New to site, new to Mopar overheating issues

A/C cars use a smaller water pump pulley for packaging everything on the front of the engine. As such, they use a different water pump based on the smaller pulley size to maintain a similar flow to the non A/C setup. This is done so both A/C and non A/C engines heat up and operate similarly regardless of A/C or not.

If the stock pulley ratio is so badly matched that the cars ran hot with it, i doubt the factory ever would have used it. If he has an overheating problem speeding up the pump is a bandaid fix if theres something else going on there. Non A/C water pumps have 8 vanes because they spin a little slower. A/C car water pumps only have 6 vanes because they spin a little faster.

It's a mild 340, not some fire breather. I still say if this thing has a properly reading gage that theres either 1 or 2 things going on. Either the radiator is partially blocked, or the thermostat is too high or sticking, or both.

If these things are good, it could also have the wrong water pump for the pulley ratio. Looks like in the pix that the pump was recently replaced. If it's running a replacement 6 blade A/C pump sized with pulleys designed for the 8 bladed pump then theres your slow flow issue.

Non mopar types and some mopar types go down that same rabbit hole thinking an A/C water pump must be heavy duty and must flow better because of the stresses on the engine of running the A/C. That's the furthest thing from the truth. Both pumps vanes are designed to flow similar numbers based on the pulley diameter it's designed to be matched to.

Ok yellow rose He could throw some A/C pullies on there as a bandaid for a possible incorrect water pump if that's what's in there, and speed it up, that will certainly work. But then he will have to figure out a hacked up alternator bracket setup to keep the belts in line and tracking straight since his car is a NON A/C setup, and A/C pulleys have a different offset compared to what he has. This will throw the pulley alignment from the pump to the alternator off. Requiring some creative bracket making and washer stacks to get the alternator to line up. That my friend is what is called a HACK job.

These cars ran around for years without overheating problems with these stock non A/C pullies. So what if he does all that your recommending and it ends up being a partially plugged radiator and he "reinvents the wheel" for nothing so to speak. All he did was a work around, a bandaid fix, and not really correct the problem. If the pump is incorrect for the pulley setup, it's much easier and less aggravating to just change the pump out for the correct one. Ditto if it's a plugged radiator.

D's Nuts and Bolts , i recommend to have the radiator checked and boiled out, make sure the thermostat is a 180° and it's got a new radiator cap since this is the easiest and most common places where there will be an issue. If it still runs hot, remove and check the water pump to see how many blades are on the pump. 8 blade pump for non A/C pullies is what you should have. If you have a 6 blade pump, its incorrect and will cause it to run hot.