I recently rebuilt a motor and decided to do head shims (instead of gaskets) and used that copper coating spray paint stuff. I am starting to worry that it plugged up some of the coolant ports in the block but anyway I'll continue...

I currently am running a 350 behind an old water pump I had laying around with a new thermostat and a new 4.3 V6 radiator from an S10 with a new radiator cap (motor is in my S10). The only fan I have currently covers about half the radiator and is an electric push fan... it's not very good at all. Anyway, both hoses start to get hot, the radiator gets very hot all the way across, the top hose feels very pressurized.

Within the first 15 minutes of running the temperature just keeps climbing slowly, it never plateaus or never goes down. Right around 220 degrees I shut it down. I give it a little time to cool down, my coolant in the radiator is warm along with both hoses.


Forgot to mention i am not running a heater core. I have vortec heads and my thermostat has a little hole drilled in it b/c I don't have that tiny coolant port in the 1997 block and am not running a vortec style water pump with the bypass hose.
My system is just radiator, lower hose, block, thermostat, upper hose and back to the radiator.


Could my radiator just need to see more air flow? I find it strange that everything is getting hot but the gauge indicates it's not cycling.

 

Can you make it a puller fan by swapping the wires?

 

the blades are angled so no I don't think it will work. I can't fit it on the other side anyway.

I do however have a flex fan I can put on with a shroud to help it move some more air. Would an insufficient air flow cause it to keep raising the temperature (as I stated it doesn't ever make a cycle but rather keeps increasing).

 

Bump

 

Maybe it's just a defective thermostat... I'll have to take it out and check.

 

I had a similar issue. Once you get moving, that push fan is getting canceled out by the air coming up from your air dam. (you have an air dam right?) My fan also wasn't coming on. Replacing the CTS and getting a pull fan solved my issue. I would try your other fan, cause as I see it now, your fan is only working when you're at a dead stop.

 

X2.