My friend has an 89 T/A with a SBC 400 and he has major overheating problems in this weather. We added a shroud and even 5 flaps that open up when hitting the freeway! We tried a 160 stat and even no stat, but it still edges up to about 110-115 celsius! He has a three core rad and we even formed the air dam forward so as to be more of a scoop to deflect the air towards the rad. He has a Flex-o-lite six blade fan rated at 1600 cfm. We richened his mixture from 68 jets to 76 and still no good! His timing is set and we do not want to monkey with that. He also has water wetter! Any ideas?

 

Combustion leak into the crankcase? Blockage in the coolant passages? Maybe it's just a bubble in the cooling system and the sensor is getting caught in the hot air and spiking.

If all that work has been done, then it seems like there's a deeper problem and it's probably got to do with the cooling system or a mechanical problem. So many things it could be!

 

Yeah, we are thinking combustion leak but we can not fit a tester to each spark plug fitting due to the Eldelbrock headers!

 

If it has a stock cast iron water pump, a high performance aluminum pump might help...

 

It may seem too obvious, but are you sure the water pump isn't dead?

 

Hi Jason Dove, no it isn't a crasy idea that the pump might be shot, so we changed the pump and no change. Today he is checking the compression, he got a 90 degree fitting for those crasy headers.

 

wow someone with 1500+ post from vancouver that i have never seen post. thats crazy

oh yea gl with fixing your problem. is it possible that the coolant wasn't staying in the block long enough to absorb the heat?

 

change your thermostat.

it only costs like 10 bucks

 

I just don't post often anymore.

 

Armit, he changed the stat from a 180 to a 160 and still no good! But we believe we have found the problem, two cylinders are down in compression. All of the others were at 150-155 but #5 was 130 and #7 was 140 so the head gasket is shot. Thanks guys! I appreciate the effort made by those who tried to help!