Nanny states like front plates.
Your turn will eventually come... these things only move in one direction over time.

-W

 

On my '68 I made-up brackets and 'dropped' the license plate down about 8 inches fully exposing the centre grille - you can also set the license plate at an angle so it acts a bit like a spoiler, directing air through the centre grille.

 

I agree take it off, lower it or move it but this will increase air flow..

 

My 69 would run up around 215-220 at 70 with the front plate and bracket installed. Those 2 parts hit the floor and it's never seen 200* since.

 

I'm looking at your nice front end pic of the grill and radiator in the background which is a nice shiny black. I've read and heard here on this forum that if theres to much paint on the radiator it will not cool as well as it should. Could that be the case here? I live in missouri and also have the front license on the front of my car, and will try this same method your doing if things really heat up this summer. Thanks for the info.

 

Well I road tested the car with the plate removed...it didn't seem to make much difference BUT I did not test it exactly the same as my road trip from last weekend. I didn't have time to run the car on the highway for an hour so basically I hit the freeway, kicked it down in passing gear a couple times to put some heat in the motor, then I hit the AC and got the RPMs up to 3200(80mph) and cruised for about 10-12 miles like this and the temps hit 200* pretty quick...so I turned around and headed home, still running 3200 rpms, temp was 202-203* for the 10 mile ride home. Once I exited the freeway and was running slow speeds through town and into my neighborhood, temps DROPPED to 198* with the AC still on. So I get home, pull up the driveway and the leave car idling in Park...sitting at 198*. I leave it running with the AC on, go inside the house and change clothes, BS with the GF for a while, get a drink, kick the dog and come back out 10 mins later and the car has fogged the windows up with ice cold 37* AC filling the cabin and the water temp is DOWN to 190*....

Now my feeble mind is telling me I don't have air flow issues, it has got to be the radiator is just not capable of pulling that much heat out of it at freeway speeds...yes it has plenty of air flow, but at 3200rpm, the engine is generating more heat then the radiator and 80 mph wind can deal with...I guess it's time to penny up for an aluminum radiator. I called Tom Dewitt yesterday and discussed this with him...he thinks his radiator should pull 20* out of it....if it did, I would be happy. It's not even 80* yet and it's already 200*+....that means it will be 220* during the summer..... NO BUENO...

I will say though running at a lower speed/lower rpm does result in slightly llower water temps. If I run it at 60mph which is 2400rpms or so it does seem stay cooler....but it sux to cruise at 60mph all day on long drives so that won't work for me....that's the whole point of my 3.08 gears, to haul *** on the highway...

 

Do you have the vacuum advance on the distributor connected? How much mechanical advance are you running? Both of these will effect engine temperature.

 

Currently...I am not running the vacuum advance...I have the distributor locked out at 32*. This is something I am looking into though. This engine is very detonation prone so we are concerned that running the VA and a total timing of 50*+ at cruise may get it pinging....or worse detonating when we can't hear it. Definetly something I am interested in testing though....

On my dads 461" bb, we run 36* total(initial, centrifugal) no vacuum and it always runs 180-190* and never hotter....but it's in a bigger car with a bigger radiator....not to mention it's a mild motor...

 

what do you mean by locked out, it does curve say from initlal of 12 to the total of 32 at 3,000 RPM based on rpm? You should be able to get away with 36 and another 8 to 10 vacuum for a total of 46 max.
Insufficient advance will contribute to running hot.

 

Yes the timing curve is actually "locked" in place. Basically, there is no springs or weights. A mechanical lock piece is installed on the advance shaft locking the centrifugal part in place. Basically it's 32* all the time....at start up, at idle, at 3000, wide open......32* all the time. It's an old racer trick....no waiting on the advance curve to kick it....it's full advanced. BUT I can still hook the vac advance up and it will add timing at low load cruise....problem is it will add too much....I may switch to and adjustable vac advance and set it to 8-10*....that on top of my 32* would be 40-42* at light throttle.....maybe it will help....maybe not.

I talked to MSD tech about this and they said an additional 10* at light cruise will make no difference in water temp.....so who knows.... I guess it's all experimental at this point.

 

You could always bump it to 40*-42* and LIGHTLY go cruise and see how it acts.

JIM

 

You have it locked at 32 and state the engine is detonation prone. Could that be because 32 is too much advance at lower engine speeds such as 1500 or 2000 yet is not enough for higher speeds, 3000 and up? Would you be willing to try setting it up with a normal performance curve of 36 at 3000 and add a moderate amount of vacuum, 8 to 10. That might cause the engine to run cooler and not detonate.

 

Yes this is a possibility. My engine actually does not ping or detonate at all at low speeds even with the timing locked. I meant detonation prone at WOT at anything more then 32-33*......(I've already burned a head gasket once)......

Basically it's fine with 31-32* at idle, low speed and WOT....but it MAY need more timing at 2800-3200 at low load....this is where the vac advance may come into the scenario.


JIM, that's what Mark told me to do....bump it to 38* locked and go for an easy freeway cruise and see what the temps do. I am doing this tonight....

 

If you would look in your owners manual is will state that 210 is not excessive and average. Not to worry until the guage starts to read around 250....

 

If you removed your front licence plate wouldn't the engine get too cold?

......................
I hang out in the C6 forum also (2008 Coupe). A C6 looks terrible with a front license plate.......so someone sells a retractable front license plate bracket! It's powered by a small electrical motor. Retracted, the license plate hids away, positioned flat underneath the car (under the nose). Throw a switch inside the car, and the license plate extends out, moves vertically, and ends up in the stock upright position. Pretty trick! It's not too expensive, but it's probably not practical. The nose of the C6 is sooooo close to the road, just a few inches above the road, sooner or later you'll scrape the road and ruin the device.

 

Do you know what your oil temp is running?

Neal

 

HAHAHAHA Neal..... UMMM NO...



Ironcross.....No doubt stockers can live at 210* no problem......But this one makes about 250hp more then a stock one.....lol

 

With a 'good stock cooling syatem it should not make any difference what the HP is. But if the system has become marginal its not safe at any HP.... unless corrected....

 

Your engine is almost a picture image of mine, except our cams.

You remember all the cooling issues I've had

My oil would get very hot on the hwy,

I tried three diff radiators and fan setups but nothing worked until I got my oil temps under control.

Been watching here to see if the roller cams may have something to do with this.

Some BB's run fine some have issues, would be interesting to see how many of the ones having heat issues are running rollers and what their oil temps are.

Neal

 

with my zl1 cam and 11:1 I have 38.5 total timing and all in at 1700 rpm (initial timing plus centr at 1250 idle is very high , didn't measured... to keep the engine running). with my dewitts and this timing the engine runs very cool always
ah...i'm in the USA in these days...unfortunately most of you are far from my area ( VA )