got a 66 with a 289 used to run just fine with no issues but during a long road trip it got hot and i had to stop and let it cool off. I thot it mught be a thermostat or something and ended up changing out the thermostat (160 degree), heavy duty water pump, upper and lower hoses, temp sensor and replaced the radiator with a high performance 3 core aluminum radiator. I also installed a flexolite electric fan just for kicks. well its not overheating anymore but its still running a bit hotter than normal. about two thirds the way from normal to pegging the needle out. when i stop and let the car idle it just gets hotter, even though the fans going full blast. I seem to be missing something, can anyone help? its my only car and getting desperate.

 

most people would agree that a 160 thermostat is too cold. it should be 180.

do you have a fan shroud? Does the shroud make a good seal to the radiator?

if yes its probably just the gauge. If you are worried your only 3 options are:

1) do nothing and see if it pops a 13lb rad cap in traffic.
2) get a non contact thermal temp gun and check (thermostat housing temp, top of rad temp, bottom of rad temp)
3) maybe you need bigger electric fan...which one do you have?

-Gun

 

You definitely need to figure out how hot "hot" is. The stock gauge is innaccurate at best. An infrared temp gun will make life easy. It could be your engine is running just fine, there really isn't a way to tell without getting an accurate temp reading.

 

yes I do have a fan shroud and it has a good seal. its big enough to cover the entire radiator and i think its as big as u can fit on this radiator. as for the temp gun, can u rent those from shucks auto supply or something? if not how much $$ do they run?

 

also, it could be a problem inside the engine. are you running lean? maybe the headgaskets are installed backward, both these can cuase the engine to run hot. an easy way to check the headgaskets is look at the corners where the head meets the block. yolu should be able to see the corners of the gasket sticking out of the front if you cant you have a problem. also check the sparkplugs, if the proclen is white you are running lean and hot.

 

raytek is the leader
the mt4 will do 0-750f 41 bucks from amazon good for most anything but doesnt give average temp so the closer you are the more accurate the reading. shiny surfaces like chrome can give false readings.

http://www.amazon.com/Raytek-Non-Con...0654466&sr=1-1

-Gun