so i put a cam in and new carb/dizzy/and intake.. the intake is a edlebrock intake right off the shelf at auto zone it said up to 87 small block i belive and my car is an 85 so i bought it. well upon installation i found that the heads on my car casting numbers ending in 416 have coolant ports in the front and the back of the heads however the intake that i bought only has cooling ports in the front everything still bolted up and does not leak i just assumed that it would be fine but now when i take my car out for a drive about 15 mins or so into the drive it gets hot and i mean like 220* or more hot. actually i always shut it off to cool down at 220* cause im to chicken to see if it will start to cool down. i took it on the highway when it started to get up to like 200* and it did cool down while i was on the highway but soon as i exited the highway it warmed right back up. is this my intake that causes this

 

ok so the intake is good ,... i managed to figure that out on my own..... however i think it may be possible that the little plastic boot that covered the connection to the temp sensor on the side of my head must be important and i truly belive that the actual sensor is heating up from my headers being hot not that the actual motor is running that hot ..... anybody think outherwise i really need some help on this one

 

The temp. reading is taken from inside the head, header temps. will not effect it. Heating up the part of the sending unit that you can see will not effect it. The only reason your heads have coolant ports in the front and rear is because they are not side specific. They are not mirror images.

When an engine makes more power, it also makes more heat. You need to upgrade your cooling system too. Or, it is possible that your temp. readings are incorrect, but that is not likely if it was correct before.

 

Did you burp the radiator b4 you went driving around?What kind of cooling fan(s) do you have?If it was getting hot b4 the swap could be thermostat is bad or fan(s) not working,possibly both problems.?.

 

well it is not an electric fan so i know the fan is going at least. i did burp the engine. the thermostat is at least coming on i belive because when my temp gets to 180 i can see the fluid start to rush through the radiator when i leave the cap off. when i did the engine swap i had the heads cleaned up. when i got them back the old sensor did not send temp anymore. so i replaced it with a brand new one. now it send temps but my motor just gets hot. do you think i should put a 160 thermostat in it? is it possible i have to much crap in my radiator and i need to flush it?

 

It could be a clogged up radiator.
But since you just changed a lot of stuff around and it worked fine before did you by any chance remove the coolant bypass?

 

A different thermostat won't help an engine that already overheats.

 

well it will run just fine for a little while and then finally just start to overheat really fast what it the coolant bypass?

 

It could also be a bad radiator cap not allowing the system to pressurize.
The coolant by pass is the coolant that goes through your heater core. It is very important to have lots of coolant flow through your engine even when its not all that hot. If you get rid of the coolant by pass the cooling system can start doing all kinds of crazy over heating. Some times it works fine some times it over heats and goes crazy when you don't have a bypass.

 

ok well im gonna need some guidence on this one cause i took it for a drive and when it started to get hot i turned on my heater to defrost full blast and the temp went back down.. so what does that mean? is that what you wanted me to do? thanks for your help and the quik response oil pan 4

 

ok update i just went out and instead of doing it while driving on the road i did it in my drivway just setting at idle. i waited till it started getting hot and turned on the defrost full blast and it did not get cooler but it also did not get any hotter. turned it off and it started getting hotter.... turned it on again and it did the same again. but still did not actually get cooler.... any ideas? hope that helps

 

Then it goes back to having a clogged radiator, cooling system not pressurizing or good air flow over the radiator. Is the cooling system pressurizing? Is the radiator clogged? My guess is you have a belt driven fan. If you have a belt driven fan does it have a clutch? Does the clutch work?

 

When you turn on heater/defroster it is running thru heater core and fan motor to heater is helping cool it. I have a 91Z it always runs around 220 degrees.

 

really that isnt too hot? so recomend a flush then? guess i will try it. um my fan turns how exactly does the clutch work i mean will it start turning faster when it gets hot or what? cause its always on

 

sounds like a bad thermostat or something else restricting coolant flow even though coolant flow was
noticed with the cap off. 220* is nothing to worry about,
but is a bit warm for an early third with belt drive fan,
mine(with a 195 thermo)usually runs 195* but can get
up to 220 or so running fast on the highway in hot
weather-i just have an'84 model aluminum core LG4
radiator,its a bit small The fan clutch is more of a
torque limiting clutch than a direct in/out clutch-there
is a grooved disc on the input shaft that meshes with
grooves in the clutch body with sticky silicone fluid
in between-once a certain torque is reached the fluid
"shears"and the fan freewheels,a valve controled by
the thermostat coil on the front regulates the amount
of fluid between the grooves controling the fan speed
some. if the fluid leaks out the fan will freewheel all
the time and will not move much air if the bearing
seizes you will get lots of fan roar and HP loss at
over about 2500 rpm

 

You might get some useful info by reading the post at start of forum coolg question answerd because of the mods you have made.

 

so are you saying you think it runs hotter because of the cam change?

i dont really know how to test the fan cluch it definetly is not free spinnign because if it was then if i stick a stick in the fan while it is moving then i would be able to slow or even stop it if it was right? i putt a thick wooden dowel rod in the fan while it was spinnign and it did not give at all, there was deffinetly a driving force behind the fan blades so.(dont know how acurate that kind of test is but im working with what little knowledge and commen sense i think i have)

 

Does sound like the fan clutch is good if it knocked that
rod away Wrong timing or other tuning related issues
can cause overheating,but usually the cooling system
will easily keep up at idle. Next time it heats up at idle,
let it get up to 230-240* and feel the temperature of
the air blowing back from the fan, if it's hot a tuning
problem is causing excess heat,if the air is only warm
there is probably a circulation problem reducing the heat
getting to the radiator. could also try running without
the thermostat to see what happens,some say that will
cause overheating because of too-fast coolant flow
but when i did it on mine once it would not get up to
temp.

 

ya i think that is prob worth a try thanks. will give feedback on results asap

 

ok so i *******ed it and put some course ground pepper and a little powder laundry detergent in the radiator and ran it for about fifteen minuets. when i was done i pulled the drain plug on the radiator and the sludge just poured out of the hole. i filled and flushed it three times!! then filled it for a last time no more probs not to mention the fluid actually looks like radiator fluid now... thanks everyone .... and for all those keeping score, if you said clogged or restricted flow you were right