I read, with interest, a recent thread regarding an engine overheating. There were lots of posts with good information. Here's my story, with pictures.
This is an 86 TA track only car. Right off the hop, that means there is lots of freedom in modifying or removing stuff. 350 with AFR heads, Victor Jr. intake, 248/248 solid lifter cam. The TA was tested last summer at Dominion and Summit Pt. and the motor overheated every session. We were trying to stay with the bottom feeder radiator inlet but have now gone to a front facing opening with ducting (not yet tested). The fabrication is rough and the spoiler looks like hell. It is my first attempt at forming ABS. The nose piece is fiberglass.





The funky looking ridge at the top of the opening is a rubber hose covered in film. I'm hoping the radius will help guide air into the duct with less turbulence.


Inside the duct opening

Big air leak

Test setup



Big air leak

Big air leak

Underside of duct.
I did some digging into the old books. It was mentioned that domestic stock water pumps, Chevy, Ford, etc, were found to cavitate when spun faster than stock rpms. Since this motor will see 6500 rpm, a smaller crank pulley and larger water pump pulley were fitted. The big gaps shown in the pics will be sealed off. We installed a thermostat plate with the center removed.
No doubt you noticed that the duct is entirely cardboard painted with fiberglass resin. It's good enough for testing. I'm hoping to make Dominion HPDE on 7/19.

 

you might also want to seal the sides of your radiator so air doesn't slip around the edges. force it thru the rad.

 

I've included a pic from Dominion in 2024 with the bottom feeder setup.

 

8/9 HPDE at Dominion. Water temps stabile at 180 degrees with 6000rpm rev limit. Air temp 75-84 degrees. Top speed 120mph. Dominion is a fairly tight track. For this car, at this track, it was a successful validation of the cooling system.

 

This is the last update on this thread. In my opinion, slowing the water pump down was the biggest improvement. There are no fans. The only time the car is stopped with the engine running is during the first warm up of the day.

 

i dig it.

what about heat extractors on the hood?

might help with air going over instead of under.
i know youre 'only' at 120 mph, i wonder if it would help or not

 

Groovy man. I'm hip to your hood vent idea. It might even reduce lift. However, since the cooling is under control, I spent money on ARH 1 3/4 headers. The engine isn't eager to keep going at 6k rpm and the most likely culprit is the 1 5/8 shorty headers into a single 2 1/2 collector. That's what will be tested at Dominion, 9/6.