Thats what I thought. Any other tricks when adjusting the timing?

 

yeah it make it difficult to work correctly, but it is in right.

 

Also make sure your lower air dam isn't missing. I just put one back on my 75 and what a difference it makes.

 

A couple of things.

First and foremost - double check your timing. See Barry's sticky.

Plain water cools better than a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water. Debug your cooling system on plain water and then, when it’s all working properly, switch to half water and half coolant for protection from freezing or to 25% antifreeze if you want your engine to run cooler and still maintain some anti corrosion properties in the system.

Is the water pump is working? Don’t assume anything. Water pumps have a problem with their impellers deteriorating. You won’t know you’re missing an impeller or have a problem until it’s too late.

Check your fan shroud. It's only purpose is to direct the flow of air out of the radiator.

Check your fan clutch. (if you are running one) If your fan clutch is defective, it may not allow the fan to pull enough air though the radiator to cool it down.

Check your radiator cap. Coolant at 16 pounds of pressure has a higher boiling point than coolant at 2 pounds of pressure. You’ll run cooler at pressure than you will with no pressure. .

Running your engine without a thermostat is fallacy. An engine will run cooler initially without a thermostat. After that IT WILL NOT! It's a matter of physics. An engine running without the restriction of the thermostat in the system will not keep the coolant in the radiator long enough for the radiator to ‘radiate’ the heat. The coolant must stay in the radiator for a certain amount of time to dissipate some of the heat it has absorbed from being in the engine block. The coolant is in the block. It’s hot. It moves to the radiator and gets rid of some of the heat. If it moves through the radiator too fast it won’t get rid of as much heat.
A 160 degree thermostat is probably a good place to begin. That is, the thermostat will open when the coolant temperature reaches 160 degrees (71 degrees C). This allows the coolant that is “trapped” in the engine block to start to flow through the radiator and have it’s heat removed. You can test your (NEW) thermostat by putting it in water on the stove. Use a thermometer to see at which point the thermostat actually opens. A new, 160 degree thermostat will open within 5 degrees of it’s rated temperature (usually right on the number).

 

I would run the car without the thermostat while breaking it in. A new engine will run a little hotter and sitting in the garage while idleing will also add to the heat. Once the engine is running fine, add the themostat and antifreeze. The corvette is designed to run a themostat to get the engine up to the proper temperature. No themostat in the winter and the engine will be lucky if it gets above 100*.

 

Running your engine without a thermostat is fallacy. An engine will run cooler initially without a thermostat. After that IT WILL NOT! It's a matter of physics. An engine running without the restriction of the thermostat in the system will not keep the coolant in the radiator long enough for the radiator to ‘radiate’ the heat. The coolant must stay in the radiator for a certain amount of time to dissipate some of the heat it has absorbed from being in the engine block. The coolant is in the block. It’s hot. It moves to the radiator and gets rid of some of the heat. If it moves through the radiator too fast it won’t get rid of as much heat.



The above is a common fallacy, I beleive you are incorrect.....

the hotter water cools faster in the radiator as the temp differential is greater to air temp, I run here in Florida without any stat for some time now....once in a while I put one in for winter, but that's only 3 months long....

hardly worth the bother....

 

Acctually I have seen it work both ways
I will tell you that a slant 6/ 225 Dodge will overheat in a heartbeat without a thermostat... some engines react different than others..

 

When adjusting the timing on an 82, advance also computer controlled, I have to disconnect a wire to disable the computers advance. No sure on yours but if you have a computer controlled advance I would say its the same proceedure.

Anybody????

Jim

 

I took a quick look around. I think you should also have the single brown wire with the connector in it as well. Follow the wires from the distributor down towards the driver side firewall. somewhere along there there should be a connector in a single brown wire. Disconnect it. Start the car. Make sure the RPM is below 800...adjust it down if you have to. Set the timing. Once set turn the car off and reconnect the brown wire. Timing should be fine.

Do you still have the factory labels in the engine compartment...there should be instructions.

Jim

 

Yes factory labels still there, I found the advance wires you are taling about. On the Label it says to disconnect the 4 wire connector to the distributor, I'll double check that thanks.

 

Well...follow those instructions. You can not set initial timing without disabling the advance. Did you do that when you first set it? If not your timing is way off and probably the cause of you over heating.



Jim