Hot Temp Running

[6667fan]

What? Only one parts car?

X2 on what Howie suggested. From the armada source a wp pulley that is close to 6” O.D. (there are aftermarket ones that are 5.75”): It should be relatively easy to swap the pulley out unless you need a multi sheave unit. Math out the ratio between the crank pulley and the wp pulley. Try to get to 1.25/1 or higher. This is a cheap fix,(if it works for you). Has worked for others. Not saying you don’t have a problem with system somewhere but this might take the heat off!

[66FAIRLANE]

The Lane has an aluminum rad, it never gets hot.

Interested in the details of the radiator in the Fairlane. Been thinking about changing.

[TurboChris]

Need specifics on the radiator. 20 Years ago I had a Vortech supercharged 89 Mustang. About 450hp. Used to get hot enough to puke a little in a fast food drivet hrough in the summer. 220ish. So I "Upgraded" to the Ford Motorsport 3 row high flow unit. Installed it and......no difference.

Ended up calling Ron Davis (out of Phoenix) Radiators and he told me, "You want a TWO row with 1" tubes. You'll never overheat again."

Hmmm, odd as growing up it was always bigger and more rows. The ultimate was a 4 core.

Ok, so I took him at his word and bit the bullet and bought one.

I NEVER overheated again.

Fast forward to last month. I recently got into a 66 Fairlane with a 427. It runs a little hot...up to about 210 on the freeway. Thought I might upgrade the radiator sometime. So I called up Ron just to see what he'd say. You know what he said?

"You want a TWO row with 1" tubes. You'll never overheat again."

The man builds radiators in PHOENIX. He knows what he'd talking about.

That and drillholes in your thermostat.

[My427stang]

Hi Ross,
    #5. heater hose loop or bypass....

   What made me consider this was reading about 351c in the Tom Monroe book,  ..."leaving out the brass plate could cause overheating due to too much coolant bypassing the radiator".  In the Colony Park, clamping off the heater hose would prevent hot water from being put back in the block so it would then only be drawing cooled water from the lower radiator hose. On a long trip back from Carlisle All Ford show it made a 10-15 degree difference. Over the 6 hour drive I took the clamp off and on to validate a difference. Definitely time to put the heater control valve back in place.

    Overall, the engine seems to make more heat than the radiator can handle. Is there something wrong with this radiator? I don't know.   To try an aluminum radiator would be a good test. Summit has a Griffin that claims "exact fit" for $907.  If aluminum is going to make the difference, great! But, I don't want to spend $907+ for no gain.
    Here is a possibility: I have a 68 Parklane pahts-cah. Maybe I will pull the radiator from it, have it checked out/cleaned. Then install it to see if there is a difference. If it makes no difference I have other cars to use it in.
 

Mark, the 351 is a little different when it is missing it's disk or proper thermostat.  I'll have to look close at one out in the shop, to give a reason why, but I think it's a much bigger internal path change.   However, in your case, step one, I agree, get the heater path to shut off, if for no reason, you don't need it much of the year

Second, you cannot eliminate the bypass completely, if you block the intake bypass, you need something, especially for initial fill/fire before the thermostat opens. Drilling a thermostat is a possibility, but I just have never seen an FE need that to run cool, and in fact many I do I add a 1/16 hole in a thermostat to burp easier AND I run the bypass

[GerryP]

...
Mark, the 351 is a little different when it is missing it's disk or proper thermostat. .

...

The 351C needs that disc to make coolant leave the block.  Without the disc, coolant just runs in a loop inside the block.

[FirstEliminator]

...
Mark, the 351 is a little different when it is missing it's disk or proper thermostat. .

...

The 351C needs that disc to make coolant leave the block.  Without the disc, coolant just runs in a loop inside the block.

  Hi Gerry,
      Yes, same concern with the FE of the hot coolant looping in the block through the heater hose and bypass and continuing the get hotter. Probably not as much volume as a 351c, but similar in concept.  It did make a 10+ degree difference on the highway to close off the heater hose.

     So far, it is sounding like the radiator is just not efficient enough to dissipate the heat from the engine.
   I still wonder if long tube headers would reduce the temp because they have less mass than the cast 427 headers. 

[FirstEliminator]

What? Only one parts car?

    No, but only one has a radiator.

    My thought on changing pulley is it would on help at idle. On the highway the engine is turning 2400 rpm, where there should be plenty of coolant movement. Increasing water pump rpm won't make much difference in that scenario.

[6667fan]

Mark I took 20 degrees of my Fairlane going to a 5.75” CVF wp pulley. This occurs across the (rpm)board.  It was actually getting difficult to bring motor up to temps suitable for thrashing. So I had to increase my pulley size up to 6.125 and change my thermostat to a 192. There was a 180 in there. Motor barely gets warm enough to open thermostat. Runs at 187 most of the time. Shock tower car so your results may vary. IMO 2400 rpms is not a lot of wp revolutions, ( if you are at 1 to 1 or possibly even under driving the wp. For the hell of it check the diameters between the two pulleys.

[randomologist]

It sounds like a straightforward radiator issue to me.

1. Thermostat - Probably not the issue. Slow speeds are the worst scenario for thermostats because the engine is working a bit, but no more air is flowing through the radiator than when stopped (fan still controlling air flow)
2. Fan - Probably not the issue. With the engine running hot on the freeway, but not at 30mph, you can pretty much eliminate the fan. If the fan was installed backwards, the fan would already be struggling against the natural airflow at 30mph.
3. Water pump - Probably not the issue. Water pumps generally show issues at all speeds, but your setup performs much better at 30mph.
4. Radiator - Radiators are most susceptible to problems at higher speeds, but if plugged, they can obviously cause issues at any speed. A combination of a fan pulling and airflow through the radiator and under the hood from traveling while the engine isn't working too hard might give you that "sweet spot" where the car is in best case scenario mode.

My vote is the radiator is just insufficient for the 483. Even if the copper/brass radiator was somewhat improved during the re-core, the 483 might just be too much for it.

[Tunnelwedge]

The Lane has an aluminum rad, it never gets hot.

Interested in the details of the radiator in the Fairlane. Been thinking about changing.

I'll take a pic of it and post it for you. It's a direct fit type and looks just like a stock brass rad but aluminum.
You can paint them black also.
500 HP 428 idles in traffic no problem. I would put one in the Stang , but I really like the look of the brass.