Trying to Cool my 454....agian

by Cdub74 Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:51 pm

I already replaced the machincal fan with a electric puller with a shroud, it has overheated once and almost three times. Ive been told if your not running heater lines out of the back of the block ( I have no heater lines ) you can connected your water pump to flow through the holes where your heater lines would go and get better flow, would that lower my running temp in traffic?

by ant7377 Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:50 pm

Make sure your lower rad hose isnt collapsing. There should be a big spring in there to keep it round.

by BlackChevelleSS Sun Jun 26, 2011 1:55 am

no, if you have no heater lines, leave it that way, make sure both ports on top of the water pump are blocked, that also means no bypass hose. get a highflow thermostat and drill a couple of small holes in it.
Now if your overheating while driving down the highway like I was, then you need a more effecient radiator. I found that running a small block water pump pulley and a 2 groove crank pulley slowed down the water flowing though my engine enough to get heat transfer and keep it cool.

by pila Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:03 pm

X2 on slowing the flow of the coolant.

by BlackChevelleSS Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:43 pm

I like the duralast thermostats from autozone, they have a larger opening than the conventional

by Cdub74 Mon Jun 27, 2011 7:28 am

So LESS flow is better? Its over heating while sitting in traffic. My radiator hose's are good, I have a four core radiator. I do have two outlets on the top of my water pump, one is plugged off, the other goes right into the front of the block. Should I plug that one off? I will get a high flow thermostat this week and see what that does.

by ant7377 Mon Jun 27, 2011 7:39 am

Try a new cap too and tighten up the clamps on the hoses. Try running in your driveway for a while with the cap off to bleed any air out of the system.I cant see why blocking off the heater hoses would make a difference as far as it overheating maybe Im missing something. You want to slow down the flow so it can cool .Sometimes with no thermostat it flows to fast and dosent cool.

by Cdub74 Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:10 am

Now I get what your saying about the LESS flow thing, it does make sense. Thanks for the tips, ill let you know how it works.

by Cdub74 Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:06 pm

Theres so many people saying different things. I asked around my shop, lots of guys are saying, faster flow out of the engine is the best thing to do ( so the coolant doesn't get hot ), but slower out of the radiator ( so the coolant gets cold ). SOOOOOOooooooooooooooo, im going to get a "high flow" thermostat or take the internals out from the one thats in there ( which will leave enough restriction to slow the coolant down in the radiator ) and Im going to connect were my heater lines would come out of to a fitting on my water pump ( to get the coolant flowig out of the engine quiker ).....Now saying that, I know theres TWO lines that go to your heater, is there one line that pulls coolant and the other pushes? I dont want to hook up two lines that push, because the coolant would go anywhere.

by oldstofty Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:17 pm

My 455 runs hot like all oldsmobile I removed the thermostat completly and it seemed to help. I think the next thing Im gonna try is putting a shrouded clutch fan on the motor and flip my electric fan to the front of the radiator.

by jerry46765 Mon Jun 27, 2011 6:42 pm

Well, let's back the bus up a little bit.

Are you running a three pass radiator?
Is it an aluminum or copper/brass radiator?
Do you have a fan shroud?
Did you have an OEM style clutch fan?
How many blades were on the fan?

You are now running an electric fan, how many cfm does it move?
Does the shroud cover the complete radiator or just around the fan?
How is the fan controlled?

Are you running a thermostat?
What is the stat's temperature range?

What have you done to the engine for mods (IE how much compression)?

It's tough to determine how to solve a problem without some parameters.

A heater core isn't nessessary for additional cooling which was the original question.

Thanks -

Jerry

by pila Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:31 pm

This may be throwing a wrench in the gears here, but faster flow at idle may be a good thing, and at speed it may work OK like that, with more ram air coming through the core.
Flowcooler makes a pump that flows more. They used to sell a little disc that gets riveted on the pump rotor, to increase flow, but it's not sold now. Guess you will have to experiment to find the right combo.

by Cdub74 Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:32 am

jerry46765 wrote:Well, let's back the bus up a little bit.

Are you running a three pass radiator?
Is it an aluminum or copper/brass radiator?
Do you have a fan shroud?
Did you have an OEM style clutch fan?
How many blades were on the fan?

You are now running an electric fan, how many cfm does it move?
Does the shroud cover the complete radiator or just around the fan?
How is the fan controlled?

Are you running a thermostat?
What is the stat's temperature range?

What have you done to the engine for mods (IE how much compression)?

It's tough to determine how to solve a problem without some parameters.

A heater core isn't nessessary for additional cooling which was the original question.

Thanks -

Jerry

Things I have:
1. Three core raidator
2. 100% aluminum
3. Fan shroud over the whole radiator
4. No, OEM fan clutch
5. 2215 cfm fan
6. Fan is ALWAYS on
7. T-stat range....unknown
8. LOTS of compression

Maybe that will help narrow my problem down. -Thanks

by oldstofty Tue Jun 28, 2011 8:22 am

How do you define almost overheated? did it boil over once? What temperature is it running? My car would get hot, fill the over flow container and start spraying water everywhere, then I replaced the cap with an 18lb and dont get a drip in the overflow.

by Cdub74 Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:24 am

It went to 250, then stalled out. Then I couldn't start it back up, intil it cooled way down to 100. No coolant was spraying any where, or leaking out of the over flow. Then two other times I was sitting in traffic, and the temp was climbing, I went to take off and it almost stalled out, I had to keep the rpms up. When the car is running around 180-200 it runs great! I cant get the temp to stop rising past 200.

by oldstofty Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:40 am

how fast does the temp climb? 250 is getting dangerous. have you takin a look at your oil? You may have a blown head gasket. It would be a good idea to crack the drain plug and see if any water or antifreeze comes out before the oil.

by Cdub74 Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:55 am

Just checked it, clear as glass, no antifreeze. It warms up just fine, then when I drive it theres no telling what will happen. But everytime, she always goes right past 200 in traffic.

by oldstofty Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:49 pm

Im sure by clear as glass you meant it was still oil not water. you may want to put a fully shrouded clutch fan on it and put ur electric fan on the front. Not real sure what else it could be

by Cdub74 Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:00 pm

HAHA, yeah its all oil, no water. Do you think what I was talking about be fore would work.....running coolant lines from my water pump to the back of the block, where the heater lines would be, since I dont have a heater. A guy told me at a car show to try that, he has a 427 with a blower in a 32' Coupe, which the radiator is half the size of mine! He said in traffic he runs at 160!

by oldstofty Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:18 pm

I dont see how that will work but hell its worth a shot and fairly cheap to do

by Cdub74 Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:28 pm

Yeah, im looking to go the cheap route first Very Happy

by pila Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:24 pm

Some radiator shops have a rig that screws on in place of the radiator cap, to detect combustion gasses in the coolant, like a head gasket that doesn't leak water, but allows combustion pressure to bleed into the cooling system, which surely gets the temp up. Might be worth calling some radiator shops to ask about it........

by jerry46765 Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:37 pm

Typically, combustion pressure in the water system is usually immediate over time if unnoticed. Initially when a problem starts, the engine would have to get warm to expand the leaking area, but a leaking area never gets smaller.

So does the cooling system build pressure immediately when the engine is cold and first started?

Does the engine use water?

You said lots of compression? 14-16:1 or like 10-11:1?
How much ignition timing?
What fuel are you using?

If you are running a really stout motor on the street in 'stop and go' traffic, you probably don't have enough radiator or airflow through it.

One thing mentioned that should be asked, are you running stock ratio pulleys on the engine? An underdrive crank pulley or a 'mix & match' set of pulleys could create a ratio nightmare and add to cooling problems.

Thanks -

Jerry

by jerry46765 Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:44 pm

Forgot, another question, if it starts spitting at 200F, have you pressure tested your radiator cap?

Or does it ever spit when really hot???

by Cdub74 Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:47 pm

10-11:1 ratio

I run coolant

Its a thumper of an engine at idle, It seems like I need more are flow, I think there is an underdrive pully on the crank, why would that make a problem?

How would I check if the coolant system builds up pressure right at start up? hold the hose's?

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