My 55 dodge royal lancer with a 360 engine,from a 74 dodge truck 100 727 trans. keeps overheating when I get to where I am going and have to sit in traffic. I have a Perma Cool fan, changed fuel filter, and other things, now taking the radiator off to be checked is all thats left. Or do I try louvers in the hood?
I'd have done the radiator before all the other stuff. Is it the old stock '55 radiator, or replacement?
It's hard to say what you should do next. It would be a big help if you could post some pictures of what you have now, so we don't have to waste a lot of time guessing. Although my first guess would be that you don't have a good fan setup, you probably have an electric fan that is way underpowered for what it has to do.
As mentioned, is the rad some old original antique, or a proper new unit? My family metric grocery getter kept overheating, I did all the usual stuff, change thermostat, added rad cleaner, checked motor over etc. I eventually got pissed with it and pulled the rad and filled it with muriatic acid. Ten minutes later I shoved a hose in and rinsed it through. No end of rusty scaly stuff washed out, and it has not had any problems with temperature since.
When running down the road you do not overheat, but stopped in traffic you do. Air flow problem. You need better fans. An old radiator that is less efficient at heat transfer wil make the problem worse, but your problem seems to be insufficient air flow at slow or stopped speeds.
The fact that it over heats sitting in traffic tells you you don't have enough air flow through the radiator. Simple fix is to add a pusher fan to the front of the radiator. You could wire it with a switch in the cab or piggyback off the original fan with a second relay.
Horsepower is heat. It takes more horsepower to go down the road than sit in traffic. If it allright on the road theres enough radiator so it's got to be airflow.
You got a bunch of stuff left. How good is your water pump, if you replaced it did you buy a new one or a rebuilt one. Have you opened the radiator and make sure it is circulating. I have seen a lot of water pumps over the years that the impeller is shot and all they do is stir the water. If you decide to buy a new one Flow Cooler makes a good one. Is your thermostate working well, if you replaced it did you just get the cheapy one in the blister pack or did you spend the extra bucks on a good one. I usually buy a fast acting stat any more, they are kind of a performance deal and usually cost me about 9 bucks. TRW markets one that works well as well as Mr Gasket believe it or not. How about the shrouding for the radiator. Not just the fan shroud. Is all the sheet metal intact? What about the rubber seal that normally goes across the bottom of the hood where it meets the core support. It is important to make sure that the air is forced to flow through the radiator and not over or around it. What about your hoses are they routed well or can they **** flat when you are cruising and hot? You donot want a restriction. How about the radiator cap, and are you useing an overflow tank or just letting it spill out on the highway. Now when you say overheating do you mean boiling and clunking? Water comming out of the overflow is normal, that is whay you use a puke can. What does your temp gauge say? Is it a good temp gauge and reading properly or do you even have one? These are just things that you need to check. Good luck and welcome to the HAMB. By the way even though you missed the introduction prior to your first post you did fill out your bio in your profile. I appreciate it at least I can see something of what you are about. And I would louver the hood anyway even if you don't need too.
This is a custom radiator, that was taken in and checked and flushed about 2 years ago. Drove about 2.5 hours to a car show, got stuck in traffic idoling, and car died, and had to be pushed to side of road. Will start after it cools down. I see no leaking around the water pump, but would replace, if I could find one that has a good review. Flowkooler doesn't. This water pump is from a 68 dodge truck(100) 318 engine, looking for a good brand. As I said, this 55 dodge royal lancer was customized before I got it.
It would still be a big help to us if you could show us what it looks like up there in the radiator/fan/water pump area. Maybe we can spot a problem that you haven't noticed. Posting pictures is difficult, but it's worth the effort.
I got a 15 year old flowcooler on my 400+ hp small block. It is right at 140K miles, the engine is in its 5th body now. I don't know what better review you can get. I had an FE powered galaxie that had a cooliing problem when I frst got onthe HAMB, I had done everything that I mentioned to you. It still ran a little hot for my tastes. Flowcooler used to boast a 15 degree drop in operating temp. I bolted one on and it did just that droped my operationg temp by 15 degrees. I actuallt idled it in the driveway for 20 minutes on a 103 degree day, original radiator, original ring fan shroud, the new flow cooler and a fast acting T stat. It never overheated. I have used them pretty much exclusivly since the mid '90s. never sent one back never had one fail. You dont know me so you wouldn't just know, but I donot suggest things that I haven't already done.
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