Guest TreeCutter260z Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 I have a 260 with a 350. it has a crane enigizer 278h in it with performer intake and 600 carb. I have a camaro radiator but its a 2 core brass/copper. I have a 94 taurus cooling fan in it but in heavy traffic and constantly racing its gets hot.i have a 160 thermostat. i have a new cap and fresh coolant. its the 2 speed fan and on high its kills my alternator. should i get a better radiator. I have tried autozone and adcanced auto but there radiators for a 4 cylinder camaro are too big so should i buy something better from summit or jegs? I don't really have that much money here. I have a alternator from a 86 caprice and it puts out 94 amps. But with my lights on the fan doesnt turn that fast. Why do my headlights draw so much amps? any fix to that?. also my car breaks up after 5000 rpm. Its definately fuel related . i have a holley blue and the regulator at 7 psi. Should i upgrade to 3/8" fuel line and start using a bypass regulator and hook up my return line? i was also thinking of a 3310 holley 750,. would that be overkill? any suggestions would be great thanks matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 160* thermostat is your problem. my buddy and i just had a discussion on this, and what's happening is your thermostat opens up when the temp reaches 160*, purging the coolant from the radiator. To attempt to maintain 160* temp, it basically leaves your thermostat open, allowing water to flow through constantly without getting a chance to fully cool down in the radiator. maybe a 180* thermostat, and maybe you may want to invest in a better radiator. But try the $6 thermostat changeout first. Also, get a more powerful alternator that allows more current than the existing weak one so your fan can run high speed without killing the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kc6wfs Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 I agree. I run a 195 in my car. Your motor will last longer at a higher temp! You mentioned about the motor breaks up after 5k rpm. on the 278 cam, what heads and speings are you running. It might be coil bind of you fuel pressure is fine. It could be timing also... Give us all the specs on your motor. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biohzrd Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 auxilary is right on with that. another thing that i've found with high performance exspecialy those running headers is venting. some of my friends as was i were having problems with over heating and we tried everything. one day i ran my car with a remote thermometer under the hood and it was getting pretty hot and of course first came the ever present vapor lock and then overheating. i put a friends cowl hood and guess what. temp under the hood dropped by 40 to 50 degrees and no over heating or vapor lock. performance also increased because a cooler more open air flow. 1/4 times dropped by a tenth on average. may give it a shot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greimann Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 I believe the problem is you do not have enough radiator and that it is not a thermostat issue. How hot does it get? If it is over 180, then a 180 thermostat will not solve the problem. I am running a Griffin aluminum 2 row core (the tubes are 1" wide each) . No overheating problems at all on a 350 in California. I am also using a Black Magic fan. What I understand is that the Taurus pulls more air than the Black Magic. Do you have any obstructions in front of the radiator? Oil cooler? A/C condenser? These will kill airflow and contribute to the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jwelch Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 The Howe radiators are good too. Had one in my 68Ranchero with a 351 Cleveland and C4. Never over heated in AZ. 115+ during the day and even hotter on the freeway. I've had overheating problems in my Z too. I solved it with timing, thermostat and hood venting. Keep us posted you definitely want to get this under control before summer hits. John 77 280V8Z 66 383 Charger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TreeCutter260z Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 The motor is a stock 2 bolt block out of a monte carlo. the heads were redone in 1992 and all the valves and springs were replaced. The ports were cleaned up and bigger vavles installed. The motor sat for 8 years or so before i bought it. should i just buy a bigger radiator from summit or a high water pump. thanks matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 Matt, Do you know if the block is a .60 over bore that can cause it to run hot. Also have you checked to see if the thermostat works. Boil a pan of water with thermostat in it, if so does it open? If not heave it. Hope this helps. Also have you flushed cooling system? zfan..Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest digitalz Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 also don't forget to check your timing and idle mixture. might have too much initial and or total timing. if you have a new dist. you might have to fool with the mech advance springs and weights and canister if it's adjustable. i problems with overheating before i got all that sorted out. i run a single speed taurus fan on mine and it runs at about 185 - 190 all day long in sunny hot humid hawaii. takes a while to get things sorted out. kent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TreeCutter260z Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 it has a new 160 thermo and i just flushed the whole motor. I have a brand new accell distributer but i haven't played with it yet. do i need to play with the advance springs or what. What should the timing be with the crane 278h? i have it set wheres it feels the fastest. i am thinkng of getting the 750 holley and pull the heads off and have new springs put it. will a 3310 hollley work good with my motor? i played all day with the motor and tried a radiator out of a 4.3 fullsize truck. its a 1" single core plastic and aluminum jobber. it idles at 150 degrees with the taurus fan on high. But giving it a good beating she will rise to about 165-170 with it being 45 degrees outside. still my headlights draw to much power. i have a brand new 94 amp alt. in there now. Why are my headlights so shitty? thanks matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest digitalz Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 accel dist. is what i have. i had to change the springs cause the advance started way too late. remember they probably set these for 4000 pound cars. this will cause you to give it too much initial advance just to make it have any power. sounds like my problems....it's what happened to me anyway. is your idle high? headers glowing? check it out at night whoa!! my timing was waaaay screwed up. i would stay with the 600 for now should be fine. get it running good first and get a baseline then go for the mods. valves might be floating but if not revved too high shouldn't be an issue, if they are in good shape. was mostly the distributor in mine...once i got that sorted out then i moved on to the carb. set my initial advance at 17 degrees and 38 degrees of total timing. change the advance springs and watch the timing/rpm when it is at full advance. if you have vacuum sec. carb put a light spring in because the car is light and your secondaries might not be opening enough. secondaries open on load so you cannot see them opening when you're just revving the motor with no load (ie. not driving around) takes awhile but go one step at a time and get the best combo. if you know someone with a gtech or dyno you can try a few pulls and see if there is a diff. oh yeah, are you running the stock lights?? cause if you are not then the existing cables won't take the load of the new hi power lamps too long. gotta use relays and give plenty of current to the lights. (check your load but probably at least 10awg wire wired from a good source. maybe directly from the battery with a fusible link.) sorry just rambling, kent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greimann Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 But giving it a good beating she will rise to about 165-170 Sounds like you have the problem solved. 170 degrees is far from overheating. Some may say that is actually cool. 270 with fluid spewing out of the catch can is over heating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted March 15, 2002 Share Posted March 15, 2002 Originally posted by Greimann: quote: But giving it a good beating she will rise to about 165-170 Sounds like you have the problem solved. Ditto! I run 180 T-stat, at 185-190 my fan comes one and temps stay below 220 typically (monitored with my proflo controller at Tstat housing...so likely hotter). My L6 liked a higher Tstat as well, I've thought of putting a 195 in... When coolant tank overflow top blows then I check things out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl327 Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 thats funny. i remember once my car went up to 220 on a very hot hot san francisco downtouwn summerday in backed up traffic and it held there, i was having a fit, i thought that i was gonna blow the head gasket right then and there, i told my buddies this and they started laughing at me, one of my buddies had a 56 belair that would run 210 on a 180t all day. i guess it was just that i could physically feel how hot the car was of how holy my firewall was being bare steel, hot hot hot. i found that with a 160t, my therm is always open and after a while it would creep and stick to 178 or so, and when i put in a 180t it would stay at 180, and thats fine with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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