i posted a little bit ago asking what could cause my car to bog down, and i ended up getting new rods for it and it fixed it. well today i was on my way out to cocoa beach and i overheated like suddenly like my temp. gauge was stuck and suddenly spiked to 270~ we pulled over to find the over flow tank bubbling and steaming. we let it cool down and drove it to the nearest autozone only to find that i blew the head gasket and must of spun a bearing or something because now there are metal shavings in the oil. im having a 350 droped in as of now and hope that this motor wont give out too. what i want to no is how can i keep the 350 from getting hot and if anything else is going to need to be changed like rearend or transmission? thanks and if this isnt the right forum then feel free to move it

 

try to direct more air up in to the rad, How is youre air-dam looking?
maby a dual fan setup if you don't already have one.

 

I would opt for a more efficient dual fan setup. Or, before spending the big bucks, you can rig up a manual switch like I did, I just leave the fans running constantly, and it keeps at a solid 180-190 degrees.

If you wanna take an extra step, Royal Purple sells a product called "Purple Ice" that you put into your radiator. It is supposed to lower temperatures an average of 10 degrees.

 

havent looked at the airdam yet, should have though. the old 305 allready out and it should all be done tuesday. i will most likely get a dual fan setup and a manual switch like i had on my old camaro, i hope that helps it some. i didnt know they made something like that i will have to check it out next time im out.

 

Yeah the air dam is a common suspect for this problem. You might have caught it on a bad bump in the road and not even noticed. If that is gone, then there is nothing guiding the air to the radiator. Start there, before you go buying stuff, because it would only cost a few bucks to get a new one.

 

Were you driving down the Beeline, or snaking around backroads?

It shouldn't overheat going down the highway. If it does you either aren't getting adequate air flow through the radiator - hence the air dam comments; or the water pump isn't pumping coolant through the system, which could be a thermostat problem or a water pump problem. If you were in stop & go traffic, then your radiator fan may have quit.

Do you use antifreeze? Did you have the AC on?

 

Coolant flow and air flow, doesnt get much simpler. Water takes temp from engine, air takes temp from coolant. Take my car, never overheats. I know it has coolant flow because it blows it out exhaust.

 

rods ?

what rods do you mean ?

and you better figure out the cooling problem before running your new engine

 

i was going down the beeline im thinking the termostat gave out because i have never had any problems in stop and go traffic, after wards when the tow truck got me and took it to the shop i noticed that the fan would only come on when the ac was on max. i have no clue why that would happen unless the previous owner wired it that way to some ungodly reason. when i go to get the car tuesday ill check the airdamn and rewire the fan to a switch.

the rods i was talking about are the secondary mettering rods for the quadrajet that was on the 305

 

The radiator fan relay is wired from the factory to turn the fan on when the AC is turned on. Otherwise, the temperature switch in the passenger side head turns on the radiator fan when the engine temp gets above 238 degrees F.

 

If you 'fix' something by wiring it to a manual switch, you haven't 'fixed' anything. There is also no need to run your rad fan(s) 100% of the time.

Troubleshoot what you've got and fix what's broke.

 

ok i did not know that the fans where wired to turn on with the ac. on my 91 camaro i had the fan hooked up to a switch inside where the fan would come on when the ignition was on but i could turn it off with a switch too.
when i get the car back ill go over it all and fix what is needed.

 

you people kill me with wiring your fans to a switch or ignition can you say (addyourslurhere) rigged there is this secret relay just below the vin on the dash and just above the driverside wheel well that you replace it is a 12 peice... they go bad... the burnout like a fuse... replace them!! you will never guess what they do uh turns the fans on correct