so i finally got my 350 in my regal, but now i am having troubles keeping it cool, yes i got a bigger radiator, and went to a straight fan instead of clutch and i have a 2 inch spacer on it and a 160 theromastat......and its still running like 180 when moving then when stop around 210 or so, my next step is to get an electric fan but i need to know how many amps can i get without it being to much for the alternater, so i don't come out and have a dead battery one day......someone else said i might have air in the lines and i should drain the block but i don't know where the plugs r to drain it..its a 71 350 skylark motor
You do not have a cooling problem. For racing you might want to run cooler but 180 to 200 is perfect temps for street driving. You can run 220 to 230 all day and not hurt anything.
Something is wrong. No way you should be running 210* temps with a 160* thermostat, although 210 is acceptable.
Change to a 180 or 195 put the clutch fan back on and throw away that power robbing junk fan you have. Score a seven blade one off of a big car, I use the clutch from a one ton 454 with a Malibu three core radiator in all my G-body cars, 455 Buick, 472 Caddy, 455 Olds, 455 Pontiac. I run the 195 in the winter, the factory temp gauge says 205 but the autometer one say 190-200, but it never would warm up enough to defrost the windows or have the heater warm with the 160 in it. I run a 160 in the summer on cars with AC. The 454 car has a used camaro aluminum two core, no fan on the motor and an electric fan*(off of the camaro), only because I have not scored another fan shroud for it, I already bought a new fan clutch. Was your radiator new or from a salvage/used, if so, you might get some air conditioner core cleaner and wash it out. Just make sure and use low pressure water, say from a garden hose. Might try changing cap pressure as well. Running water, water wetter, antifreeze mix? The temp reading you are getting, is it from an aftermarket gauge? Where did you install the sending unit/sensor/capilary tube? In the head or intake right next to the thermostat housing?
i installed it right next to the housing of the thermostat.......i think the problem is that my fan is still to far back from the radiator, even with the biggest spacer they got (2.5 in) because it is really not even in the shrould, but kinda at the back of the shrould like maybe an half inch inside it....there is still like prolly 5 more inches to go till the radiator........but i got an electric fan yesterday and soon as it stops raining here I am gonna put it on and i hope that makes the difference........a lot of people r tellin me alot of different things, like 210 is to high then somebody else says its not, i just don't wanna hurt my new motor cause when it reads a lil high like 210 i can hear the water bubbling in the plastic overflow container but it never comes out.......... and i am running anitfreeze mix, i will try some of that cleaner stuff for it if this fan don't work............gotta love old cars, the money just keeps on adding up.....lol, plus i think i gotta bad tranny with it cause it won't shift by itself when i put it in drive, i have to start in 1 and shift up to drive,, but i am just gonna get a new tranny and mount a shifter on the floor
Make sure the timing isn't too retarded. Had my distributor curved so I could run 12 or 14 initial and that fixed my overheating.
got any pics of that shroud? I rebuilt mine 5 times until i got it right. The fan can be away from the rad, but the shroud will probably make all the difference. Atleast it did with mine. My neighbor races dirt track and he mentioned a few things, if the fan is too far into the openening of the shroud or to far out of it, it will crete too much turbulance. Keep playing with it, seal the outsides of the shroud and if you didn't already, make sure the air isn't getting around the rad.
Fought regal cooling and it's a real pisser... Some easy mods - remove the rear weatherstripping, notch up the hood a bit and add the air dam under the rad support for an extra 10*. Go with an exteral trans cooler for a bit of juice too. Check for fan to shroud clearance no more than 1/2", timing, carb lean out (backfires?), ...in that order. If it gets hot sitting still but is fine at highway speeds focus on the fan. If it's too hot at highway but Ok sitting still try a larger rad. That said, I run 190-220 on a bored 455 and she's all good.
Removing the hood to cowl weatherstripping is an easy and excellent mod. My 455 ran so hot it would vapor lock every time I shut it down. Since I removed it, the problem disappeared. Now I'm running about 190* in the summer and 210* with the A/C cranked in traffic on a HOT day.
