[My69Maro]

My story - 350 CID Block bored 30 over, with DZ 3" stroke crank, 6" eagle rods, 350 TIW 11:1 pistons with shaved domes, camel hump 2.02 heads, cam is Crane solid lifter, They tell me it's the same as a DZ cam in the 60's. New water pump, new radiator, new fan and clutch, and a new shroud. timing is @ 4 degrees before top dead center. PROBLEM - it tends to warm up alittle. at idle she wants to creep up to the 200's and beyond if I let her. I am at the end of my rope. What am I to do?[/LIST]

[69X11SS]

If you tend to sit and idle a lot, remove the clutch and just run a straight flex fan. You can also switch over to electric fans. How old is your radiator? It may be plugged. You may also have an air pocket in your block that allows the temperature to rise. Remove the raditor cap, start the car and wait for it to reach operating temp. The air pocket causes a localized high temperature zone that also raises the overall temp of the engine. With the raditor cap off, if there is an air pocket, it may burp out. If it doesn't you may have to pressurize the system to push the air out. These are just a couple of things to look for. Some of the other guys may have some additional help. Good Luck.

[My69Maro]

The radiator in brand new, it's a 3 roll, and I forgot to say that I have a 160 degree thermistat installed.

[DjD]

I think this is too easy, When moving does it stay steady at about 180 degs? If so, I think you need more initial timing. You can acomplish this 2 ways. Advance the initial to about 10 degs but do so cautiously as it will also raise your total timing and with you compression you run into pinging. The other way is to put your vacuum advance canister on a manifold source and leave the initial where it is. What this will do is add vacuum advance to the idling engine without effecting the total...

I don't advocate flex fans as too many have had a blade wing off at rpm. Ask Joe G to tell you his story!! Also flex fans are designed for the drag strip and they flatten out at rpm which actually blocks airflow through the radiator and can cause higher driving temps.