Thread: how hot's too hot?

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sounds to me like your fans might not be pulling enough air..... or you're timing is retarded too far...

I have the timing set at 8 btdc and it's not over heating now it runs a constant 190 or less

now that sounds more like it!!!

I think that a new rad. or maybe a bigger rad. will cure your prob. I've got rads from junk yards or from other cars and they are clogged and would not come clean even with a acid dip. buy a new rad. with three rows and make sure it is sealed all the way to the grill so no hot air comes back throw from the motor.are you running a reverse flow water pump?? that what your car calls for if you still have a serpentin belt drive!!

I'm not for sure that I'm even having an overheating problem, maybe if a constant 190 is bad. I mean it was overheating when I had the timing advanced at 20degrees, but when I went back to 8 btdc the problem went away. I'm pretty content with that.

if you are ridding around in a computor car with a 180 or cooler thermostate then you should be running to rich. that would be the same as having the choke on all of the time.

it's not computer controlled

i'd try bumping the advance up a little more and see if the heat problem still persists.... thats what i do when advancing the curve, get as far advanced as i can go without pinging on the fuel i can afford and not overheating

Sounds like everyone is right on about cooling. As long as the coolant is staying put and the engine oil doesnt thin out or coke, the heat will help combustion. I dont remember where it is but Smokey Yunick wrote some great articles on engine temp. He was the origiginal one to try reverse flow.

This has been an interesting thread. I've fought temp problems for a while now - the concept of running too cool a thermostat makes sense, and I'd considered it, but never acted on it. Timing does make a difference, too. Too far either way (as we saw here) can be a problem.

Thanks for a good discussion!

212 is boiling i like to try to keep all of my cars below boiling

trying to cool my motor has been like trying to cool hell. my motor is in the back as some of you may know it is a 283 in a 73 porsche 914. well the radiator is in the front of the car with rubber hose running the length of the car i just couldnt get it too cool then my dad came up with a great idea get more narrow hoses. my problem was that i was getting too much water in the motor and it was moving too slow so it just sat in the motor and got hot. i tried restrictor plates and they never seemed to work but the smaller hose has done the trick

Originally posted by tyler
212 is boiling i like to try to keep all of my cars below boiling

thats water boilling point. add antifreeze and a pressure cap to that and the boiling point goes up.

All computer cars (1981 up) turn the cooling fans on at 226 degrees, So I would say long as you don't run past that your'e probally O.K.... But I personally wouldn't want mine to run past 195 to 200.......
As stated above water boils at 212 degrees, go to a 50/50 mix of antifreeze & water and ya raise the boiling point to 223 degrees, now add 14 pounds of preasure and ya raise the boiling point another 45 degrees......

i dunno 195 is a little high in my opinion... but my ford runs a nice 180 even no matter the condition including idling in traffic on a 90 degree day