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Original Message
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| 390 FE cooling set-up |
| By Jeff Brueck - 05/10/2006 9:35:21 AM; IP 143.182.124.1 |
Folks,
I have what is probably a set of silly questions, but I'll ask anyway:
1) I have a '69 Mach 1 with a 390 that I recently rebuilt with Performer RPM heads/intake/cam, Edelbrock Al water pump and a Ron Davis radiator with electric fans (hooked up by relays). On initial start-up, the engine got hot, mostly I thought because of new rings/seals/timing not set/etc.
2) After running the break-in time and adjusting the timing to ~30 degrees at full advance, engine runs much better, but still gets hot really quickly. (Went for a quick test drive the other day and within 2 miles at 45 MPH I was getting close to the top of the temp gauge and could smell anti-freeze – fans had kicked on full force).
3) When putting the engine in, the Performer RPM intake has 1 threaded hole in the water jacket before the thermostat - I elected to use that for the electric fan thermostat rather than the heater core feed, and I just blocked off the port from the water pump.
4) I ran the engine with radiator cap off the other day to see if I had any trapped air in the system; I got a few bubbles out, but no real indication of good flow either (antifreeze just did a slow rise out of the open cap, never really saw the level go up and down like I expected.
5) I pulled the thermostat out last night to see if I put it in backwards by mistake - looks like it was in correctly. I have a belt connecting my crank pulley to the waterpump and alternator, so I believe my waterpump is spinning in the right direction, unless the Edelbrock ones just spin backwards...
6) Here's my plan to fix:
a) Buy a new thermostat (just in case) - I was thinking 180 degrees, should I go lower with the Al heads/radiator?
b) Drill 2 1/8" holes in the thermostat flange to allow bypass flow just in case (seems to be a popular BKM).
c) Hook up a bypass hose for the heater core between the waterpump and the intake manifold port. Question here - where do I then mount the thermostat for the fans? I have a port in my thermostat housing, and I was thinking this would be an OK place if I had a couple of bypass holes drilled to allow constant flow - am I correct/incorrect here?
d) Start 'er up and fill the radiator as it runs to make sure I have no air bubbles in the system.
Am I missing anything? I'm pretty sure I did something bone-headed to get it performing like this in the 1st place...
Thanks for listening/reading...
Jeff
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