Fast66vette

I just fired up the 454 for the first time in my 66 and all is good except for the overheating or is it? This is my first big block and have read and been told that big blocks run hot. I'm running a 16 inch electric fan (puller) on a Be Cool radiator. The electric fan is set to come on at 195 and shutoff at 175. I currently have a 195 stat installed and My timing is set at 11 initial and total at 36. Fuel bowls are set and Idle mixture screws were set to highest vacuum off gauge. The car hasnt been driven yet and with a fan sitting in front of the car and electric fan running the car will run between 210 and 230? I'm thinking maybe more initial timing? 18-20? and a total of 36-38? The car is an original 427 car and has the the big block gauges. I also thought about running my advance off of manifold instead of port? Will any of this help? Im in Ga and the hottest days are yet to come. Thanks for any help guys. Rich

midyearvette

if you indeed use a vacuum advance can, you want it hooked to manifold instead of ported vacuum. big blocks do like a lot of timing and 38 degrees is not out of the question. if you run manifold vacuum it will help with more idle timing once the hose is hooked up. big blocks run cool providing everything is up to snuff in tuning and cooling system components and if you have no internal combustion leaks. no need for the 195 stat, a 180 is ideal for street use just for starters...good luck.....

Fast66vette

Thanks for the reply..Im going to advance the initial upto 18-20 and hook it to manifold vacuum and see what happens. Thanks again

MarkC

If you hooked up the old gauge with a new temp sender, you may have an incorrect reading. I would check the temp of the engine with a heat gun prior to doing anything else. I have 5 senders that all give different readings on a rebuilt gauge. I still have not found one to give me a perfect 180 degree reading. The temps range from 155-220 with different senders.

Mark

MikeM

Verifying your temperature gauge reading would be the first step.

There's a couple BB's I know of that don't use vacuum advance and don't have heating issues. Just something to think about.

Fast66vette

Well I decided to flush out the radiator used the old boiling water trick on the thermo and made sure its working. which it is. I also double checked the guage and sending unit they are working. I am running an electric fan set up from be cool with there radiator and noticed the fan sendin switch was cracked so I bought a new one and put it on the drivers side head between 1 and 3 cylinder. Its rated to come on at 185. So i then started the engine up and let it warm up and watched the gauge for when the fan kicked on. The fan kicked on when the gauge was reading 210. So Im guessing the gauge is wrong or and the sending unit is not compatible with the gauge. Im still gonna try and get an Ir gun to verify all this.

JohnZ

That should be step #1 with any "overheating" issue, to determine if you really have a problem or not; hardly any Corvette temp gauges read accurately, especially if the gauge or the sending unit have been replaced.