My Inheritance

[Turbo Zach]

I don't want to bill myself as an electric fan expert as I'm not one.

Will the car maintain temp at idle but heats up going down the road? If that were the case, it would lead me to believe not enough air is getting past the fan/shroud assembly at speed to cool the car. I've seen OEM fan assemblies with rubber flaps on them that presumably let air bypass the fans/shroud at speed. On the other hand, the fans on my Roadmaster don't have a shroud at all....

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Dumb question: are you sure the fans are pulling air across the radiator (not pushing air to the front of the car)? Sometimes it's the easy things.

You could possibly pull your fan/shroud assembly and see if the car will maintain temp going down the road with unrestricted airflow across the radiator. If that does the trick, you'd think your fan/shroud assembly is too restrictive and isn't allowing enough airflow.

Another idea, is it possible the air is bypassing the radiator by going around it? Lots of vehicles have airdams that direct the air from the grill through the radiator. Perhaps your car should have them but they are missing?

What temp is your thermostat?

It doesn't seem to heat up that high at a idle. Going down the road is when it gets hot. I think it is a 180 thermostat. It seem to open up at 180 when I filled the radiator. The radiator is a lot wider than the factory and is a three core aluminum. With the two ten inch fans on the bottom of radiator before. It ran hot, but didn't seem to heat up as fast as it does now. But mind you I did not drive this car very far before the changes.

 

[Turbo Zach]

I did some digging around in my Dad's stuff on Saturday. I did not find what I really was looking for, but I found the DINO sheets. I was looking for a folder with all the information on what parts went into the engine. Knowing my Dad there is such a thing somewhere. I just haven't found it yet. My Mom did take over his den and cluster****ed it to her liking.

It proves my Dad filled me full of crap again! So it is just a little more than 500 hrp. Knowing of the money and the parts that are in this engine, it seems to be low on hrp. I am guessing the low compression is to blame? What do you guys make of it and think? I also found a couple pictures of my High school car.

The blue one is before I painted it after putting the 350 in it. The black cherry ones are the day after we painted it. It still had blue interior in it. I changed the interior not too long after that to burgundy. This was in 1996. I still have this car,but looks a lot harder now.

 

[motorheadmike]

Yeah, that engine definitely has so bench racing magic sprinkled on it. No harm. Now you know what you are dealing with at least.

And have far less reason to avoid driving it.

 

[bracketchev1221]

Yeah, that engine definitely has so bench racing magic sprinkled on it. No harm. Now you know what you are dealing with at least.

And have far less reason to avoid driving it.

Yup explains why it feels dead over 6500. I’m guessing shift at 58-6000 and that’s all there is. Enjoy it and don’t worry about. Seems fairly tame but very drivable.

 

[motorheadmike]

Yup explains why it feels dead over 6500. I’m guessing shift at 58-6000 and that’s all there is. Enjoy it and don’t worry about. Seems fairly tame but very drivable.

If the valve train can take it, it should go to 6800rpm with ease. The question is determining when the car stops accelerating at the optimized rate.

This is where the 4.xx gears come in as they offer more mechanical advantage.

 

[DRIVEN]

500hp is still no slouch of a 9.5:1 street motor. Just tell everyone that sheet is from a chassis dyno and add 30%. Problem solved.

 

[Turbo Zach]

I know this engine has a forged crank, and pistons. H beam rods. Big ported heads. Roller cam, rockers, and stud girdles. 500 hrp is pretty disappointing for that. I wonder how much boost it would take? Mike it drives pretty good with the 370 gears. At 60 mph if I drop it down into second and stomp on it. It pulls hard to 6500. 7000 rpm it seems to stop pulling. Mind you I only revved it that high a couple of times. I think it will be a ok street car. The bonus is it sounds a lot meaner than it is.

 

[Turbo Zach]

If the valve train can take it, it should go to 6800rpm with ease. The question is determining when the car stops accelerating at the optimized rate.

This is where the 4.xx gears come in as they offer more mechanical advantage.

At 60 mph it is revving 3000- 3100 rpm. Do you think there is a better gear ratio that would work better on the street? Mind you it is a 400 turbo with a manual reverse pattern valve body.

 

[motorheadmike]

At 60 mph it is revving 3000- 3100 rpm. Do you think there is a better gear ratio that would work better on the street? Mind you it is a 400 turbo with a manual reverse pattern valve body.

What's in there now?

 

[64nailhead]

I know this engine has a forged crank, and pistons. H beam rods. Big ported heads. Roller cam, rockers, and stud girdles. 500 hrp is pretty disappointing for that. I wonder how much boost it would take? Mike it drives pretty good with the 370 gears. At 60 mph if I drop it down into second and stomp on it. It pulls hard to 6500. 7000 rpm it seems to stop pulling. Mind you I only revved it that high a couple of times. I think it will be a ok street car. The bonus is it sounds a lot meaner than it is.

Ported stock heads, I'd guess that's the limiting component. 500hp is a crap ton of power, but all thing BBC are cubic $ imho. I had an aquaintance that had a supposed '500hp' 396 until it hit the wheel dyno and made 240 wheel hp.

Great numbers for a driver though - no rear tire should be safe on that thing. Sounds like you have many good reasons to put some miles on it 🙂