I have a 289 in my 61 boogie van. The box gets so hot in a short time it's unbearable. Is this just a part of owning one or can it be controlled without making the motor overheat

 

insulate the inside of the box.

 

These do have temp issues under the hood, I drove mine for a full year before taking it apart to restore it. I live on Ca[e Cod, so not as hot as the boy and girls in the south, so I didn't have any overheating, or vapor locking, but mine did get hot enough under the hood after shutdown to boil gas in the carb and make the cab stink of fuel. If you insulate the inside of the hood it will help the cab a bit, but I'm going a bit further. I have a pair of small,13" fans that I am mounting under the hood facing down, and running them off of an attic fan thermostat that I can set at 150 degrees, so after I shut down the fans will run til the engine compartment gets cooled. I also built a new front bumper that clears the way for air to intake the full size of the grill. I also incorporated an air temp gauge for under the hood so I can monitor what is or isn't helping. I should have it back on the road in a few weeks to start experimenting. Keep in touch if you want updates. I'll attach a pic of the bumper modifications I started yesterday.
[img]https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.ford-trucks.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/20230704_152922_3f53a6c448218bfb53215c458636c5c079 b086d2.jpg

 

Wrap your exhaust manifold and tail pipe to keep the exhaust from heating up the engine compartment.

Do you have the larger radiator for the 240 engine rather than the shorter one for the 170 engine?

 

New aluminum radiator and 2 fans

 

Another thing that I have only seen on one van is an extension to the air tunnel pan that extends behind the radiator support on both sides of the oil pan. That should help to force the air flow further back over the top of the engine and hopefully not allow the hot air to be trapped back there. I was going to design mine after the the front pan is back in-place. Keep in mind that all the HEAT issues are caused by air flow, not the cooling system, my '65 falcon has the same engine, same radiator and fan and has no issues at all, performs perfectly, so Ford design all the heat issues with the body and hood design.

 

finished the front bumper today, just needs paint. Now I have clear air to 100% of the grill.

 

Let me know what you use for your fan and thermostat. I think I want to do the same. I think, since heat rises, it just sits up there in the doghouse baking everything long after the van has been shot off. I would like to have a fan run for a bit to pull the hot air out.

 

Ive noticed if I run my electric fan for 30 seconds after shutting down it starts easier afterwards.

To remove the heat in the engine bay I thought about using a boat bilge blower mounted in the back of the doghouse somewhere. It’s plastic so it would need to be on the cool side and away from the block.

 

I'm thinking the same thing. I've been looking around on Amazon. Here's what I'm thinking:

bilge blower: https://amzn.to/46FrIIZ
Thermostat: https://amzn.to/46EetrT
3 inch hose: https://amzn.to/44xNIn8

Not sure if the 3 inch hose will hold up to the heat, but I guess I'll see. I think I'm going to run the hose from the driver rear corner of the doghouse down to the bilge blower mounted under the van. I'll have the thermostat set to turn on at a certain temp and shut off maybe at 150 degrees or something.

 

Will do, I'm also going to experiment with everything I do so I can figure out what is actually working and what isn't. I built the brackets for the fan mount, so I'll install those when I put the doghouse together, but I'll leave them turned off until I play with the newly exposed grill. So I can test one at a time. I just finished wiring my console with gauges on the bench so I'll get that in this weekend and wire the whole truck. Should be done real soon now.
Eric

 

these are the fans;

and this is the t-stat;

 

I think the problem with heat in the doghouse is only after shutdown, or when stopped. Since I installed a belly pan I never have problems while running. Just when restarting, like after fueling.

As to the hose holding up, I’d use dryer vent type metal hose.

 

Looks like you're in Florida so you deal with more heat than I do, but mine is the same as far as the doghouse heat only happening after shut down or in heavy traffic. there are owners out there having vapor lock issues while driving though, I'm assuming dessert conditions. I put the temp sensor and gauge in the doghouse so I will be able to abuse it and see the results. Owning a radiator shop for 20 years showed me that a lot of heating issues are extremely minor fixes. Some as simple as the plastic air dam under the nose of some cars hitting a curb and breaking off a corner. It's all about BTU's, making sure you get rid of more than you make. And that can be 1 BTU.