just put in a 71 .030 over 460 into my 78 f150 it has about 75 miles on the motor from the fresh rebuild it supposedly came from and i have been plagued with issues and i have slowly conquered them one at a time, first start up it wasn't oiling turns out the former owner of the motor right before he swapped it to me had swapped the 4wd pan and pump for the 2wd pan thats on it now i should have checked his work but i didn't oil pump rod wasn't in the correct location... fixed that problem drove it home and then it started having oil pressure problems anything over an idle the pressure would drop..... turns out it was a faulty oil filter swapped a new one on oil pressure is great...... but now the motor keeps getting hot like drive 15 miles and you better find a place with shade to stop and hang out for a while doesn't matter if its idling or running ***** out....tried it with the thermostat out and results stayed the same if not maybe quicker....tried old thermostat with center removed still gets hot..... i have changed the sending unit but it was correct apparently same readings..... i am running straight water in a big 4 core supertanker radiator and the fan is about 1 1/2" away and you can feel it pulling air through the radiator good surely i don't need a fan shroud on it too? maybe i will try that if i can find one.....not hearing any strange noises since the new oil filter just an exhaust leak i need to fix on my headers and not any shavings in the oil......... any other ideas i can look into on why Red Dawg is getting hot? any help i can get is appreciated thank you in advance

 

Why do you think it is running hot? Does the radiator boil over losing water or is it just a guage reading? Water will boil out if the cap isn't holding pressure.

A fan shroud greatly improves the air flow through the radiator...but that might not be the problem. Since it is a new instal are you sure that the top of the radiator is higher than the engine? If not, there might be an air lock problem in the engine not allowing the coolant to flow.

Since it still overheats at an idle run it with the radiator cap off and watch the coolant flow. Also put a thermometer in the coolant to verify the temperature. Removing the thermostat can cause the coolant to flow to fast and not exchange enough heat.

Have you checked the ignitioin timing? Too much advance will also cause most of the heat to stay in the cylinders, retarding the timing sends most of the heat into the exhaust. I run my 460 with a base timing of 18 deg BTDC but that is because i live at 7200 feet and the engine is jetted very lean. A lean mixture takes longer to burn, so at lower altitudes you probably don't need that much initial advance.

 

idk the timing i just tune it to where it fires up the best with the least amount of cranking same as my FE's and i do not have a vacuum advance hooked up on it..... the radiator is hot enough when its at the L on normal you spray it with water it immediately dissipates.... i have no oil in my water and no water in my oil but i was told antifreeze actually cools better so i might be trying that soon along with a new water pump as it flows when you are revving the motor but not barely at all when its idling.... the fan in close to perfectly centered and i can feel it drawing air through the radiator directly in front of where the fan is i figured the fan i am using should be sufficient but i have a larger fan i might try but im very limited on space between motor and radiator......any more ideas i can look at?

 

I don't know what "idk" means...does it stand for I Don't Know? Setting the timing where the engine starts is good enough, but not good enough if you are trying to solve a problem. You need to know the degree it is set at (base timimng) and the amount of total advance you have.

Since you are using the temperature guage to determine wether it's hot or not...I recommend buying a thermometer that you can put in the filer neck of the radiator. Something like this one Cooling Systems Adapters

You need to know what the actual temperature is...not just a description like 'it's hot'. The engine should run at about 180 degreess if it is stock. The amount of hot rodding it has may make it run at 200 or 210 degrees.

Spraying water on the front of the radiator will cool it off but it should not make a sudden or very fast change in the engine temperature.

Even though you can feel air comming through the radiator it may not be enough. A fan shroud makes a huge difference, and I do mean HUGE. I've had trouble keeping a small block cheby cool without a fan shroud.

Straight water does not transfer as much heat as antifreeze. If you want to run straight water I think there is a product called Water Wetter that you can add to it to help.

Where is the temperature sensor mounted? Once I had one in a head and it would spike up really hot for the first minute or two and then come down to normal once the thermostat opened. I think that is why most of them are mounted in the intake manifold.

 

played around with it a little today when i got off work it was spiking up to the H and gets hot enough it doesn't wanna start til it cools back off... its sending unit is on the intake.....do forgive me i type one handed with a 7 month old baby boy on my other side... i changed around some of my vacuum lines and it didn't overheat on me this evening never got over the RM of NORMAL but it was at 90 degrees not 105 outside temperature so could have been a possible lean condition that i did not adjust correctly for maybe but i have not tried it in the heat of the day but at least now i can rev it to about 1500 rpm and the temp gauge is now saying its cooling off instead of just building and gaining heat..... all my FE's in my other trucks and the last 460 and 351m in this one did not ever get a fan shroud on them so i didn't know on that aspect i have heard that the shrouds are really for just when your idling around but that is why i was asking the experts.... thank you Turbo Dog if you have any more ideas i would like to hear them and i will post as soon as we try the truck out in the heat of the day

 

so far so good now i got antifreeze in it and a few changes to the vacuum lines/leaks and she no longer runs hot heat wise..... but she does melt the tires off when i want em to.... for the viewing pleasure this is the truck i have been talking about

 

Glad you finally solved it

I've been off line for a few days because of the holiday. There are so many things that can contribute to that problem.

Nice pic of your truck I've got a '67 with a 460...but it's only a one tire fryer for now.