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Saturday Night Racer >> RACE TECH >> Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
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Message started by iamjr59 on 06/24/13 at 9:10pm

Title: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by iamjr59 on 06/24/13 at 9:10pm

I am dealing with some overheating issues in my American Stock. I have a brand new radiator, brand new water pump, made a new fan shroud, I have tried all the restrictor plates I am now running it straight flow through. Last race it was running about 230. soon as I get off the track I hit the water hole and spray it down and it will cool off to around 200. I'm out of ideas what to try? So any ideas would be appreciated.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by Chad11 on 06/24/13 at 9:45pm

What fan are you running? The 17" speedway fans suck and I don't like the 4-blade fans that many people recommend either. I run a 19" junk yard fan with a fan clutch adapter. It has 7 blades with a lot of pitch. I just opened holes up in my nose piece a couple races ago when it was 105* out and mine ran 190. If you have a double pass radiator you shouldn't need a restrictor.---that could depend on your water pump though. Mine has a 1 1/2" outlet and I don't use one. If yours water pump has a larger outlet you may need one, I'm not sure.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by iamjr59 on 06/25/13 at 6:17am

i am running i believe it is about a 16" flex flan, my water pump has a 1 1/2" outlet and i have a double pass radiator so i will keep the straight through water flow going. So maybe i will look into a little bigger fan. What do you mean you opened holes up in your nose piece?
thank for the help

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by RACEGLASS on 06/25/13 at 7:10am

First thing I would do is get rid of that flex fan, go to a 6 blade steel fan, What pulleys are you running, I would run a 25percent reduction to slow the fan and water pump down a little bit. Also, use straight water with Redline water wetter or 40 below additive. Also, there is nothing wrong with running 210 to 220 degrees as long as you are not pushing water out, also use a 21-24 psi or higher radiator cap. Hope this helps.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by Take2Racing on 06/25/13 at 7:18am

Get rid of the flex fan. Any other fan is better than that. You'll see an immediate difference.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by iamjr59 on 06/25/13 at 7:26am

thanks for all the help, Flex fan will be out, i will get a 18" steel fan and try the water wetter out, I have a couple bottles so time to use them and see what happens, couldnt get any hotter. Thanks again!!

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by dirtmopar44 on 06/25/13 at 5:51pm

Yes get rid of flex fan. With American stock I would not use any reduction pullys 1 to 1 is best for any thing below 6000 rpm. Steel fan a must with a good shroud. MAKE SURE THE FAN IS NOT TO FAR INSIDE THE SHROUD. 1/2 IN 1/2 OUT WORKS BEST. If the fan is to far in the air cannot come off the tips of the fan and cause bad air flow through the Rad.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by hogracer3d on 06/26/13 at 6:44am

Distilled water and water wetter helped us quite a bit.
We run the CV 4-blade, but those clutch fans with a clutch eliminator adapter does move a hell of a lot of air, and is what we used to run on my American stock

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by sundown on 06/26/13 at 6:45am

I ran a flex fan for twenty years. I had only one problem. Auto Zone sold me one that operated backwards. Be sure your fan is sucking thru the radiator and not blowing into it. Some water pumps are reverse rotation due to serpentine belts on later models. If you run a serpentine belt model with an old fashioned belt, it will run backwards and not cool.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by hogracer3d on 06/26/13 at 4:15pm

yep, and turning the fan around doesn't help, it still blows the same direction no matter how many times you flip it

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by jrtracing on 06/27/13 at 9:21am

One note about running a restrictor - I read some years ago that it's always good to run a restrictor of some type. The reason being that the restrictor restricts it at the exit of the motor. Your pump is pumping into the motor, so it creates more pressure in the block than in the radiator. If you have a 24lb cap you should be making more water pressure than that in your block, and that's a good thing, because the more water pressure you have the higher the boiling point is on the water. Once water starts to boil in the block, it creates an air pocket, and that creates a hot spot and things just start to get worse from there.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by Andrew on 06/27/13 at 10:30am

I have run a thermostat in everything I've ever raced. It keeps the engine cooler when it's hot outside, and warmer when it's cold outside, in addition to getting the engine up to temp a LOT quicker. The outside temp can change a lot between heat races and the main. A t-stat has this funny little heat sensitive spring that does the adjusting for me... lol. Seriously, I swear by it. BTW, when a t-stat is open, it is still a restrictor.
As far as the overheating, there's some really good adivse in this thread.

Title: Re: Overheating problems and dont know why, any help would be appreciated
Post by racincowboy3 on 06/27/13 at 10:32am

Food for thought... running distilled water may be more harm then good. Over time, the neutrally charged distilled water when running a steel black and an aluminum radiator will pull elements out of the block and end up plugging the radiator, or lessening the flow of the water in it. Also many of the water additives recommend not using distilled water at all. I would get soft water and use it with a water wetter (redline), or coolant boost (amsoil- in my experiences the best ont he market hands down)