Big block cooling issues

Craig Burriss said
Hey guys, now that I’ve been putting miles on my Duster, I’ve found that it doesn’t like the summer heat of Georgia. When I’m doing 60 and 70 the car stays around 180°, but as soon as I get into traffic it’ll rise up to 220° and sometimes higher. It’s got an iron headed 440 with about 11:1 compression (if calculated correctly), a complete Holley sniper system running 15 base timing and 36 total, a Pro-Flow aluminum water pump housing, a Summit brand radiator with a 2.25” thick core, overall size is 27.5” W, 19” H, 3” D, I have two 10” 1000cfm electric fans attached directly to the radiator that turn on at 180°, I’m not running a thermostat, and I have an old plastic jug zip tied to rad support as a puke tank. No A/C.
I want to make a fan shroud but I can’t find any aluminum sheeting anywhere but at Lowes and they want $60 for the piece I need, and I don’t want to make a shroud if it’s not going to help any.
Is this radiator too thin? Would a shroud make that much of a difference? Should I get an electric water pump? Is Pluto still a planet? I have many questions and just want my car to run cooler.

Any input is greatly appreciated,
Thanks!

RustyRatRod said
You're not moving anywhere near enough air at low speeds/stop. Those fans are sissies. You need somewhere around 4k CFM. And run a 180 high flow thermostat.

Yup. Biggest deal is the fan CFM. Absolute minimum I would say is about 3,500 cfm. With only 2,000 cfm you're not moving anywhere near enough air.

Next is a thermostat. You absolutely need one. High flow, standard, whatever. The system was designed for a restriction there, honestly I don't even think high flow 'stats are necessary for most applications if everything else in the system is matched up to work together.

The radiator is fine, as evidenced by the car running at 180° when you're cruising at speed. It's the fans and lack of a thermostat that's hurting you most.

Is this your radiator? Summit Racing® Universal Fit Aluminum Radiators SUM-381328

If it is, then the 22.5" core would lend itself to using a Ford Taurus or Chevy HHR fan. Both are capable of moving enough CFM. The HHR fan is from a 2007? HHR, I think they're a little thinner than the Taurus fans. If you do a search on here for HHR there's a few threads on the installs.