FED!!!! Run filled block or just water????

I saw a couple of old race cars that had a small inline pump in the lower rad hose to move teh coolant around.

 

Never have had my blocks filled or used water in FED. ( Alky Inj. Hemi )
Unless you are bracket racing there is no need for water.
Whenever I get to the finals I just turn my big fan to the engine and mist water on the heads and it will cool off real fast.
I have not seen anybody in the last 20yrs fill a block anymore.

 

Just so I understand, on an injected alcohol iron block hemi, the block was not filled and you did not have any coolant in it?

 

Huh?

What? Why? Demo derby guys are generally morons; I wouldn't emulate anything they do.

Natural convection thermosiphon systems might work on 25 hp flatheads with huge water jackets and properly placed radiators operating at atmospheric pressure. It is less likely to work on a motor that makes 25 times the power and water jackets made to cool with 20 gpm of water moving by them. The density gradient just won't be enough to move the coolant in a productive way.

Filled blocks make more power. Lower cylinder wall compliance, less blow by, more power; it also takes energy to flex the cylinder walls, which is another loss. How much more power is a point of debate. Maybe one day a person with the means will do an experiment and publish the results for us. Until then, we are left to educated speculation.

Methanol, blower or not, will run much cooler than gas, so much so that your cooling problem might be a non-issue. Alcohol funny cars and dragsters run basically two runs(burnout and the timed run), with minutes of backing up and staging in between, and are never worried about the heat.

 

Yes Dave, that is why I typed "to some extent". It would have some effect, nothing like a radiotor though or cars would still be using it.

 

I ran my old gas dragster with water. I ran my blown fuel 392 with water. I ran my blown alky motors without water. My thought is if you like your engine and want it to last as long as possible, you need some kind of cooling system. Even if you mount a Moon tank that looks like another fuel tank and have it full of water even if it's circulated by an electric pump. I agree with the guys that said to have a self sufficient car so you don't have to depend on help. I'm not a fan of a filled block for bracket racing.

 

Thats correct... Nothing.
You don't need it with alcohol. The engine is only running for 2 min. or so at the most.

 

Wow, that's a new one for me.

 

Just an update to what I did with my 327. I ended up taking the rad and water pump off and just running straight water in the block. I would fire it up when they called me to the burn out box, by the time I did my burnout and staged the temp was around 140, going through the top end the temp was just hitting 180, then I would shut it off and coast to the return road. After it was shut off the temp would come up to around 200 and be back down to 160-180 ish by the time we got back to the pits. My ET went from a best of 9.93 to a best of 9.84. For this season I have hillborn injection and switched to alcohol. Havent had a chance to try it yet, still havent got the hillborn set up all finished up yet.

 

Thanks for the update!

 

Why not filled with anti freeze?? or tranny fluid
Water absorbs far more heat than either.

Can't fill the block unless you're going to hone it.

A 10 psi relief valve is, IMHO, not a good idea. The critical water temperature is not what you see on a gauge, or in the cylinder jackets, but in the passages around the exhaust valve and spark plug. If water boils there (and it will with no circulation and no pressure even if the gauge says 180°) the engine will detonate. If you have a 25 lb. cap, the water will not boil (but will continue to absorb heat) until it reaches 304°.

If the whole system is sealed, alcohol makes an excellent coolant, absorbs more heat than water, but it's also a leak-seeker and probably illegal as a safety violation.

 

My buddy has a fed with a alky injected 377 chevy. It is filled and runs no water.He has yahoos in hi dollar bigblock rear engine try to burn him down, but it don't work.He can run back to back. He will start it in staging lane to get some heat

 

I have a filled block in Pinocchio. Water in the heads, but a junk pressure cap allowded it to dump some on the track at the HRR Cacklefest Saturday night.
Even the smallest part can cause problems.

 

Here might be an idea ( maybe a stupid one). On our rock crawlers we used some of the tubing on the frame for extra water capacity, why not adapt an FED frame to be used as extra cooling water (no radiator).

 

Have you ever tried to get traction or drive on anti-freeze ? Then if you haven't it's like driving on oil ! ANTI_FREEZE is a big no no !

I would fill the block and just don't drive it too long . You should be fine . The engine won't heat up that fast !

 

partial fill up to the water pump will have to be honed after use deck plates when cement is setting-up. then you still have coolant in the top end and will circulate properly alot of street car run it no problems