 360ci - 5.9L
¤ Heads: 915J machined to 56.8 CC Std 1.88 / 1.60 valves, compression 9,8:1
¤ Cam: CompCams Xtreme Energy XE262
¤ Carb: Carter ThermoQuad
¤ Intake: Edelbrock aluminiumintake
¤ Ignition: Mallory
¤ Transmission: Torqueflite 727
¤ Exhaust: Doug`s long tube headers, 2.5"system
-----The cooling system:-----
¤ Radiator: Big *** aftermarket aluminum one (think its actually for a 96 ford mustang) so big that I had to widen the frame a little to make it fit
¤ Overflow tank: Nissan s14
¤ Fan: Not sure what size, pretty big anyway
-----The problem:-----
¤ The car overheats while standing still or moving at a constant speed for example 45mph
¤ It takes under 10 minutes of driving at constant 45mph to get to 220 Fahrenheit
¤ If the car stands idling it gets to 220 from a cold engine pretty quickly too
¤ If you keep driving or idling it will just keep rising from 220
-----When the problem started:-----
¤ The car came with the original cooling system (4 years ago now) and would overheat once in a blue moon I dont know why.
¤ I upgraded the cooling system (2 years ago) and it never overheated, well, it did a few times but I had the timing to lean
¤ The car has stood still two years with the engine out while I did suspension upgrades. After putting in all back together the car now has a massive overheating problem. The following was done to the engine when out:
1. Changed some freeze plugs
2. Re tapped the manifold bolt hole which goes into the cooling system (front right farthest from driver)
3. Re built the carburetor (it is tuned well, not running too rich/lean)
-----What I have tried doing already:-----
¤ Run with/without thermostat, have even tried with various restrictions to flow
¤ Checked that the lower radiator hose does not collapse stopping flow
¤ Tried putting ignition to very rich-lean and everywhere inbetween
¤ Checked that the temperature gauge is not off with an I.R thermometer
¤ Tightened all the hose clamps for the cooling system
¤ Taken apart the cooling system checked if hoses were ok
¤ Checked the water pump (it was totally fine)
¤ Checked that the radiator is not clogged
¤ Replaced the cooling system with the original cooling system, radiator etc. (same result)
¤ FYI The engine has been flushed a couple of years ago
¤ Compression tested the engine biggest difference between two was 11.2 Bar and 10.3 Bar
Does anybody have any theories? If there is no co2 in the coolant and if maybe changing spark plugs doesnt make a difference I will be giving up and parking the car for the next few years, which kinda sucks after spending so much time and money.
