Hello, Working on a 351W. I bought a fancy temp gauge and it was threaded in a size that I could only install where the heater return line would go. I relocated the return line to the port on the right side of the intake, Will this create any issues? The car seems to be running at 200-210 at an idle. Aluminum 3 row radiator, electric fan, stock water pump from the original 302.
Hi I doubt that will cause any problems. As you say you have an electric fan? Which side of the radiator is it ie pushing or pulling. I had the same problem with a champion radiator, I had the fan fitted pulling air through in front of the water pump and mine ran at 210. All four corners of the radiator were boiling leaving the center cold. I fitted a shroud supplied by champion and it reduced the temp down to 180 at idle. Only a thought but this may help. Regards Phil UK
Any port on the intake (for coolant that is) is for the heater outlet, not return. The return should go to the water pump. Most pumps will have a threaded plug that you can remove to put in a nipple for the heater hose to connect to. Running the return to the intake will not hurt anything, it just won't get proper flow for heat.
OK. I guess I had things mixed up. I simply moved the one on the left of the intake to the port on the right. The fan is a low profile 16" on suck mode on the inside. It has sort of an integrated shroud. But not much since the fan is very close to the radiator.
MavMan, The vendor says the fan pulls 2350CFM. 71Gold, I was concerned that I would not get a true measurement of coolant temperature if the business end of the thermostat was not immersed in coolant.
I normally only deal with electronically controlled engines, so I don't own a timing light. I have it set by ear so that could also be an issue. But I can usually get pretty close. at any rate even retarding the timing does not seem to effect the temp. I cant find the air control screws on this holley motorcraft 4 barrel. I think she could be running a little lean. I know that could cause her to warm up a bit.
That's casue there are none. Fuel mixture is adjusted via the mixture screws, changing jets and powervalves and to some degree the accellerator pump squirters. Get you a timing light, you can use that too on an EFI motor to set the base timing. The engine could be running hot due to the timing being retarded too much. 200-210 at idle in summer isn't really all that hot. Might also try putting a high volume water pump on it too. But don;t run to the aftermarket to get one, you can get it at the local parts house, just ask for an "extra cooling, or police/taxi" pump. And then to make sure you're getting what you ask for, compare the impeller size to a std volume pump. The HV pumps have larger diameter impellers. I say compare the impeller sizes cause some pumps aren't what they're supposed to be. I ran into that a few days ago in trying to get an HV pump for my 96 E150 van (also a 351W) Ended up ordering a new unit from Summit
