What Water Temp. is everyone Running At?

[summerj]

Just installed a large Champion Aluminum Radiator. I modified a Large OEM 70's cutlass or impala? Fan Shroud. Installed a plastic 6 blade OEM FAN with clutch. seems to pull a god amount of air.
Running a 700R4 (with chevorlet OEM trans cooler) with 350 motor. 160 degree thermostat with 50/50 antifreeze. Cant seem to come down below 200 degrees.. 190 on the HWY. I also have new AC with condenser in front of the radiator. I thought about installing a pusher electric fan on front but room is tight.

Anyone else running this High? I know this is not an extreme temp but I would like to see it come down.

[hugger6933]

You have'nt by chance changed to a serpintine setup are you? or maybe the fan you said it is a plastic 6 blade do you know what it is off of? If it was off of a truck that had the serp. belt the fins are pointed in the wrong direction as the fan and stuff run tin the opposite direction as before when everything had V belts. Ok let me try to do this with less words. Later models with the single flat belt has a water pump fan and clutch and fan blade that are backwards from the old stuff. With the mismatch of parts but with the good stuff you have it will run warm but not hot until you get stopped in trafficor the like

[padresag]

Originally Posted by hugger6933

You have'nt by chance changed to a serpintine setup are you? or maybe the fan you said it is a plastic 6 blade do you know what it is off of? If it was off of a truck that had the serp. belt the fins are pointed in the wrong direction as the fan and stuff run tin the opposite direction as before when everything had V belts. Ok let me try to do this with less words. Later models with the single flat belt has a water pump fan and clutch and fan blade that are backwards from the old stuff. With the mismatch of parts but with the good stuff you have it will run warm but not hot until you get stopped in trafficor the like

"seems to pull a good amount of air". so if it is pulling air it must be working.
ron

[padresag]

Originally Posted by summerj

Just installed a large Champion Aluminum Radiator. I modified a Large OEM 70's cutlass or impala? Fan Shroud. Installed a plastic 6 blade OEM FAN with clutch. seems to pull a god amount of air.
Running a 700R4 (with chevorlet OEM trans cooler) with 350 motor. 160 degree thermostat with 50/50 antifreeze. Cant seem to come down below 200 degrees.. 190 on the HWY. I also have new AC with condenser in front of the radiator. I thought about installing a pusher electric fan on front but room is tight.

Anyone else running this High? I know this is not an extreme temp but I would like to see it come down.

I wrote this over on cheytalk.
"it all depends on your system and what you are doing with it. water boils at 212F. when using a pressure cap; for every lb of pressure it raises the boiling point 3 degrees. if you are using a 50/50 mix with anti freeze it raises the boiling point another 18 degrees F. orig your truck had a 7lb cap. so 212 + 3x7=21 + 18 = 251 degrees before it will boil. you probably are now running either a 13 or 15 lb cap=39 or 45 degrees which could give you 212+45+18=275 degrees F before it will boil. do you have a problem at 220F? This is why idiot lights were put in instead of guages.
back in the early 60 these were a good size rad, but progressively the frontal area got smaller in cars, rads got smaller, so they compensated with higher pressure
on the orig v8 model in the 60 they also ran shrouds. that fan has to be in the right relationship with the shroud to be efficient. if you are running a later sbc with long water pump, it will not work efficiently
ron "


i would suggest getting yourself a good mechanical temp guage to check your temp. and where the temp may be the highest for your eng. get a temp guage that will read up up to 300F.
as above you can calculate your boiling point. you may be quite fine running at 220 or so with no problems. a 160 thermostat doesn't really regulate anything for you as it will always be open
the question would be if you didn't look at your temp guage now to see what your temp was , would you be having overheating problems; is it boiling over?
ron
this nothing new. I was taught this just about 50 years ago.

[64fleetside]

Same boat here-mine was over 200 all day yesterday-and have I added a 12" puller in front of the OEM engine driven fan, wired to come on w/AC. It was over 100* air temp yesterday too.

I'm thinking I need one of those aluminum Champion rads...

[BR3W CITY]

I run at 190 max, Lq4 w/built 4l80e. I'm using a be-cool aluminum radiator and Derale fan cooled trans cooler.

I would be unhappy running 220 average.
If you want, try running distilled water and water wetter only. Coolant doesn't as much for cooling as it does for preventing freezing...aka anti-freeze. You may not see a change, but in some cases it can be worth a try.
Check to make sure you are actually circulating the coolant, and don't have a blockage somewhere in the system.

As hugger said, the wrong year fan could result in the blades being faced improperly. A cooling fan with the blades the wrong way (pusher operating as puller or vice versa), you lose near or over 20% of cooling capability. it will still move air, and could seem to work, but not provide the cooling capacity you need.

[brokenspoke]

try running super unleaded gas....might be suprised of the temp then

[markeb01]

Mine has a 180 thermostat and normally runs 180-185 with a manual transmission and no A/C. When it had an automatic transmission and A/C I ran a 160 thermostat and the engine frequently ran 200-205 in the summer with the same radiator and fan. The trans cooler and A/C condenser created more heat and blocked more airflow than my cooling system tolerated. I needed both a bigger radiator and more fan efficiency for dependable summer travel.

Sounds like you might need either a shroud that fits the fan tighter or covers more of the radiator, or perhaps a twin electric fan instead. Also you might double check the timing. Too much advance will tend to make the engine to run hotter.

Edit -

Until I saw TR65's input I forgot I'm also running a Stewart 13113 Stage 1 water pump and a high flow Robertshaw thermostat:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EMP-13113/

http://www.stewartcomponents.com/tec...ech_Tips_3.htm

[TR65]

I run the champion radiator and run 193 (thermostat setting) with no fan running unless idling in traffic for some time. (And of course the AC runs the fans more).

The other side of the equation is that you have to circulate a lot of water. So I would check the water pump, pulley size, direction of rotation, impeller worn?

Good luck,

TR

[Rich 5150 69]

I would think he needs to change thermostat to 180 or 192, give the coolant more radiator time.

['63GENIII]

Serpentine here, 7 blade steel fan with clutch, 195 deg. tstat. Consistently runs at 190 except when towing in 100+ deg. weather. Then it sits at 210 with the fan locking and unlocking at speed. Quick note on the serpentine drive, for the BBC the pump is reverse rotation. Not sure about the SBC.
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[summerj]

Thanks for all of the input. I will see if I can get a picture of the fan. It is an older OEM fan. Not sure if it came off a serp system or conventional system? The water pump is brand new. The shroud fits the radiator really tight . As for changing the thermostat from 160 to 190 "to allow more radiator time" I am not sure how that will work? I thought when the thermostat is open, its ALL the way open.

[Dunenutt]

Originally Posted by summerj

Thanks for all of the input. I will see if I can get a picture of the fan. It is an older OEM fan. Not sure if it came off a serp system or conventional system? The water pump is brand new. The shroud fits the radiator really tight . As for changing the thermostat from 160 to 190 "to allow more radiator time" I am not sure how that will work? I thought when the thermostat is open, its ALL the way open.

You want the thermostat to cycle. It opens at say 195, allows cool water to cool the motor to 190, closes, and starts the process again. If the water is allowed to sit in the radiator for even a few seconds, it cools off much better.