[highstick]

Hey all, new to the board with a ?. I have the edelbrock air gap. i noticed it had threaded ports at the rear of the intake to allow coolant to flow, through installed lines, from the rear of the head up to the port in the t-stat housing. the problem i'm having is locating my vac. diaphram on my distributor correctly for timing the engine. the AN fittings i used are to tall to allow rotation of dist. edelbrock used straight npt whereas the AN fittings are tapered npt so the fitting does not thread in but 3 or 4 threads. short of retapping the intake are there any special fitting for this. also i went from the back port to the front port on both sides with the lines. is this correct, and is there a problem of airlock with this setup.

[DoubleVision]

what kind of engine use? if it`s a street engine it don`t need the cooling lines from rear to front, it`s not needed in most race engines either.

[highstick]

its a street 383 stroker. i did know that it was for racing engines but thought i would use them for better circulation. heat runs wild around here in florida. there there why not use them.

[NorthStar]

Think about what you did by installing those lines.
Youre bypassing coolant flow from the hottest part of the engine, the cylinder heads.
Youve set yourself up for a detonation problem.
I would take them off they arent needed.

[highstick]

greg, I dont understand what you mean by by-passing coolant flow from the heads. the pump takes water from the lower radiator hose and pumps water into the block, it is then circulated around the cylinders, then up through the heads and out the front ports to the t-stat housing. where it is then regulated by the t-stat back to the radiator. all these lines do is add an additional route for water to flow out of the heads by provideing a more even flow of water throught the head. it bypasses nothing.

please explain your idea

[NorthStar]

You havent increased the coolant flow so now water that would normally flow forward through the head is sent out through the little tubes before its had a chance to do any cooling up there.

If it were me I would take the water pump off block the small bypass hole on right side with an 1/8" pipe plug and drill 2 or 3 small holes in thermostat. Now youve increased coolant flow slightly and improved cooling on right bank. Youll have a slightly longer warm up time but not much.

[highstick]

ok....so i'm almost talked out of using them. where does this small bypass port at water pump outlet go once it goes into the block.

[NorthStar]

Coolant flows FROM the passage drilled in block that leads up to deck surface then to front of cylinder head.
If you poke a piece of wire in there youll see that it doesnt just go straight into the cylinder area.

This think this was done to keep some water circulating through pump when thermostat is closed. Up here we have heater cores that always have coolant flow but you guys probably dont have them so Chevy put it there to cover their butts.
Thats my theory.