OVERHEATING

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Clueless, show me A/F ratio data - we are not drag racing. You cannot as you are just a loud mouth. I use technology and lots of high speed running. My cars will kick the $hit out of the pos stuff your drive. Bring it on...A$$hole
 
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Once you understand how a cool running affects the incoming air and fuel, you see where the power comes from running one cooler. Anything you can do to lower the incoming air and fuel charge has a great impact on power output.
 
When I drove my 1969 Swinger 340, 4 speed, with a 3.55 rear end gear, on the expressway at 75 mph (3,500 rpm), it overheated at 220 degrees, in only 2 miles. Driving on back roads at about 45 mph, the temperature gauge always remained at about 180 degrees.

The 340 was rebuilt a couple of years ago and has 2,800 miles on it. It has the following stock engine parts:
heads, cam, (9.7:1 C/R), intake, AVS carburetor, rebuilt water pump (No. 2863067- 8 vane- for non-AC).I purchased a stock water pump pulley (6 1/2”) and a stock crank pulley (6 1/8”). It also has a fan shroud, clutch fan, 16 lb radiator cap and a 180 degree thermostat.

Then, I had the stock radiator (No. 2949066), re-cored (3 row) by Glen-Ray. It still overheated at 75 mph. Next, I replaced the 180 degree thermostat, with a Robert Shaw/Stewart High-Flow 180 degree thermostat and installed a coil spring in the lower radiator hose, in case it was collapsing at 3,500 rpm. The only improvement was that it took 10 miles to overheat instead of 2 miles.

My engine builder wondered if 3,500 RPM is too high to cruise on the expressway. But it seems that turning 3,500 rpm with a 3.55 would have been normal back in the 60s.

I read the following in FABO: “The other thing to consider is that Mopar and their testing came up with an idea that the eight blade might cavitate at really high RPM”.

Mopar Action (Rick Ehrenberg) stated “the enemy is not heat, but boiling, especially localized steam pockets in the cylinder heads…use a surfactant such as Red Line Water Wetter…”

Muscle Machines (Ask Ray) stated “providing a pulley ratio of at least 1.25:1 relative to crank shaft speed…a RobertShaw balanced -sleeve 160 degree F thermostat and, most important, Evans NPG+ coolant”.

Any thoughts about cavitation, pulley ratio, switching to the six vane AC water pump, Red Line Water Wetter, NPG+ coolant or a 160 degree thermostat?

Thank you for any comments.

Swap out those 3.55 gears for a set of 2.94s for running the highway speeds.

You will be turning that 340 engine at 1800 to 2000 rpm. Overheating issues gone. Cool, Cool, Cool . . .

Make use of the low end torque of thoses 340 cam specs, unless of course you have over cammed the engine as so many do.

Ma Mopar knew best. Cars were built for 55 - 65 mph. Now in today's world it is 75 mph + or you will get passed.

2.94s . . . . No Problem

s-l400(2).jpg


☆☆☆☆☆
 
RB,

Post #62. Wrong again. Do you actually know anything?
 
First off, go look at a factory service manual. Chrysler was OVERDRIVING the water pump on HP stuff. They didn’t do that because they were stupid.

Then think it through. The racers were slowing the pump down because they thought they were saving HP. They were not. All they did was make the cooling system less efficent. When you do that, you can’t run as much compression ratio, which means you buy fuel with higher octane and spend more money for it. Or, you pull timing to stop detonation. Or you add a bunch of fuel. All bad. So that theory is shot to ****.

I‘ve tested it on the dyno and in the world so many times I no longer bother with it. Cooler engine temps makes more power. Speeding up the pump makes it easier to cool the engine. I know this goes against your long held belief that slowing coolant down it what works, but it doesn’t.

I don’t use water or antifreeze on my performance junk. I use Evans. I know that pisses some off, but that tells me they didn’t test it. I know one media hack claims it doesn’t work (it does) and that it’s a fire hazard (its not) and uses all his verbal vomit to try and convince his sycophants that he is correct so they never test it.

It is expensive. So are my engines. Stepping over donuts to grab a turd isn’t my thing.

Using Evans coolant means the system doesn’t use pressure. That’s a huge BONUS. I shouldn’t have to explain that one to you.

Cavitation is an issue that isn’t just about pump speed. There is more to it than that. Why did Chrysler OVERDRIVE pumps? Because it COOLS better.

The only issue I find is if you are running a mechanical fan you need to watch fan speed. If you are shifting at 8500 you will probably need to slow the pump down (which slows down the fan) so it doesn’t **** the fan. Of course, if you are shifting at 8500 you probably aren’t running a mechanical fan.

It’s laughable that you wrote all that and still didn’t learn. You might THINK you know, but you are wrong to tell ANYONE to slow down the pump to help a cooling issue.

You will never be convinced of how wrong you are because it’s more important to you to hold onto a long held misbelief rather than learn the facts.

You NEVER slow down the pump to cure an overheating issue. You are wrong.

Never. like in Never never never...

Ok, made up example time bear with me... this is a long one :)

- you have a supply of water at 80*C , you have at your disposal a beer can and a themomenter and a watch. ambient temperaure is 20*C and stays at that throughout.
- you have a requirment for a beer cans worth of water at 40*C so you fill your beer can, put in the thermometer and you wait. it takes 1/2 an hour to cool to 40*C
- you do it again, takes half an hour
- you do it agian takes half an hour
water it seems takes a while to cool... a measureable time... quite a long time
-some kinda constant is at play here 80* water in a beer can takes 1/2 an hour to cool to 40...
- if you need a beer can quantity of 40* water every half an hour...all is well.. life is good

your requrements for 40* water change suddenly you decide you need it more often...
- so you fill your can
- you wait 15 minutes
- and you know what? when you empty it at 15 minutes the water that comes out is at 60*C
- you fill the can and wait 15 minutes and the water after 15 minutes is 60*C
- 60*C water is NOT your requirment, you appear to want a beer cans worth of water at 40*C every 15 minutes.
- changeing the speed at which the can is filled and which it is emptied has done you no good what so ever. the water is still at 60*

What can we do... well i could give you another beer can, you can offset the filling by 15 minutes and have 40* water every 15 min, because you now have the luxury of 2 cans and can have them both cooling for 30 minutes... when one is at 40 you empty and refill while the other still has 15 minutes to get from 60 down to 40, but that involves an increase in capacity because an increase in flow didn't help.

increase the no. of cans and you get what you want, is the gist

take it further
the water is supplied to you at 80* by a bizzare little combustion engine with a magic pump that spits the full motor content when it reaches 80* and then every 1/2 hour. The motor has an 80* themostat that snaps open at 80* and shut again at 79*.
-It runs at constant load
- it has 1 beer cans worth of water in it as coolant
- it dumps this water when it reaches 80* into a beer can
- we fill up motor with water at 40*
- you have 2 cans one emptied into the motor and one cooling
- the motor produces enough heat energy in 1/2 an hour to take 40* water to 80* water in the motor. but as luck would have it it also takes 1/2 an hour for the 80* water that it spits out to cool in a beer can to 40*.

basicaly every 1/2 hour i catch a can full of 80* water as the thermostat opens and i put it asside and let it cool
and ive emptied in, my previous can full, that is now at 40* to cool the motor

My motor temperature varies from somwhere over 40* up to 80* over a half hour period
and the process repeats every half hour for ever.


-Mr Rat Basid comes over to give some advice.
-he tells me ive done it all wrong
-so we give him an identical motor, 2 cans and let him do his thing
-he set his motor up so that it pumps the water out by force every 15 minutes
- once it gets up to 80*c his dumpes water out at 15 minute intervals
- he is of course constrained by his Can/radiator so the water he puts back in is at 60*
- but its only in there 15 minutes NOT 30
- to all intents and purposes all is good... the motor produces enough heat energy to take a can full of water from 40-80 in 1/2 an hour BUT
- we move the water every 15 minutes, a time in which the motor produces 1/2 the heat energy that it can, and a time in which it takes our Can/radiator to lose half the heat energy in the water
Motor runs great.

Mr Bastid suggests a dyno comp
-my motor and his motor under exactly the same load as they are now
-My motor shows some variance it doesn't produce as much power when in the 40-60*range but matches Mr Bastids for output when in the 60* to 80* range
- Mr Basid is quite rightly pleased and says "I sure whupped Yer *** boy..." "I am RIGHT" Etc etc
- and its true this type of motor produces best power when running in the 60* to 80* range
- he pumped faster and got more consistent power than i did ..

So if swapping out the cans at 15 miutes gets us more power lets get silly

lets swap em out every minute i.e dramaticlaly increase the pumping speed into and out of our Can/Radiator
- under same load
- at water reaching 80* it pukes into a can
- we leave the can to cool and refill motor with contents of last can
-we have to do this every minute
- its a bit of a chore

-Can cools for 1 minute
-we loose 1 1/3rd of a degree while it cools in its can
-water going back in is at 78 2/3 *
-its in there for 1 minute and it gains 1 and 1/3 degree

well blow me motor still runs nice, Mr Basid is well chuffed, he's doing a lttle dance...."smug bastid" says me.

we could do the other extream and never change the water. motor runs for a hour and reaches 160*c before seizing not good...

but woithout being too silly everything is fine, until we increase the load on the engines.

as we increase the load, kinda like drving up a hill, i have to swap my cans on my 1/2 hour engine a little more often, but still have time to stand back and observe Mr bastid who granted has his two "pump Faster" motors to look after

on the 15 minute motor he's swapping cans more regularly but as his motor swings only from 60 to 80 rather than 40 to 80 hes doing it every 7minutes and the water going back in is at 70* not 60

On the 1 minute motor disaster has alredy struck themal melt down due to constantly feeding it 80* water

speeding up pumping removed flexibity it removed the margin that allows the heat output of the motor to vary with load..
in the extream case we had no tollernace for load variation at all...I hope Mr Bastid didn't scald his fingers.. i'm sure i can find a cold beer can to help if he did

some benefit is seen from a performance point of view but assumes contstant load (stationary engine like a generator) or short term use, maybe applicable in some drag race categories..

The OP is trying to drive on the street with a Hotted Up combination and drag race gears
in my opinion 2 choices
slow down the pump... results in a higher average running temperaure but less chance of overheat
or get a bigger can/radiator

(but actually my view in his case is that his cooling system is ok and its igntion or fueling related )

speeding up the pump reduces flexibility and moves you closer to the type of thermal run away he already sees, Unless you massivly increase the number of cans i.e double the radiator capcity....

Mr Bastid maintains that cooler motors make more power...

No.... cooler motors wear out faster and suffer from bore wash
on a basic level to make a chemical reaction faster you add heat
this is applicable to burning fuel in oxygen as well as most other reactions

as such in an ideal world you need a cool dense charge with good fuel atomisation, no clods and hevay droplets... and a hot motor
the charge, as much as possible needs to be as dense and cool as possible to get in as much as possible, then heat it so it properly vapourises under the red hot exhaust valve so it is at the highest temperature and pressure it can be, without pre igntion, before the spark lights it off... running the motor cooler reduces this effect and you make less power.

Modern ECU controlled motors run hotter due to superlative intake charge control. running hotter increases efficiency and emissions due to the additional expansion of the charge before igntion due to heat absorbtion and keeping the CAT at appropriate temp.

slapping the lowest value thermosstat in your motor hurts output...sort your problem with changes to mixtre or timeing curve

exmaple
you take a standard iron motor
dyno it.. get a base line
you make an identical set of heads from aluminium
you swap rockers and plugs across, strap on your aluminium cloned heads
dyno it

the coolant heats up quicker
the plugs foul up
torque and max BHP are lower

The combustion chambers, the valves, the plugs run measurably cooler
aluminium is a much better conductor of heat energy that cast iron so it sucks the heat out of the exhaust valve out of the body of the plug and out of the chamber faster
it dumps the heat into the coolant faster
the radiator might run hotter but the engine is running cooler and the only way to get your power back is to increase cylinder pressure
and the only way to do that is take increase the static CR
the heat you had in the iron motor played a part in its output that was lost when the aluminium heads were bolted on

Its not real world becsue Aluminium heads rarely if ever clone an iron design in all dimensions.


Basically if you are going to drive on the street with a standard pump and a mopar like standard radiator you need to run that pump at the speed it was built for
if the motor now spends its life running on average at a higher RPM than it was ever designed for, gear the pump to run at its designed for, speed

if you have radiator the size of texas and the motor just needs to stay cool for 10 seconds and 1/4 of a mile you can do what ya like but why are you carrying around so much coolant when every lb of weight in the car hurts your ET....


This is why i think i'm right.... i could still be wrong and i can't say Mr bastid is wrong becasue he's got dyno slips for this that and the other coming out of his *** and i don't....

but his assertion that water staying in the block longer is bad and water staying in the radiator longer is bad makes no sense to me, there is a balance to be found based on radiator size, pump capcity, pump speed and the amount of heat energy produce by the motor.

the standard set up was designed to work in alaska and canada and in the desert if you overheat, look elsewhere first.

in cases where that motor is winding faster and its being used on the street the pump running too fast is a more likley candidate for causing an issue than it running too slow
too fast just speeds up a poistive feedback loop of "too hot" coolant back into the block.

Dave
 
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Take the thermostat out and it takes forever to get to operating temp.
That mostly depends on the outside temps. I don't drive my car in outside temps under 70 and I'm not running a thermostat. My car gets up to temp pretty fast, usually within 10 minutes or so.
 
That mostly depends on the outside temps. I don't drive my car in outside temps under 70 and I'm not running a thermostat. My car gets up to temp pretty fast, usually within 10 minutes or so.

Without a thermostat on a 100 degree day I can’t get my engine over 120 degrees.
 
Never. like in Never never never...

Ok, made up example time bear with me... this is a long one :)

- you have a supply of water at 80*C , you have at your disposal a beer can and a themomenter and a watch. ambient temperaure is 20*C and stays at that throughout.
- you have a requirment for a beer cans worth of water at 40*C so you fill your beer can, put in the thermometer and you wait. it takes 1/2 an hour to cool to 40*C
- you do it again, takes half an hour
- you do it agian takes half an hour
water it seems takes a while to cool... a measureable time... quite a long time
-some kinda constant is at play here 80* water in a beer can takes 1/2 an hour to cool to 40...
- if you need a beer can quantity of 40* water every half an hour...all is well.. life is good

your requrements for 40* water change suddenly you decide you need it more often...
- so you fill your can
- you wait 15 minutes
- and you know what? when you empty it at 15 minutes the water that comes out is at 60*C
- you fill the can and wait 15 minutes and the water after 15 minutes is 60*C
- 60*C water is NOT your requirment, you appear to want a beer cans worth of water at 40*C every 15 minutes.
- changeing the speed at which the can is filled and which it is emptied has done you no good what so ever. the water is still at 60*

What can we do... well i could give you another beer can, you can offset the filling by 15 minutes and have 40* water every 15 min, because you now have the luxury of 2 cans and can have them both cooling for 30 minutes... when one is at 40 you empty and refill while the other still has 15 minutes to get from 60 down to 40, but that involves an increase in capacity because an increase in flow didn't help.

increase the no. of cans and you get what you want, is the gist

take it further
the water is supplied to you at 80* by a bizzare little combustion engine with a magic pump that spits the full motor content when it reaches 80* and then every 1/2 hour. The motor has an 80* themostat that snaps open at 80* and shut again at 79*.
-It runs at constant load
- it has 1 beer cans worth of water in it as coolant
- it dumps this water when it reaches 80* into a beer can
- we fill up motor with water at 40*
- you have 2 cans one emptied into the motor and one cooling
- the motor produces enough heat energy in 1/2 an hour to take 40* water to 80* water in the motor. but as luck would have it it also takes 1/2 an hour for the 80* water that it spits out to cool in a beer can to 40*.

basicaly every 1/2 hour i catch a can full of 80* water as the thermostat opens and i put it asside and let it cool
and ive emptied in, my previous can full, that is now at 40* to cool the motor

My motor temperature varies from somwhere over 40* up to 80* over a half hour period
and the process repeats every half hour for ever.


-Mr Rat Basid comes over to give some advice.
-he tells me ive done it all wrong
-so we give him an identical motor, 2 cans and let him do his thing
-he set his motor up so that it pumps the water out by force every 15 minutes
- once it gets up to 80*c his dumpes water out at 15 minute intervals
- he is of course constrained by his Can/radiator so the water he puts back in is at 60*
- but its only in there 15 minutes NOT 30
- to all intents and purposes all is good... the motor produces enough heat energy to take a can full of water from 40-80 in 1/2 an hour BUT
- we move the water every 15 minutes, a time in which the motor produces 1/2 the heat energy that it can, and a time in which it takes our Can/radiator to lose half the heat energy in the water
Motor runs great.

Mr Bastid suggests a dyno comp
-my motor and his motor under exactly the same load as they are now
-My motor shows some variance it doesn't produce as much power when in the 40-60*range but matches Mr Bastids for output when in the 60* to 80* range
- Mr Basid is quite rightly pleased and says "I sure whupped Yer *** boy..." "I am RIGHT" Etc etc
- and its true this type of motor produces best power when running in the 60* to 80* range
- he pumped faster and got more consistent power than i did ..

So if swapping out the cans at 15 miutes gets us more power lets get silly

lets swap em out every minute i.e dramaticlaly increase the pumping speed into and out of our Can/Radiator
- under same load
- at water reaching 80* it pukes into a can
- we leave the can to cool and refill motor with contents of last can
-we have to do this every minute
- its a bit of a chore

-Can cools for 1 minute
-we loose 1 1/3rd of a degree while it cools in its can
-water going back in is at 78 2/3 *
-its in there for 1 minute and it gains 1 and 1/3 degree

well blow me motor still runs nice, Mr Basid is well chuffed, he's doing a lttle dance...."smug bastid" says me.

we could do the other extream and never change the water. motor runs for a hour and reaches 160*c before seizing not good...

but woithout being too silly everything is fine, until we increase the load on the engines.

as we increase the load, kinda like drving up a hill, i have to swap my cans on my 1/2 hour engine a little more often, but still have time to stand back and observe Mr bastid who granted has his two "pump Faster" motors to look after

on the 15 minute motor he's swapping cans more regularly but as his motor swings only from 60 to 80 rather than 40 to 80 hes doing it every 7minutes and the water going back in is at 70* not 60

On the 1 minute motor disaster has alredy struck themal melt down due to constantly feeding it 80* water

speeding up pumping removed flexibity it removed the margin that allows the heat output of the motor to vary with load..
in the extream case we had no tollernace for load variation at all...I hope Mr Bastid didn't scald his fingers.. i'm sure i can find a cold beer can to help if he did

some benefit is seen from a performance point of view but assumes contstant load (stationary engine like a generator) or short term use, maybe applicable in some drag race categories..

The OP is trying to drive on the street with a Hotted Up combination and drag race gears
in my opinion 2 choices
slow down the pump... results in a higher average running temperaure but less chance of overheat
or get a bigger can/radiator

(but actually my view in his case is that his cooling system is ok and its igntion or fueling related )

speeding up the pump reduces flexibility and moves you closer to the type of thermal run away he already sees, Unless you massivly increase the number of cans i.e double the radiator capcity....

Mr Bastid maintains that cooler motors make more power...

No.... cooler motors wear out faster and suffer from bore wash
on a basic level to make a chemical reaction faster you add heat
this is applicable to burning fuel in oxygen as well as most other reactions

as such in an ideal world you need a cool dense charge with good fuel atomisation, no clods and hevay droplets... and a hot motor
the charge, as much as possible needs to be as dense and cool as possible to get in as much as possible, then heat it so it properly vapourises under the red hot exhaust valve so it is at the highest temperature and pressure it can be, without pre igntion, before the spark lights it off... running the motor cooler reduces this effect and you make less power.

Modern ECU controlled motors run hotter due to superlative intake charge control. running hotter increases efficiency and emissions due to the additional expansion of the charge before igntion due to heat absorbtion and keeping the CAT at appropriate temp.

slapping the lowest value thermosstat in your motor hurts output...sort your problem with changes to mixtre or timeing curve

exmaple
you take a standard iron motor
dyno it.. get a base line
you make an identical set of heads from aluminium
you swap rockers and plugs across, strap on your aluminium cloned heads
dyno it

the coolant heats up quicker
the plugs foul up
torque and max BHP are lower

The combustion chambers, the valves, the plugs run measurably cooler
aluminium is a much better conductor of heat energy that cast iron so it sucks the heat out of the exhaust valve out of the body of the plug and out of the chamber faster
it dumps the heat into the coolant faster
the radiator might run hotter but the engine is running cooler and the only way to get your power back is to increase cylinder pressure
and the only way to do that is take increase the static CR
the heat you had in the iron motor played a part in its output that was lost when the aluminium heads were bolted on

Its not real world becsue Aluminium heads rarely if ever clone an iron design in all dimensions.


Basically if you are going to drive on the street with a standard pump and a mopar like standard radiator you need to run that pump at the speed it was built for
if the motor now spends its life running on average at a higher RPM than it was ever designed for, gear the pump to run at its designed for, speed

if you have radiator the size of texas and the motor just needs to stay cool for 10 seconds and 1/4 of a mile you can do what ya like but why are you carrying around so much coolant when every lb of weight in the car hurts your ET....


This is why i think i'm right.... i could still be wrong and i can't say Mr bastid is wrong becasue he's got dyno slips for this that and the other coming out of his *** and i don't....

but his assertion that water staying in the block longer is bad and water staying in the radiator longer is bad makes no sense to me, there is a balance to be found based on radiator size, pump capcity, pump speed and the amount of heat energy produce by the motor.

the standard set up was designed to work in alaska and canada and in the desert if you overheat, look elsewhere first.

in cases where that motor is winding faster and its being used on the street the pump running too fast is a more likley candidate for causing an issue than it running too slow
too fast just speeds up a poistive feedback loop of "too hot" coolant back into the block.

Dave


You are still clinging to your error. There is enough wrong in this post I’m not covering it all.

Here is a big one. A “cooler engine wears out faster” is 100% nonsense. Again, you are wrong. Have you EVER run an engine colder than 180 degrees and then pulled it down and found it worn out from the cooler temps?

I know I never have. And I started using cooler engine temps in 1984. And guess what? I LOST POWER. Every time. At the time I had no clue why. I eventually figured it out because I didn’t listen to guys like you who keep repeating errors like gospel.

One guy above touched on the topic, but he just claimed it can’t be done because of todays fuel. You can do it IF you know what to do and you skip anything.

Let’s see…what else???

Strap on aluminum heads and everything runs cooler. Another HUGE error. This was tested on “Engine Masters” and was proven to be wrong. What they did do was absolutely abuse an engine by loading it down for an extended pull and then claiming the aluminum head performed better than the iron head. If anyone abuses their equipment like that they need a beating.

Again, the science is sound and the physics prove it out.

Keeping the coolant in the radiator longer keeps it in the block longer which makes it harder to cool. Why you can’t grasp that and correct your error is just your arrogance holding you back.
 
Franko have you gotten anywhere on your issue?
I have not gotten anywhere yet. Soon I will borrow a friend's spare 69 Swinger radiator to test.

I am also going to order a stock thermal fan clutch today, even though I do not know, theoretically, if it will help. They aren't expensive and the one on my car is 54 years old. Yesterday, I called the guy that rebuilt my water pump and discussed this issue with him. He told me that back in the day, his car was overheating at highway speeds. He replaced the thermal fan clutch and it never overheated again. When you've gone through all the obvious possible solutions without success, you have to grab at a few straws.

Also, a couple of months ago, I called Bob at Glen-Ray to discuss this issue. He had installed a new 3 row core in my radiator last year, after it first started overheating. He told me to box the radiator up and he paid to ship it back to him. He ended up telling me that the flow looks fine. He wanted to ship a larger radiator to me to test and then I would ship it back to him. I told him shipping is very expensive and that I was going to post all about this on FABO. He said he would cover the shipping and just wanted to know what my problem was. I told Bob, to hold off on that and that it wasn't right that he should cover any shipping, including the shipping for my original radiator. I told him I would reimburse him for all shipping, if there is nothing wrong with the re-cored radiator. Is Glen-Ray a quality business or what?

...Make use of the low end torque of those 340 cam specs, unless of course you have over cammed the engine as so many do...

My cam is the stock 69 340 cam, which was ground at Racer Brown. And everything thing else on the engine is stock.
 
sorry we were all too busy discussing a range of stuff not strickly relevant to your issue.. apologies

sounds like you found a good buiness there

if everything is stock
and you have the same problem with the borrowed radiator
1) do you have the correct pump. the one for a magnum engine is designed to spin the other way. if you just got the standard pump rebuilt fine, if you didn't and got one off rockauto is it the right one.. if you use the wrong one at low speed it can move some coolant but god knows what its doing at higher speed. if new do you have the email for the order or the paperwork from the package worth checking the part number.
2) are there any idications of a head gasket problem? mayonaise in the oil breather glazed plugs etc grey smoke and a wierd smell out the back
3) do you have a transmission cooler in the bottom of you radiator
4) is the last inch of the tail pipe black/wet do you puff smoke at a specific rpm


at freeway RPM something causes your motor to heat up quicly and over burden the system. if all is well at lower rpm and when in the zone at lo rpm where a fan is necessary. In my mind if everything else is all new and good it has to be spark timing or fueling related

OR
the cap is loose leaking and venting at way below the standard 16LB, did it come with the radiator or did you use your old one? or buy a new one. Is it the correct cap. multiple types but 2 lengths of spring under the cap. a short one in a radiator designed for a long one will vent at a very low pressure.
if it was loose, there would be speckles of coolant on the screen or on the underside of the hood just depends on if you run the rubber seal across the back of the hood where it comes close to the plenum
if its venting most of that goes down the vent pipe, if fitted, and drips below the bottom corner of the radiator support, cable tie a can to the radiator support stick the end of the pipe in it and see if it fills. it really shouldn't. no pipe and just a nipple on the side of the filler spout on the radiator see previous comments about coolant getting on the screen.

if you have a mopar style bottle and return system (1970s kit) is the bottle filling and emptying to a massive degree

if you have a full pressure top bottle (modern car set up) ( i.e an aftermarket set up. an extra high pressure plastic vessel, above the height of the top tank and no normal radiator cap) its going to be harder to check.

the cheapest fix is to just slightly bend the tangs on your current cap.. just a little bit, to make the cap really quite hard to do up and take off..... costs nothing if you have some mole grips or pliers and might be the magic bullet you need.

Dave
 
one last thing one of the radiator pipes is under pressure and one can be under vacuum
the one that is under occasional vacuum usually has a spring in it to keep it in shape and stop it collapsing... i can never remember which one

aftermarket pipes sometime do not come with the spring.....

you should be able to feel it if you give them a squeeze.... they would not have wasted the time cost and effort to put them in if they didn't think necessary. does your pipe have one

Dave
 
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If you could shoot those rad fittings, that would eliminate/indicate rad as the issue.
Every year . . . same thing . . watch folks chasing their tail .
These threads usually go beyond 150 posts , covering the same chit , gotta ways to go yet .
Then the next one, - next week .
 
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Got a spring in your lower hose? They will collapse from the suction, especially at 3,500 rpm.

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☆☆☆☆☆
 
Here’s the basics, lifted from a 1970 “Motor’s” Auto Repair Manual.
Applies then, applies now.

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Based on the Bay Pic from post #49, I say Awesome looking and all looks in order. Kudos!

You either have a cheap T-stat or a nice looking radiator in appearance that is not functioning.

Also Based on that pic, I assume you have the hood seal installed as the attention to detail is great!

Spend the cash for a high flow Stat from Milodon, and or send that radiator to GlenRay for a full rebuild! I would also recommend a high flow pump from flowcooler.

There is no other good reason for your awesome car to be overheating at cruise. JMO!
 
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By the way, I went from 4.56 to 3.55 and my 383 even ran cooler! No way that gear is causing your issue!
 
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