I recently switched my 327 sbc to manifold vacuum advance, timing is 14 inital, 34 all in at 2500 rpm adv unhooked and 52 at 2500 with manifold vac hooked up. idles good,also got rid of gas smell, and has better off idle responce, my electric fan is set to turn on at 190 degrees,also no fan on water pump. The question I have is I can idle in driveway 5/10 minutes then drive down road and it takes 5/8 miles to reach 180 degrees with 180 thermostat I think alot of people would love to have this problem but I don't know if I am running cool way to long. It runs so good I don,t want to mess with timing, thank,mike
Yeah, I wouldn't want it running any cooler ! As long as you can get to 180° you'll be good. BUT remember, for those short runs, the "oil" also needs to get to its full operating temperature. Wit the water that cold, it'll take longer for the oil to get warn enough to burn off all of the moisture from the previous driving shutdown. Excessive moisture encourages acids to build up in the oil. These acids can and do wreak havoc on the soft bearing (main, rod and cam) material. I have a similar problem with a non-HAMB car. To go to the store, 1/4 mile away, I need to put about 5 miles on it before I get to the store ! One possible simple fix, you can always try a 190° or 200° thermostat. Mike
I think your description sounds pretty normal, depending on ambient temps, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Be glad you don't have worse things to worry about.
My '39 Chev with a SBC does about the same. I had a 170 degree stat in it, and switched to a 180 stat to get it 10 degrees warmer, and it's worked fine. I don't mind the warm up time, and love that it generally runs around 185 degrees in hot or cool weather.
Can you adjust the cooling fan so that it doesn't kick in till around 200-210 degrees? Or maybe change the temp sensor to a different location? Your radiator may be doing its job too well if it's larger than needed for your application. Are you running with an air conditioner and/or a heater core? You might try partially restricting air flow thru the radiator and see how it reacts. But I wouldn't make any big, expensive changes until you see how well it cools while idling in traffic on a hot summer day. I wouldn't worry too much about it running at the temps you're seeing now. And it might be a bit tricky trying to make only slight changes to your operating temperature.
yeah I can't believe it most of time problems are overheating I hate to sound like a wimp complaining, the main reason I am messing with ported and manifold vac it runs so much smoother with manifold vac didn't realize how much cooler .I switched them back and took it up road main problem was rich gas smell which isn't there with manifold I adjusted carb with vacuum gauge maybe I should lean it out some ??
You definitely want to play with the idle mixture, and don't ***ume maximum vacuum is where you really want it to be...there are other considerations, like driveability, the gas smell, etc.
Mine is that way now that it’s not 100° outside. I didn’t make any adjustments, drove it all last weekend never got over 180.
If the coolant is running though the heater core all the time and not byp***ing it, it will slow down the time the engine takes to get to temp. A lot of those old Decco heaters are that way. the coolant runs though them all the time but you have to open the doors to them and turn on the fan to get heat out where a fresh air heater has a heater control valve for the coolant. The electric fan sholdn't be an issue as it will never turn on until the engine or coolant in the radiator reaches the temp the switch is set for. If it runs all the time it will be blowing air though a cold radiator. Changing it's temp is 100% meaningless. It's 1.7 miles from my house to the stop light and 2.3 to the Safeway store and normally I don't get heat out of any of my rigs until I pull into the store parking lot. one of the cars doesn't warm up until I get about six miles up the road unless I have to stop at both stop lights. If you have a heat gun or even by putting your hand on top of the radiator or hose after you fire the engine up and warm it up you might check and see if you are getting warm/hot water to the radiator before the thermostat should open. Could be that it is stuck open or you have one that is actually a lot lower rating than 180. There is also the posibility that your temp gauge is reading wrong especially if it is an electric gauge. Had that problem with the 454 in my 77 flatbed. gauge was showing a low reading but the engine was running right at what the thermostat was set for per the heat gun reading. Change to a Genuine Delco correct for the truck temp sender and now it reads right.
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