you need more radiator. I have a 51 chevy with an aluminum radiator in it. It is easily 8 inches taller than the one you have. Also at highway speeds the air seems to want to flow up over the radiator rather that through it. I made a baffle to force the air through instead of letting it up over the radiator and it ran 15 degrees cooler on the freeway from that. here is a picture of mine before the motor swap and engine compartment redo, yes it is a ****ty picture but you can see the size difference in the Radiator in mine compared to the one you are running.
LOL I would not be worried about a g***er that gets warm @ about 10 miles, they usually only go about 1320 feet between cool downs. Are we talking 10 miles of bumper to bumper traffic in the heat or ????? One thing that you have to be sure of is that the air at speed is forced to go through the radiator and not over and around it. You also need to be sure that you have a good stat and not a walmart version of a good stat. If you are running an electric fan you want it to come on at the same temp as the T stat opens. That may not cure a thing for you just something to think about.
Do the sheet of paper test, with it running see if it can hold a piece of paper to the radiator, even a shop rag tells if it is pulling decent air. I ran both a SBC and BBC in my stock car, they ran about the same temperature constantly.
What brand fan? Ratings are often faulty. I think I see a shroud. Am I right? I agree to run the rag test too Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If AFTER you'd checked out everything else it proves to be the radiator, you may want to get an aluminum radiator with 2 rows of large tubes, 1.25" or so each. I'm building a 51 Chevy with a BBC and here's one I'm consider getting. The tanks are stamped, so if you paint it black it looks like an original style radiator: http://www.ebay.com/itm/KKS-2-ROWS-...-1954-CHEVY-STYLELINE-BEL-AIR-V8/172550726859 Seems all the stuff I've read says more rows of tubes just creates more air turbulence and resistance to air flow. Two rows of larger tubes are supposed to be better than 3 rows of small tubes in an aluminum radiator. Also if you need more room to move the radiator up and back, you may want to go with the short water pump (1965-1968). Get a good quality short BBC pump. If you don't have the brackets & pulleys for the short pump you can find them also on the website mentioned above.
Dan, the sheet of paper test won't prove a thing. You've stated theres no overheating at idle and it heats up while driving. Your fan is NOT your problem. You don't even need a fan while driving. The guys are right about the need for more radiator. Gary
If that were true then there would be no need for a thermostat at all. Motors without a thermostat can and do overheat because.... Wait for it... The coolant p***es thru the radiator too fast and can't cool down. Some of you guys need to study a bit more. Sent from my Moto G Play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Be sure the lower radiator hose has a coil spring in it. Sometimes the hose can get ****ed shut and flow no water. I clicked on this thread to get some insight on my own issue. BBC runs a little hot in stop and go. Aluminum heads, large AL radiator, and only a mechanical fan. I'm going to add an electric fan. Your radiator has much less frontage area than mine.
Did the truck run normal before rebuild? Is everything the same on your truck as before rebuild? Try a laser temperature tool ,What's the temperature at the top of radiator in comparison to the bottom of radiator? Ideal is 40* difference. What's the temperature at the temp sending unit. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
If the fan is blowing out it would definitely cause a problem at highway speed but not at idle. Paper test is quick and easy. Head gaskets are more difficult to check. You need block numbers, head numbers and gasket numbers.
What pressure cap do you have on it, and do you have a "closed" system where the coolant overflows into a reservoir, and is then drawn back into the radiator when the engine cools off? If you don't have a closed system, and the coolant is puking out into the world, it is the system normalizing the coolant level. In open systems, there needs to be room in the system for the coolant to expand. When you add coolant each time it pukes, yo;re not allowing the system to normalize. 220 isn't hot, but since it pukes at 220, I ***ume you have a very low pressure cap on the radiator, and no coolant recovery system. Two wrongs don't make a right, and both of the above are ...wait for it.... not right. The "coolant moving too fast through the system to cool" theory has been debated at length on this site, and science has proved it wrong. For those that cling tenaciously to myths, I am going to take one last crack at forever dispelling the Granddaddy of them all when it comes to cooling systems. The myth is stated as either: Coolant can be pumped too fast through the engine for it to absorb enough heat, or Coolant can be pumped too fast through the radiator for it to cool properly, or Cooling can be improved by slowing the flow of coolant through the radiator so it cools more completely. NONE of these is true. The simple truth is that higher coolant flow will ALWAYS result in higher heat transfer and improved cooling system performance. The reason the myth is so persistent, is that: a) without knowledge of fluid dynamics and laws of thermal conduction it does make a kind of intuitive sense and b) it is based on a tiny kernel of truth, but that kernel of truth does not explain the overall system behaviour and so, interpreted out of context, leads to a completely erroneous conclusion. So, let's start with the tiny nugget of truth. If you had a sealed rad (no flow) full of hot coolant, and subjected that rad to airflow, yes, the longer you left the coolant in the rad, the more it would cool. However, if you were to plot that cooling over time, you would find that the RATE at which the cooling takes place is an exponential curve that decreases with the temperature difference between the hot coolant and the air. Put another way - when the temperature difference (delta-T) between the hot coolant and the airflow is large, heat transfer (cooling) initially takes place very, very quickly (almost instantaneously). But as that happens, and the coolant cools, the delta-T becomes less, and the RATE at which further cooling happens gets less and less until the point where the coolant and air are almost the same temperature and continued cooling takes a very long time. This is Newton's law of cooling. To illustrate this lets look at a "quenching steel in a bucket" ****ogy. A good example of this law can be seen when quenching a red-hot piece of steel in a bucket of water. At first, the temperature difference (delta-T) between the red-hot steel and the water is huge - therefore the initial heat transfer occurs at a great rate - the steel initially cools very fast - almost instantaneously. However, after this initial cooling, the delta-T is much smaller, so the remaining cooling occurs much more slowly. If you removed the steel after a second or two - it has cooled a lot - but it will still be warm. To continue cooling the steel to the temp. of the water, you have to leave it in there quite a bit longer - because as it cools - the rate of cooling continually decreases as well. In short - initial cooling is fast, but subsequent cooling occurs more and more slowly until cooling that last little bit takes a long time. So what does this mean? Basically it means, the longer the coolant stays in the rad, the less efficient the cooling that takes place is - to the point that the rate of cooling is so slow as to be detrimental to overall system cooling. Better to dump the big load of heat right away and go back quickly for another load than hang about waiting for a last little bit of insignificant cooling to happen.
My 2 cents worth.... need a bigger radiator and definitely need a fan shroud. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
I'm always amused by that myth of coolant p***ing through the radiator too fast to be cooled. We continue to see that Bull **** being posted. If that were true why would anyone like Flow Cooler manufacture a high flow water pump? Wouldn't that cause overheating? Or better yet, how many of the posters who say the water is flowing too fast ever repaired an overheating condition by slowing down the water flow? How would you fix it? Put a restrictor in the system? Remove water pump impeller blades? Please tell us. Gary
Hmmmm I just purchased a Lincoln Continental w a 454 from a member here. Had a accel ignition whose module kept dying and the car had severely retarded ignition. Had Blairs speed shop in Pasadena replace it w a HEI w external coil. now at 34 deg advance/ Overheated like a demon on the way home. Realized the guys I bought ot from live in New Hampshire where it never gets to 100...Changed the thermostat to 160 d opening high flow and changed the thermostat housing from a high swivel o ring type to a lower old school chrome type. that lowered the hose a full inch at the block it was almost straight before. This did a LOT OF good. I'm changing to a flowkooler high volume pump and changing the fan switch. The switch now goes on at 210, I'm going to get one that goes on at 185. hopefully that will do it, because the car has no room for a bigger radiator and I plan on her being my daily driver..
Saw that Lincoln from NH for sale recently. Looked like a pretty neat car. Hope you figure out how to keep it cool. The size of a radiator is important but is not always the key for cooling. The construction of the radiator is the real important factor. ie, number of rows and size of cooling tubes. Gary
one of those situations where one size (answer) does not fit all - looking at pictures of motor - as is now how does radiator handle heated/expanded water? yes, there is a recovery tank - it is too low, cap needs to be as close as possible to the same height as radiator top of radiator & should use one of the larger diameter ones. usually the water/coolant in a radiator is not filled to top of radiator. normal is having a inch or so below top - this helps with the expansion and the drawing back fluid from recovery tank. use a clear hose from radiator cap neck to proper inlet/outlet on tank - one of the ******s provides a release fluid out of tank if it over fills - clear hose will allow you to see if tank is functioning properly. you might consider installing a inline radiator filler neck with cap (summitracing.com) that way you should not have to use a funnel to check/add fluid. 12lb cap used now seems too low of a rating for that radiator, try a 16-18 lb cap - radiator manufacturer usually have recommendations. for now try to keep drives down to 9 miles.
Thermostats are the restrictor. They make restrictors to be used in place of thermostats. High flow pumps work great on large capacity systems but I never built a car using one.... And that is a lot of cars and not a one ran hot in Texas heat. Maybe my theories don't work. But in the real world I don't trust most theories, I trust what works. Sent from my Moto G Play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Your problem will not go away until the gasket problem is corrected.. I ran a 4.375" bore BBC in an Anglia on the street.. This car had a radiator about as big as a large thick postage stamp.. now granted this is Michigan and high outside temps are rare. This car would run about 190 on an average day, with a 160 stat.
No, that is not correct. You need to study thermal dynamics more. The purpose of the thermostat is to keep the coolant in the engine block until the coolant in the block reaches a set point, then it opens and the coolant should flow freely; i.e. the purpose is to help the engine warm up faster, not to keep the coolant in the radiator longer, that is silly. Talk about needing to study a bit..... LOL! The myth that coolant can circulate too fast to transfer heat through the radiator is an old wives tail, not supported by science. It just keeps getting repeated by people who heard it from someone else, like you just did, and the myth lives on. Stop spreading it. "A common misconception is that if coolant flows too quickly through the system, that it will not have time to cool properly. However the cooling system is a closed loop, so if you are keeping the coolant in the radiator longer to allow it to cool, you are also allowing it to stay in the engine longer, which increases coolant temperatures. Coolant in the engine will actually boil away from critical heat areas within the cooling system if not forced through the cooling system at a sufficiently high velocity. This situation is a common cause of so-called "hot spots", which can lead to failures." http://stewartcomponents.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=11
Dan, now that all the experts have given you numerous solutions to correct your overheating problem, it will be interesting to see the solution. Please keep us posted on your progress. Gary
I commented above on the head gasket issue, don't disregard it. You need to know which gen BBC you are working on, IV, V or VI. In addition, which gen heads you are using. There were changes to the steam vents and if you block or restrict them with the wrong head gasket you will overheat. Been there and done that. Just because they bolt on does not mean you got the right gasket. "One of these things is not like the other..."
******, you posted to have the electric fan come on at the same temperature as when the T stat opens? Whats the reasoning for that? You don't need a fan at highway speed. I've had several cars with a fan cutoff switch to shutoff an electric fan at highway speed. Ram air does the job just fine. Gary
Yes and not only different between the Mark series. GM started changing the blocks/gaskets in the early seventies. Blocking or opening p***ages to force coolant to different areas and restricting water flow to the heads.
Gets even trickier mating after market aluminum heads to early gen 4 blocks. The swap meet specials I bought went back to the portland swap meet the next year in lieu of some closed chamber edelbrock castings. Try the easy stuff first OP, but keep my post as a last recourse. I don't wish head gasket replacement on anyone on a BBC.
It may not be a big thing, I noticed the rad is not a cross flow but if the top hose came in at the far left side corner the entire rad would see the hotter water coming from the engine before it got to the right side bottom possibly giving more time in the rad to cool off. If I were you I would have one of those digital temp guns and get out when it's getting hot and check the lower hose at the pump fitting and the upper at the Thermo housing. Should be a 10* drop at least. Good luck
It looks like, from the pictures, there might be too much air going over the top of the radiator and creating a positive pressure inside the engine compartment. Take plastic sheet or sheet metal, even card board and foil tape to temporarily seal to see if that is the issue before you start changing parts. Also the wheels and tires will work like a pump and create air pressure, I bet you don't have wheel wells up front either? Fix the air flow through the radiator first, that is the cheapest fix. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Don't forget to block the air rushing in from below the radiator too. And my suggestion is a temporary fix to test if that is the problem, never a permeant fix untill you are sure of the problem. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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