I wish I woulda found this place sooner. There's a lot of nice cars in here.

Any how, I have an 89 Camaro with a completely modified 383 pushing 495 horse at the flywheel. Here's the problem, getting stuck in traffic in Florida causes the temp needle to shoot past 220 degrees which isn't good for aluminum heads. What I'd like to keep the car at is 190. Now I don't have A/C, no heater, but I do have a 160 thermo with holes drilled in it, a hi-flow Milodon Water Pump, Summit's largest GM aluminum radiator, two perma cool electric fans (4500 cfm combined) and I don't have my transcooler mounted infront of the radiator. I have tried many things to reach my target temp. From wrapping my headers to adding water wetter to removing all the plastic air dam stuff in the front, with the exception of the lower air dam.

I'll be honest, I just read you're excellent tech articles about cooling and will re-install all the plastic air-dam stuff. But removing them did not help or hurt my temperature. Is there anything else I can do to cool this beast down?

One note, the problem is at idle, I have a comp cams 305H with a 540 lift, naturally it idles rough, my 110 alternator only pushes 10 volts. As soon as I give the car some throttle the alternator "wakes" up and pumps out 13 - 13.5 volts. Could this cause the fans to slow down? The fans are wired to a manual switch which is fused and connected directly to the fans, chassis ground and battery.

It took me 4 years to build this car and I just want to enjoy it! Any help would be greatly appreciated! :hail:

 

i had some temp creep problems with my Trans Am, and this is what solved them:

The front air ducting was missing. It goes between the nose of the car and the radiator, and "seals" off the radiator to the cooler outside air. If it is not there, you will just be pulling (hot) underhood air back through the radiator, and that is not effective. Try and seal the front portion of the radiator to the outside (bottom, near the spoiler) as its only inlet. If the fans are working, they will pull this cooler air. If your fans are not shrouded properly, they will also not pull air through the whole radiator, just a few spots and not very effectively. This will also be true if they run slow. you have enough power to run 10 alternators, get a good one instead of frying your oil.

You might also consider some type of cowl hood. A friend of mine ran small computer style fans pointed at the front of his headers on a toggle switch to blow hot air out his cowl hood while waiting in staging lanes. I think it also helped flow the air through the radiator and out, because you could see the temp guage drop by a hair. I doubt it would work on a stock motor.

I also got some plastic rain gutter and cut it up to make my bottom spoiler a touch taller and leaned it forwary a bit. This made no difference at idle, but at speed it got me 10-12 degrees.

Just my experience, I hope it helps.

Good Luck
Troy
So Cal

 

Good tips Troy, thanks.

 

Deth:

I thought about it a little bit, and I sure emphathize with your problem. You can also try backing off on your initial timing, the engine will run cooler. I would mark the dist so you can dial it back up easily.

Also, one of my dads' McGuyver buddies moved the windshield washer sprayers from his motorhome to in front of the radiator. When I asked him why, he told me he would get heat problems when pulling trailers up hills, and would just lean on the windshield washer switch and mist the water on the front of the radiator, and watch the temp guage go down.

I can't re-emphasize how important good shrouding of the fans is. If you just stick them directly on the radiator, they will be only marginally effective.

Keep it cool!('')

Troy
So Cal

 

You might also consider a larger crank pully and/or a smaller alt. pully to speed up your alt a bit, and to increase the idle speed a taste.

I'm assuming that this car is not still all computer controlled timing, etc.

L8r

Troy

 

Wow, that's slick with the washer tubing! I never thought of that one! The timing is something I forgot about thanks a ton.

 

You are most welcome. It's pretty cool (pardon the pun) to help and get help from people anywhere at any time.

Good luck!

 

Spraying water on the radiator is an old trick. The unlimited air racers flying Mustangs spray water on the radiators and oil coolers during the race to keep the Merlins from overheating.

Interesting idea on the "tilt" of the lower air dam. My car used to run cooler on the freeway, but now the air dam is tilted back a bit from all the parking lot wheel bumpers and crap. Maybe it's time to work on that. Any ideas on how to tilt it more forward or should I just replace it?

 

I measured the existing peice, and cut a sheet of 080 aluminum to size. Then I just bent it to the best angle. If you're comfortable with the height, you can cut the sheet longer so it catches more air.