Cooling experiment and question

I drove my ride on the street, 20 mins open road, thru the NM desert to a car show at the Route 66 Casino this weekend. Engine temp was hitting a high of 200 degrees at about the 10 minute mark and leveled out there. While I believe this is acceptable, I am looking to see if I can do a little better. Typically it idles at 180-185 degrees with a 160 thermostat and ALL fans on.

I have a 27"x19"x2.25" aluminum rad, mezerie 55gph electric pump, 2 10" pullers (on all the time), 1 16" spal pusher (off a toggle) and water with 1 bottle Water Wetter in it. 20# rad cap & a 160 degree high flow tstat.


Experimenting, I pulled my 160 high flow thermostat to see diferences. I disconnected my radiator catch can (it was busted & I await a new one from the UPS man). I fired it off in the garage and let it idle for several minutes. When it got up to 185 degrees after maybe 5 minutes, I switched on the spal pusher and it dropped back to 175 degrees almost immediately and sat there indefinately. So I figure next I will try it out on the open road.

I was suprised to see some water dripping out of the hose from the rad cap that would normally be hooked up to the catch can. Wouldn't that mean the system either a) hit 20psi and was causing it to seep or b) my rad cap is crusty and may need replacement?

with the electric pump why don't you just forget about a thermostat?

If your cap isnt holding pressure, it will boil faster. A good cap is important to a good cooling system

whatbumper wrote:with the electric pump why don't you just forget about a thermostat?

Yeah, I'm going to ditch it for a while and see how it does in the summer heat.

Curt wrote:If your cap isnt holding pressure, it will boil faster. A good cap is important to a good cooling system

Picked up a new one today seeing as how they are so cheap and the old one was seeping.



Unless I get into notching the front frame where the radiator sits, the current rad is as big as I can go. I think next would be cutting some metal out to be able to move the rad forward an inch or two so I could squeeze a monster puller fan in there.

I'l love to see 185-190 degrees on the street here. On a typical 90 plus, 0 humidity day at 6000' elev, I know I'm asking alot.

Use the thermostat gasket as a templet and make some different size restrictor plates. Restrictor plates give the coolant some time to slow down in the block and soak in all the heat. Plus it would also give the coolant time to exchange the heat in the radiator. If you get the circulation moving too fast you will heat all the coolant and overheat the engine.

There are some companies that sell these plates but they take no time to make with a unibit.

jones wrote:Use the thermostat gasket as a templet and make some different size restrictor plates. Restrictor plates give the coolant some time to slow down in the block and soak in all the heat. Plus it would also give the coolant time to exchange the heat in the radiator. If you get the circulation moving too fast you will heat all the coolant and overheat the engine.

There are some companies that sell these plates but they take no time to make with a unibit.

We used to use big washers.

most applications work well with a 5/8" , 11/16 , or 3/4" hole in the plate