[thebrat1967]

Ok, back to the drawing board!
I replaced the pump with a cardon pump, reduced the clearence of the plates to darn near nothing, added a 16" flex fan to move more air, anyone know if that is the correct size for a 1967 firebird 326? Still runnning around 210 degrees.
I have removed the thermostat and I am not sure if moving the distributer to the left so the timming mark goes down below the indicator on the houseing is advance or retarding it but that seems to help and brought it down to around 200 degrees.
I also might mention I put a street cam in this motor, would that increse temp?
I am getting tired and real good at takeing the front end of my motor

[chrisp]

Fan size is on the small side . Cast full vane impeller ? Do you have a shroud ? Is the lower air dam / baffle intact under the front valance ? Can add A/C - 400 upper air pans to the rad. support , can make them yourself if not concerned about original .

[Squidward]

Depends on if you had a/c or not.

Check this out:
http://thefirstgensite.com/library/fans/fgffans.htm

Looks like 67 326 with a/c used 7 blade 19.5" clutch fan.

I know my 17" flex fan leaves a decent amount of room in the shroud. My car was a 326 2bbl auto, with a/c. I just recently went back to a mechanical fan after using an electric. New cam break-in on this engine (350) will be next week, so I have no practical data for you yet. However, it had no cooling issues with stock radiator, the same flex fan, and stock shroud with the old 326.

[rexs73gto]

I just took off a 17 flex fan because I was having a bit of an over heat concern, but now that I went back to an original style thermo clutch fan that concern is now gone. The fan was ok if I went somewhere to a whow & was driving at a constant speed above 45-50 mph but when I came to city speed aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa up & down slow - fast speed the temp crept right up to over the 220 mark which I didn't like, now with the old clutch fan on it no longer gets hot, it stays right around 185-190 all the time wheather I'm in town or on a slow cruise. Those flex fans are good for raceing but they don't seem to flow enough air when your doing any reg. driveing.

[Squidward]

Good points. I didn't have a huge amount of road time when I was running the 326 with flex fan, so my data sample is not conclusive. We'll see...

[rad400]

check your timming with a timming light make sure you are not running lean and by an ajustable vacuum canister for your points or hei.

[bsblguy]

Mentioned once before in another thread but will say it again here. If running hot at hwy speed might want to check lower radiator hose, mine was collapsing cutting water flow. As soon as I slowed down, car cooled down. I put on a gates hose with spring inside, problem solved.

[Big Injun]

I have found over the years that the common cause for overheating is the age of the block and corrosion. Scale and rust take over the water jackets and the water that does flow through the block does not make enough contact with the cast iron to absorb the heat.

You can install a big radiator, a new water pump, new hoses, fans et all and the only thing that will work is to acid wash the water jackets. Of course, to do this you need to disassemble the engine.

I plug the deck surface and fill the block with muriatic acid. You'll need a kiddy pool, gloves and a proper respirator mask. Let the muriatic acid do its job for 45 minutes and then flush it out by removing the freeze plugs. You will be amazed at all of the scale and rust that comes out of the block.

In some areas, you can find a "dip 'n strip" shop that and acid dip your block for you. You when then have to have all of the machining performed on the cylinders and mains.

[Murf]

Is it pushing out coolant or what are the signs of overheating you are seeing? 200-210 isn't overheating. I'd be totally happy with my car running at 210. Years ago I was looking at temp sender specs in an old parts counter book, remember those? Anyway IIRC, most would turn on the temp light at 240-250.

Good luck!

Murf