Okay, here's what I have: 58 392, 6-71, an old KB gear drive with fuel pump extension, a couple of old Milidon filler necks at the front of the heads. I was wanting this to have the feel of an old fuel motor. What I was planning: Running coolant into the block from the hose adapters on the gear drive and pulling it out at the back of the heads. Being fairly ignorant on the cooling passages and correct routing in an early hemi, will this work? I don't want to run the crossover at the front which is typically found when running a stock/sbc/bbc water pump. I was going to use a remote water pump and hide it behing the motor somewhere out of sight and bring the front lines right into the rad, similar to a flathead and run the return lnes tight along the chassis back ino the back of the heads. Maybe odd, but it's the look I'm after. Will this work? There's a lot of figuring to do and I don't want to find out later it was all a waste of time. Any opinions? I could post pictures of what I have, if that would help make it clearer.
Makes sense to me, but I've never tried it. OTOH you could also run (fab) a modified set of water filles that ran lines to the back under the intake and keep them "hidden" that way - I guess itd'd be the long way around the barn but if option #1 didn't work then all the lines you ran wouldn't have to get scrapped either - just hook into them.
The front outlets you are using for input to the rad are the intake for the waterpump on stock hemi engines. The head ports were use as output to the crossover in to the rad so you are reversing the water flow through the engine. Will it cool as good with reverse flow only testing it would tell. Are you going to use a thermostat? Will the electric pump flow keep the temp reasonable on the street at all speeds?
Yes, I was going to run a thermostat, just haven't figured out where to put it 'in line'. I would think that an electric pump would work well enough to keep things cool through out the range, if there is anyone with different experience let me know. Thanks.
I was looking at doing something similar. I know "The Green Grenade" ran a remote water pump and thermostat I jst haven't figured out how?
I think this should work . . . it might even cool better or more consistently than the original setup. If you think about it, there seems to be more of a chance that the water picked up heat down the whole bank of cylinders - and the heads, when you pull it out of the back - versus the front (where some if it could have taken more of a "U-Turn" coming from the timing cover ports. I'm doing something similar, but different in my 392/417 Donovan setup. Because the Donovan 417 heads were "dry decks", but had water passages on the exhaust side, I drilled/tapped a 1/2" NPT port on the back of the block (about 2" below the deck) and I'm running a U-Turn to take the water from the block back through the 417 heads and will pick it up in the front for the radiator. That way, the water goes all the way through the block, takes a turn and comes back through the aluminum heads. Similar to you, I believe it will pickup plenty of heat. I think the most important thing is that you have enough flow in your water pump system. Flow is critical -- so make sure you have enough GPH for the horsepower you're producing.
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