So I set my ‘60 LeSabre 364 up with a Holley Sniper EFI unit. The display shows temp digitally and seems warmer than expected. The Sniper actually has control for dual electric fans so I am ditching my unshrouded clutched mechanical fan for a 2001 Ford Contour V6 dual fan unit. This tried and true Fox body Mustang mod works great on my ‘79 Mustang and just so happens to be a perfect fit on the Buick radiator! Cheap too at under $150 The big question is, what thermostat do you recommend for the nailhead and what two temps should I consider the fans to kick on? For example, a 180 t-stat and fans kick on at 190 and 200, or a 160 stat and fans turning on at 175 and 195 etc.
The '55 shop manual says 165 degrees thermostat for mine. That's what I run in mine , 165. I have the standard four blade fan on the warer pump pulley
The factory 4 blade unshrouded fan pulls something crazy like 2000+cfm. It actually works well. Even use them in some circle track applications. That being said, a clutch fan is better. Electric fans are ok, but I'm not in love, most are a bandaid on a broken arm. Your problem is not your fan set-up, it's radiator. Re-core it to 4 cores w/ a 180 stat and you are good. Before you go Foxbody and buy a $5 alum radiator off eBay, know that most are crap and none basically fit. There are exceptions, but I've seen a lot of slapped together junk that people me good $$$ to fix properly. I have done 4 core upgrade on factory tanks about 10 times in different early Buicks all have worked absolutely perfect.
A proper shroud makes sure all the air pulled by the fan goes through the radiator. Running without one is not a good idea unless you have no choice. I like to get the biggest most efficient radiator I can find and then let the thermostat regulate the operating temperature of the system. It amazes me how many think it's OK if the engine runs more than 10-15* above the thermostat rating. That just indicates the thermostat has LOST control of the cooling system temperature.
I am running a recored OE radiator, water pump, clutched fan, and shroud, all for "heavy duty" cooling for original AC car. I run a 180* tstat. No cooling issues, ever in my 64 Wildcat with 401. Not cheap, though. Recore cost about $800 back in 2012. New shroud, pump, and fan clutch set me back another $350-400 back then. All I've done since is change the coolant every few years or so. I would probably try a large aluminum aftermarket radiator today just to save a few hundred bucks.
A V-6 electric fan is perfectly acceptable if you're making V-6 horsepower and willing to run modern V-6 coolant temperature (hot) to maximize the difference between coolant temp and ambient temp. If not, it's crazy.
No Ford fan pulls 3800cfm. I have had Mark VIII fans, Taurus fans, you name it back in the day. They do work ok, not saying they are junk, but do require serious correct relays/wiring to support them properly. Mark VIII fan was the king at a reported 2800cfm. Either way, doesn't matter. Reality is coolant capacity is the actual main factor. You can have a crap radiator and a killer fan and still be running hot. Reality. ALSO, I have seen so many bad diagnosed over heating issues. I guarantee most on here do not know a bad coil will cause a motor to overheat. Extremely hard to diagnose, because the car is running and usually running ok. Have done it to 3 cars, all Buick/Caddy's and problem solved.
Retarded ignition timing will cause an engine to run hot. Not sure how a bad coil could cause overheating without any other symptoms unless it retarded ignition timing. Can you explain further? On a newer vehicle, a bad coil, would cause misfires putting fuel into the catalytic converter, causing it to overheat, and possibly melt/plug up. That might cause engine overheating, but not without other symptoms.
It is not ignition timing being retarded, but may have the effect when running at steady speed. The cases I have seen/fixed were the car just had a running overheat issue. Would idle fine, never get hot. Would have all the usual fixes, big radiator, good fan, thermostat, etc. You check the timing and all would be fine. I totally stumbled onto the problem working a 64 Riv that randomly started popping coils. He daily drive it and was fine for years, had an MSD coil in it that was at least 10yrs old. Always ran a little warm, but not super hot. New coil made it run perfect, knocked out the running hot issue completely. I also fixed a 63 Caddy, same thing. Coil was unknown brand, at least 15yr old. Had new everything, verified timing, verified balancer, etc. On a hunch, I just put new coil in it and voila. No more overheating. There is very little info on the web about it, found some similar symptoms in the offshore boat racing forums. I think it's an issue with dwell time. If I had not of stumbled upon it, never would have guessed.
Dwell affects timing. Maybe the coil had intermittent failures and would randomly retard the timing. You might not notice that if it was intermittent enough. If it fixed the problem, that is what counts. Easy enough to swap coils to test.
Correct, dwell does effect timing, but I could not visually id it, which is why I am guesstimating. You could probably measure the resistance of the coil and see a difference, as well. The real solution is to stop using China oil filled coils. Everything I do now I am swapping over to TFI style coils, they are better in every way.
Stant lists the thermostat for a 1960 Buick as 195 degrees. I don't think that I would go that high, I would use a 180 degree unit.
Don't overlook the influence that insufficient or zero vacuum advance can have on the buildup of heat at cruising speed. You can easily spend a couple grand not "fixing" something otherwise rectified with installation of a tiny $1.00 rubber hose.
