cooling blues
 

i am having some cooling problems......I have done the three core radiator, 160 thermostat, new water pump checked the clutch fan, made sure the lower air dam was in place, but i still run hot at times I have the original belt driven fan setup with clutch. my question is this....how much cfm is the stock fan pulling thru the rad. and would it increase my airflow to do away with the clutch and fan and go with an after market fan and fan spacer. any replies would be greatly appreciated:confused:

I don't have any problems with cooling, in fact it cools too much in winter. :rolleyes: I have an electric fan wired to stay on at all times. You might do better with that than the belt driven one. Of course, I don't run any A/C either...

Is that the original engine, or has it been rebuilt? Might do well with a coolant system flush. Without more info, it's kind of hard to pin down.

it is a stock rebuilt eng. guy i bought it from a while back spent the money for a rebuild but went bone stock. i just put the radiator in last year. flushed system then. a/c agravates cooling problem a little. just trying to get cooling problem under control before project 350 goes under the hood
i notice the 100 amp alternator in your sig. did that help a lot with the infamous charging problems on these cars???? just curious

Could be the guy put the wrong head gasket on there that didn't have the proper steam holes in it. That would definitely not help overheating problems. Just make sure the 350's head gasket is correct and that shouldn't be a problem.

Plus, he could have skimped on the rebuild job and not done a complete overhaul. I had that problem with the 350 I have when I bought it. The guy did a half-a$$ed job and I had to completely rebuild it a week and a half later. I was so mad... :mad:

And I never really had any charging problems before, but the 100 amp never hurts for insurance. Keeps you from worrying about power drops at high rpm.

I had the 305 in mine, don't know if I had overheating problems (really did'nt care either) with that motor, but when I stuck in my new 355, she got hot! My buddies and I are still amazed at how much heat stays trapped under the hood, I know the headers make a difference but man compared to other cars, HOTT! Any way, I had 160 thermostat with single electric fan and it ran 200 down the hwy and about 210 in town. Found out I was missing the front air damn so I put that on along with the dual fan set-up, Now it runs 180 in town and 160 almost all the time, fans are both on all the time by the way. By the way it's in an 86 bird. After working on this car doing the motor swap, full tube headers, true duals, I am convinced this is a poorly designed chasis are far as working on things and trying to adapt into a "muscle car"-especially the torque arm set-up. I will finish the car and have a nice street rod but for the drags which I had intended (it'll work for now however) I will find something ALOT easier to work on.

That is the next step i am looking into, a dual fan set up wired to both come on at same time. i will have to upgrade my alternator, the one that is in it now just keeps up with the load i have now, then i need to locate a fan set up. the fans are wired thru a temp sensor off of the front of the intake manifold arent they?????

I dont know about the earlier years, but my 86 was designed to run that hot. Or so they say anyway, it could be like MS and their 'enhancements' LOL
If you are going to have electric fans run all of the time, you dont need to worry about the temp unit, just wire them thru a relay to the ignition.

Two things...
First, get rid of that clutch fan and install either a single or dual electric fan setup (factory thirdgen ones work fine); it'll free up some HP and improve your gas mileage to boot :)
Second, install a sheetmetal disc on the back of the fins inside the water pump to help push more coolant through the system. Summit sells them for 7 or 8 bucks, but I made my own for next to no cost.

Pete

How hot is hot? The stock clutch fan kicks on at around 210--when it was new anyway. How old is the clutch? As the clutch gets older it usually pulls less and less air(starts slipping too much) When it kicks in it should really roar for a while and then kick out--do you hear it roar? Try a new clutch, or space it out and put on a good flex fan. I've been running a flex fan for probably 7+ years now without any problems. Keeps it nice and cool. Real world hp loss is minimal.

When I rebuilt my L98 I made sure I completely cleaned the block out,installed a Stewart stage 1 water pump,160* stat,And removed the A/C condensor in front of the radiator.....
Now the car runs 155*/160* on the highway and rarely over 190* in town...

hot is 230-240 with air on. they may have been designed to run hot but old school still tells me thats to hot. I am looking into an electric dual fan set up but would be content with a engine driven fan if i knew it would solve my problem 82camaro i see in photo your running a front bra....still no cooling problems???? i put one on mine (i do a lot of highyway driving and rocks have taken a toll) and the over heating gets a lot worse????

Do not use electric fans with engine driven fan, unless it's a flexlite maybe. I tried this on my plow/work truck. Overheated worse-ended up electric fan was cooling the thermostat on clutch fan so it'd never engage, but the engine with A/C on was too much to cool with electric fan only. Took out fuse to electric fan and presto baby stays cool. I have to experiment this winter to see if electric will help with plow on though.

just installed a flex fan w / spacer. the old clutch was oily on the outside with very little friction when turned. started the car up and it is moving 10 times the air it used to. you can feel it pulling thru the front grilles. never could before. cant wait for heat of day tomorrow to go drive and watch temp gauge......