I was wondering if anyone has had problems keeping there car cool after puttin the old style SBC in it, I just put a new air dam on it bothe the side fascia deflectors, everything that is supposed to direct the air through the radiator, I'm running a 1.5" 2 core aluminum radiator with an aluminum fan shroud and a 1610 cfm fan, I'm running a 160 degree thermostat in the car with a stock water pump, the car stays cool if I'm running in open air but if I get in behind traffic or in a 25mph zone, I'm going in the red, anyone else encountered this?

 

Are your fans even coming on?

 

How much is it bored?

 

fans kick on at about 150, and the engine is bored 30 over

 

carbed,
as an experiment, try
removing the thermostat, and then
a test drive.
You might get an idea as
to what is wrong.

 

Stock water pumps are not always the way to go, chances are your coolant flow is too low. Couple of questions, is there an under drive crank pulley? was the engine burpped? 160 is a tad on the low end, acids and such do not evaporate at a good rate and could cause long term damage.

 

what do you mean burpped?

 

burped is another way of saying after filling the coolant back up did you allow all air to purge itself from the system (until nothing but coolant came out) therefore preventing hot spots in the block

 

I ran an SBC in my 97. I actually used a Mezeire water pump and the radiator and fan out of an LS1. It went in perfectly then I took some welding rods and bent them into the shape needed and went to Pep Boys. A little trimming and we were all set.

For turning them on and off I used a BeCool relay that has a 190 degree temp sensor and wired that into the LS1 fans. Pretty simple wiring wise, and it worked like a charm. 13.5:1 358ci engine never got hotter than 205.

 

anybody know if a high flow pump will make that much of a difference?

 

Call Evans cooling and get the STREIGHT poop on cooling and their recommendation on pump. They have a pump and everything else ya might need.

 

Maybe and maybe not.

Probably the most miss understood system in a car is the cooling system. It is a closed loop system, nothing is addded from the outside. The faster the flow of coolant, the more heat it can move from the block to the radiator. So a high flow pump is always a better choice, but it can also cause you problems if other portions of the system are not functioning properly.

We all know that water boils at 212 F at atmospheric pressure. Boiling water is nothing more than causing little air bubbles. These air bubbles do not tranfer heat and can act like an insulator. So to avoid these bubbles we raise the pressure in the cooling system. Remember, its a closed system. We raise the pressure via the heat in the system. The only open hole in the system is now the radiator cap. If its not holding pressure, the water in the system will boil and you'll have thse little air bubble causing problems. I can't count how many time folks went through all kinds of parts, only to find that the radiator cap was not holding pressure.

The pressure in the system is not the same through out the system, if it was, water would not flow. The lowest pressure in the system is on the suction side of the water pump right at the inside of the pump impeller. If the pressure is low enough there to cause the coolant to flash to steam, it will not pump properly and could possibly cavitate, which will greatly reduce flow. Remember, you raise the pressure to avoid bubbles. Normally a high flow pump has a different impeller design to aid coolant flow. To accomplish higher outlet flow, it will by default, lower the suction pressure. A high flow pump can lower the pressure low enough at the impeller to cause problems. If you go with a high flow pump, you may want to raise the system pressure. How do we raise the system pressure? Heat.

The water pump is a flow device, not a pressure device. It is not a positive displacement pump. AS it spins the coolant it will add a certian amount of energy to it, in the form of heat. So now we have lower pressure and added heat. If the output of the pump is restricted then it will tend to circulate the coolant within the impeller adding just that much more heat. Heat in the system is not bad, heat at the pump is. Remember, we keep pressure on the system to avoid bubbles, raise pressue and the boiling point raises, lower pressure and the boiling point lowers.

Now with all this said, can a higher flow pump help. In your case I would imagine so, but keep in mind what is going on in the system and by all means check that cap. I've been known to put an electric pressure gause in systems to monitor coolant pressure.

 

I installed the high flow pump on saturday and drove the car alot this weekend, it seemed to do the trick but when I drove across a mountain road near my house it still got a lil hot, I'm gonna order a new fan and move up from the 1650cfm to 2500, hopefully this will take care of the heating on the hills problem, but the in town driving is no longer a problem, by the way the car cooled back off quickly as I started down the other side of the mountain.

 

ok, so I took the car out again today to clean up before going to the dragstrip tomorrow, I thought I finally had my heating problem cured and I was ready to go see how it ran, well I start home and there goes the temp gauge, it started climbing . I'm ordering a 2900 cfm fan tonight so I guess I'll let ya know if that works monday evenning once it comes in.

 

Are you running any type of additive? Water wetter or Royal Purple. With a high volume water pump and no thermostat the water could be going through the radiator to fast to to have an opportunity to be cooled by the radiator. That is why most race engines have a slug in place of the thermostat. To slow the water down.

Is the electric fan in front of the radiator or on the motor side? Is it set up as a puller or a pusher?