learning91

foxbody 6.0 stang..about 10.5-1 comp big cam etc.holley/hp.i had a stock f-body rad with fbody fans..it ran ok for temp..hit low 200's a few times idling after a long drive...195-200 down the road with a stock ls thermo... so i added a 2 core alum. rad and i added an ac condenser.(ac not hooked up yet).in front of it..i changed to a low temp 180 stat...still have the fbody fans....it really doesnt seem to run any cooler...the only thing is after a drive it will slowly cool itself and shut off the fans...one fan is on at 195 one at 200 both off at 185...if i keep the rpm's blow 2800 it does seem to run a little cooler down the road..3k is 60 mph..i wouldnt think the ac condensor would kill that much air flow?..i dont think there is anyway i could run the ac with it running at these temps on a 78 degree day? i guess i should have bought the 4 core rad.?..i used to have one of the 2 core alums on a stock fbody with no issue whats so ever? any input? maybe i'm just paranoid about the temps i'm seeing?..i checked the thermostat and w/p erea with a heat gun..its within 5-10 degrees of what the gage is reading....thx!

Smitty454

LS engines run hotter than a typical old school engine. 195-210 is normal

kingtal0n

iTrader: (1)

Tap and plug the heater core water pump out/inlets. DO not loop them, that is returning hot water to the front of the engine (bypasses the radiator).

Make sure a 4-corner steam port solution is used that returns water to the upper radiator tank. I drill and tap/weld the upper aluminum tank.

LLLosingit

iTrader: (4)

This coming from a person who didn't know what he was looking for recently at the junkyard for his own LS swap and bought a rusted heap he thought was a good engine. Funny thing is I have swapped a few and looped and also plugged the water pump heater core outlets on different builds and never had a problem either way. I have also never ran a 4-corner return only the two fronts...again never had a problem. My S-10 with supercharged 6.0 (10lbs) runs cool with looped hoses and only front steam returns.


The biggest problem people seem to have with swaps is getting enough air funneled across/through the fins of the radiator/no shroud/ poor fitting shroud or radiator is just to small for the job. Most of the time it's just getting enough air through the radiator.
If it's running hotter at idle like you say and cools off while driving then that points to an airflow issue. Can you post a picture of how your fans are mounted?

kingtal0n

iTrader: (1)

The point I made about never seeing an LS engine before, pulling a couple from random junkyards and then 3 months later having a running/driving turbocharged conversion was to show that even when you've never seen a particular kind of engine before in your entire life, you can still have knowledge about the assembly, wiring, reliability, tuning, and conversion aspects through experience with other engines/platforms. It adds weight to knowledge of engines in general and disillusions the theory that only people that tune or build LS engines are good with LS engines.

Second, just because something works, does not mean it is optimal. You can loop the lines at the heater core in/out but it reduces the efficiency of the entire cooling system by some percentage. Think about it: where is that hot water originally going? and where was it coming from? And now where are you sending it?

learning91

it will cool off while idling and actually shut the fans off at 185...i will post a pic later..its a stock fbody plastic shrouded fan set..fits tight to rad. i have front bypasses hooked to rad.also..thx for the replys