Running Hot
Boy is this ever a topic that was a nightmare to me for a long time. I'll make it as short as I can, without the whole history. I bought my 62 and from the time the weather got warmer, the temp did also. I had no shroud on it so I bought one, no change. I changed the water pump, thermostat, distributor, fan, added a fan extension. When the car got up to or over 220, it would spit, sputter and occaisionally pop through the exhaust. I finally pulled the timing cover and found I could almost touch the timing chain between the cam and crank. New timing chain, new cam, very "lumpy" cam at that. New aluminum heads, rebuilt the three core radiator to a four core with bigger tubes and more of them. NO CHANGE, the popping stopped and it ran strong, but the heat was still there. I was told by a number of "motor heads" if the block was bored it would run hot, period, but I didn't want to believe it. Over the last winter I put a new block in it, 327 bored 030 over, 12 to 1 compression, Trick Flow aluminum heads with 64 cc chambers, and a host of high performance stuff. I'm running between 435 and 450 hp. Here's the part that worked for me, I put an aluminum bcool radiator in it, three bottles of wetter water and a solid aluminum fan exclusively used on oval track small blocks. I can fill my gas tank, start the car and let it idle till it runs out of gas, or take it to red line in every gear and hold fourth at 4000 rpm's and it will not go over 180. On a pleasure cruise it runs 170, with a 180 stat in it. I have buried the demon of HEAT, finally, but it took me many hours of trial and error, my biggest expense being the alum rad, but every penny of it worth while having found the right combination to get it to run where I wanted it. I hope you find the solution quickly and inexpensively, as the other members said, start with the easy stuff first, cheaper not always being the answer. Some of the people that told me I would never get it to run cool, are amazed, but believers now. GOOD LUCK:cool