Who has heard the thin-walled cylinder 455 engine is prone to overheating.

Thank you so much.
Thank you for the organizing.
Vet

 

Whoops me bad....... Remove t-stat AND the The gauge assembly..

I have 4 mechanical gauges. Only one is a equal reading to the one linked above..

 

Great suggestion on the coolant.

This issue i'am having with Delco fan clutch, it stays engaged all the time, that's why I am thinking it's defective. Vet

 

I'am a little confused.
I was going to remove the thermostat, put it in a pan of water with a cooking thermometer and see if it opens at 160 degrees.
Is this what you're saying?

 

Yes to the t-stat

Also compare your mechanical temp gauge to the dairy thermometer..... I have a 12 degree difference in one of my temp gauges in comparison to my dairy thermometer....

I trust the dairy to be more on the money than a my auto-meter , SW , And VDO gauges

 

I have a question for you.

Think a laser gun is very accurate.
Do you think I could laser measure temperatures off the face of the radiator and thermostat housing and compare the heat reading to my digital gage.

Do you think that comparison would be accurate enough?

I never though my car temp gauge could be off. It's a digital gauge if that makes any different.

 

Think a laser gun is very accurate.
Only to a point,, Pin point not even near.....

I never though my car temp gauge could be off. It's a digital gauge if that makes any different.

Take that POS out out of your car Take a hammer to it.. Put a real mechanical one in its place..

https://www.autometer.com/2-water-temp-120-240-f-12-tubing-mech-ul.html

 

My automated and my lazer are pretty close when I measure at the intake close to the sensor.

I tend to find when I read the hoses they read lower........and the laser is more accurate the closer the gun is to the object......the farther away the larger the sample area it reads.

Maybe even something like this just to have something to look at
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1451240385...8HKUPtPm1xFEFLluYoVsUZPL7-TXPJvRoCaSQQAvD_BwE

 

Make sure you are running at least a 50/50 water /antifreeze mix. Running straight antifreeze will cause the problem you are experiencing. Water dissipates heat much better than antifreeze. Maybe try straight water and check the results. Not much chance for a freeze in Florida anytime soon. Every performance big block I’ve ever owned gets hot at idle with ac on during 90 degree weather, try to avoid driving it in the peak heat of the day.

 

A properly operating fan clutch should come on and off. It should not be locked when cold. It should lock up and "roar" when hot until it brings the temps down and then go back to coast mode. Then it cycles again as temps rise.

 

But straight water boils sooner than a proper mix and way b4 Evans Cool.

Straight water boils at 212 plus 3* for every psi the system is under

 

At cruise (30+ mph) and above any fan is redundant. I don't use a fan in regular driving (I have a single unshrouded big Permacool fan mounted on the back (passenger side) of the big HD Griffin aluminum radiator that I turn on from the drivers seat once in a blue moon if I might sit a bit in traffic). It's very hot in the summer in my neck of the woods; on the factory temp gauge it takes a lot of slow summer driving for my car to go half up the gauge. If I'm at speed I go one or two hash marks. In the other three seasons I don't ever turn on that fan and I'm usually at hash mark one.

In California, when my car was last smogged back in about 1995, I had to block my Vacuum Advance off to cut combustion chamber NOx emissions using a kit consisting of two vacuum caps and a clear sticker for the windshield that the driver sees. Guess what the sticker said (and I paraphrase): "WARNING - this vehicle equipped with a Vacuum Advance bypass and is now prone to overheating at cruise."

The point here - ensure that your VA is truly working. I recommend a non-ported VA source.

 

A quiet fan is not moving any air. If you want quiet, then put up with the engine overheating. If you want normal operating temps, get a fan clutch that moves some air.

 

I just want to find a fan that operates as designed.
Not a HD Delco fan clutch that is engaged 100% of the time.
Hopefully, the HD Four Season's clutch fan being delivered tomorrow will work as designed.

If anyone was inside my car and it's insulated with sound deadening material, would not believe how loud the Delco HD clutch fan is.
There is NO relief from it. Maybe I should a put a pair of glass packs on the car so I can't hear it. LOL

 

Mike, the issue I have is, it never disengages. It doesn't matter what the coolant temperature is.
So, I expect the HD Delco fan clutch is defective. It's so loud I can't hear the radio and I have sound deadening material installed.
I find it hard to believe this is normal, 100% engaged. Vet

 

It isn’t normal, find a replacement, as said earlier by another, it should only engage when temps are high enough and disengage when temps are normal.

 

Michael explained a simple test for the fan clutch in another thread. When the car is cold, you should be able to turn the fan with your hand. When the car is hot and you shut it off, the fan should be locked to the pulley.

 

I have a Four Seasons HD clutch fan arriving tomorrow.

Jim Wise recommended TA's high volume water pump that has larger water ports and a much better impeller design that increases the
water flow. Jim says that a strong water flow makes for lower coolant temperatures, however he says you must have a very good conditioned or new radiator, which I do have, a new radiator.
If the new clutch fan doesn't work, I will buy the TA high volume water
pump. This is my back-up plan, just in case. Vet

 

Thanks Max, I'm aware of this process.

Where the issue is, The Delco clutch fan was 100% engaged. I have a feeling the shop I have working on the fan clutch issue may have not done this process. Instead, they are encouraging me to put up with the huge roading noise because it does keep the water temp in a normal temp range. However, "they" don't have to drive the car or live with it.

I will not except noise so loud that I can't play the radio or have my wife put up with this issue either.
If the fan clutch only came on when high temperatures required it, I could put up with that, but the Delco is engaged 100% of the time, this can't be normal.
My understanding is thermostatic fans engage at 180 degrees. If this is true, then, this also could be my problem, because my engine coolant never gets below 180 degrees (only at start-up). With the Delco, I cruise at between 180 and 190 degrees. Now that I have my brain engaged, it just occurred to me that the thermostatic bi-metal spring activates from the heat coming off the radiator. So, this means to me, there is a deferential of heat temps between the radiator and the coolant. Must be the radiator heat is lower than the coolant temp. This would cause the clutch fan to disengage when it sees the radiator temp is lower. At lease this is my theory.

An interesting article I read, says when you're driving at 30 to 40 mph, there is so much air being pushed into the radiator.
the fan clutch is no longer needed because the fan clutch cannot produce the amount of air flow that is produced by the car driving at 30 to 40 mph. It only gets better at higher speeds.

Maybe tomorrow when the Four Season's HD fan clutch is installed, it will be interesting to see what temps it engages in.