[68blackbird]

So I'm continuing to scratch my head at how to keep my car cool.

My sig specs are acurate

gone through water pump, aluminum rad, 7 blade clutch fan. yadda yadda.

Improving water flow has helped, put on a 8" crank pulley a while back, that dropped idle temps in nuetral to about 190-195 with a 180 degree stat, drive the car around town and it cools right down to 180. today I put on a 6" water pump pulley as well, moving alot of air and the water pump is turning much faster. Now in neutral it will idle at 180. as soon as I put the car in gear it start building temperature.
I didnt sit to see where the temps would stabilize.

I ran the timing all over the place I have 12deg of vacuum advance played with the carb and timing from 28deg to 40 degrees (initial and vacuum advance combined) sitting in the drive way adjusting the carb each time to see how it would do. It will stay cool in nuetral at 950-1000rpm but at any range in there going into gear it build heat. at 28 degrees the rpms drop to 700-800, up near 40 degress rpms in gear drop to 900.

400 .60 over (dont know deck height)
#16 heads milled .020 (not sure of cc 74?)
Guessing compression is close to 10 to 1
xe274 with 1.5 rockers
HEI
on E85 850 annular (on gas with 7" crank and water pump pulley you could forget it)
oil pressure at idle with 15w40 is 30 psi hot 60 psi at 3000

I feel like Im close, maybe a 195 degree stat would help, But I think it will act the same just at 15 degrees more temp. then I'm in traffic dealing with the car at 210 or 220? no thanks...

I need a little direction hear. Any suggestions, especially from successful xe cam operators.

Thanks
Rich

[66bonne]

Does the water pump have a cast or stamped impellor ? Is the clearance correct between the divider plate and the impellor ? Do you have a fan shroud ?
Just a suggestion: Take an old thermostat and gut it. Try it out and see if that helps.
Good luck. Your weather is as hot and humid as here in Florida.

Jim

[68blackbird]

Cast impeller, divider is correctly clearenced.

Had a stamped impeller and sent it back,easily ran 10 degrees hotter with a stamp impeller

How much vacuum advance should I am for?

[Cliff R]

Rich, I've ran into quite a few overheating/hot running 400's over the years. All of them had several "common denominators" contributing to the heat production, and the amount of cooling system required to keep them in check.

In almost every case, TRW forged pistons or factory cast 8 valve relief pistons were used, with the pistons ending up .030" or ever deeper in the holes at TDC.

Some also had thick head gaskets in conjunction with pistons well below the deck at TDC.

All of them were also at least 9.5 to 1 compression.

Many were in 65-67 GTO's, which may have air flow problems due to the frontal design of the vehicle, not sure?

Quite a few also used camshafts on "tight" LSA's, fast ramps, and advanced intake closing points.

Many years ago we ran into one that gave us fits trying to get to run cool. After a 4 core Desert Cooler radiator, upgraded to a later timing cover/water pump set-up, 7 blade HD clutch fan, etc, etc, it still creeped up to 200-210 degrees at times. Finally, after just about giving up, I went in and retarded the camshaft 4 degrees.......you couldn't hardly get the engine up to temp after that deal!!!

A few years after that episode, got another one in and we ended up pulling the engine, zero decking it, changing the cam, and fixed it without all the money spent on better parts to get rid of the heat.

Not sure exactly what all the details are with your 400 build, but I will say that it should be running a LOT quicker at the track. Did you have good traction for the run listed?

Not trying to pick on your build, but we have also noticed that engines troubled with a lot of heat production, also don't make nearly the power that they should......Cliff

[Formulas]

What all have you done to the carb? If its a gas calibrated carb and you drop E85 in it I would think you could be real lean due to the different BTU factors here

You could be running real lean at this point in time creating more heat than normal and that the cooling system can shed off.

[Blued and Painted]

Address coolant bypass. Force all you can through the radiator.
Gasket match the water crossover portion of the intake just like the intake runners.
Tap and plug the intake outlet to timing cover bypass then re-drill to .250 .
Restrict heater core flow at the nipple or fab a restrictor to install in the heater hose and drill to .250 . This also helped me to quit blowing heater hoses at 5K rpm's.

X2 what Mr. cliff said. Make sure the cam is timed where comp suggests with the error toward the retard side.

Once worked on a honda qualude with holes burnt in the center of the pistons. A timing belt had been installed one notch out of time and then taken on a trip from DC to Atlanta.

[ta man]

Fan shroud?Also pull a plug and see what it looks like to see if your tune is close.

[torqjunki]

Also in Houston area and have been through these issues. Thing that fixed my temp issues was a 18" flex fan. Tried the common 6 blade....did not work well and was noisy. Ordered the flex a lite number 1818 seven blade flex fan and was amazed at how quiet an well it worked. In this weather, a 180 thermostat keeps the car between 180 and 185. Trying a 160 right now and it stays close to 170-175 during hottest part of day and runs 163 at night. I am in Magnolia. If your close, come by and we can put the flex fan on your car and try it. 281-389-6150. David

[68blackbird]

torq: the fuel robbmc pump is working great, i feel like its a tuning issue more then a cooling component issue.
ta man: it does have a shroud
formulas: bought a carb kits from raceone85 with metering blocks, air bleeds and jets, its at least close
blue and painted: restricting flow at the cross over to timing cover is a new one to me, same with restricting heater core flow, I will try that.
Cliff: I believe the cam is installed straight up. I think that means I need to retard it 4degrees to 106cl? or is that advancing the cam? I think thats what comp recommends.
I never having advanced a cam. It looks to me like I need to take the top end of the motor apart including loosening of all the rocker arms to use a degree kit for heads on degreeing. Tell me if there is an easier way? At this point it doesn't seem to be that much more work to remove the drivers side head and see how far in the hole the piston is.
I really did want to do some more tuning with this cam before I swap it out, but i'm not sure im that in love with it to spend that kind of time on it. Called continental about a converter recommendation... but not so sure I want to base the converter off this cam.
traction was terrible when I ran the car. Bad 60's need to get the car to the track with the new tires.

Rich