[57 chevy kid]

hey guys me and my father are rebuilding a 57 Chevy short bed truck. and we finally finished the motor and trans and rear end to drive it. and we are having some cooling problems.

the motor is a 496 BBC pushing about 740 horses at the wheels and we are still tweaking it we want about 800+ horses.

the radiator is 31in x 19 in x 3in. we have two fans on it pushing about 2100 cfm each and it will still overheat and will fill up then overflow when I drive it at slow speeds or idle. and so we are just wondering how much cfm do we need.

thanks in advance guy.

 

[68NovaSS]

Electric fans aren't very effective as pushers, make them pullers and shroud them. What temp thermostat are you using? You need to ensure the coolant stays in the radiator long enough for it to do it's job. Regardless, if you actually have 740 hp, n/a, it's not going to be easy to cool it in traffic. Did you keep the bypass hose between the pump and intake manifold?

I have a BB in my T-Bucket that runs a little warm, about 210 - 220 in traffic, outside temps in the high 90's, and it will puke into the overflow when I shut it off for a bit. Yours pukes while driving??

 

[57 chevy kid]

Electric fans aren't very effective as pushers, make them pullers and shroud them. What temp thermostat are you using? You need to ensure the coolant stays in the radiator long enough for it to do it's job. Regardless, if you actually have 740 hp, n/a, it's not going to be easy to cool it in traffic. Did you keep the bypass hose between the pump and intake manifold?

I have a BB in my T-Bucket that runs a little warm, about 210 - 220 in traffic, outside temps in the high 90's, and it will puke into the overflow when I shut it off for a bit. Yours pukes while driving??

its a 190 thermostat. and no there is no bypass hose. and it pukes when it gets to temp then ill go down my drive way witch is a bout a 1/8 mile and then shut it off. and it runs at about 220-230 at slow speeds but runs at 180-190 at highway speeds.

 

[dogwater]

Your radiator is big enought,but do this and you wont have any problems.most important is a shroud,use a flex fan,get it as close to the rad as possible,180 deg. T stat,drill 3 or 4 - 1/8 in. holes around the flange,basically turns it in to a baffel to slow down the coolent,opens when it really needs to.Use a water pump that has the impeller that looks like a water wheel,if your intake manifold has provisions at the rear of the intake run a water hose/line from one side to the other,mine does and it helps.And add water wetter to the coolent.You could skip the flex fan but you would need a big, high amp, bad *** cooling fan that would fit inside the shroud.When you live in south centeral Texas you gotta know what works,ya know what I mean.I hate it when people end every they say with ” ya know what I mean” or ”yo mean”.