Now that it's getting hot outside. My car seems to want to run hot. I dont know where to start in the trouble shooting. What should a car run w/10.5cr, 224xer cam, under drive pully(stock alt pully), 160 thermo, second stage fan on at 185 or so (yes they both work), and Fast toys Ram air (partialy block's radiator).
In the spring 80* day or less the car will run 170-180* all the time Ac on or off. Now 95* dead sun (black car) the car will run about 200* and upwars of 215* with the AC on. Is this normal? These Temps are off my scanmaster not my guage! Should i remove the FTRA? Does it really help on a h/c car enuf to still have it?
So what is the Norm and what does your car run? Should i turn the AC off at 215* to cool the car off? (that's what i do) It runs about 200-209 on the hwy 60mph AC on almost 100* outside. Climbs to 215 in stop and go and that's when i shut the ac off.

 

i think you should get rid of that fast toys ram air and figure out another way to get cold air cuz really you are just suckin up the hot air from the radiator and also taking away from the cooling abilities.

 

Sounds fine to me, I purposely keep my car in the 195-205 range or so, that's where I make the most power (best ETs). Colder, and I start going slower.

Although it is odd that you have your high speed fans at 185 and it still goes above that. You can hear them buzzing away very loudly after 185 right? And you still hit 215? Hmph.

Personally, FTRA did nothing for my temps. I've had FTRA, SSRA, and nothing, and the difference was less than 5 degrees. FTRA does not suck hot air from the radiator btw, that's the whole point of it, to get cool air from outside the car.

Dope

 

That's what's going to happen if he takes FTRA off, unless he buys new lower airbox. As it is, the air comes from underneath the car, although FTRA plate indeed can heat up a little from the radiator.

Tim: I always keep FTRA, though it does get hot here in AZ. It appears to me that waterwetter, added to the coolant + 160 thermostat counter the problem pretty well. At least I didn't notice any significant temperature changes when I did FTRA last year. Taking FTRA off will certainly help the cooling system in traffic, I'm not sure about the highway. If I had some extra money, I'd try one of the aftermarket radiators. I heard SLP claims and also some people stories that their [SLP] radiator (~$300) helps a lot

...on a side note, recently my power steering pump failed and I had to drop it at a local econolube (dealer didn't have the pump in stock). They replaced the pump with POS Atco unit, but that's not the main problem - for some reason the car runs much hotter now (~10-15 d.). I suspect that they could damage the radiator when they took it out, since fans seem to work fine, but nothing is visible. ...or may be the air just got really hot. ...in any event I'm thinking about aftermarket radiator.

 

I have about the same temps when it gets that hot.

Reducing the amount of coolant so that you run water/coolant mixtures between 65/35 to 75/25 combined with a bottle of RP Ice or RL water wetter will help a bit.

If you run 75/25, just be sure to revisit the level of protection you need in the winter. 65/35 is still good to about 0* F.

 

Well i can feel the fans on and hear them running when at idle or near a building. It might have something to do with the coolant mixture. I know it's pretty strong now. Mor like 60-70% coolant. Maybe i should drain some out and add water and some water wetter. I didnt have this problem last year and i had everything then minus the heads.
Ill give that a try.
Something just came to mind! When i did the head swap and new cam install. As i was filling the coolant system up i was squeezing the hoses to get some of the bubbles out and i coud hear something in the thermostat rattleing? But in my buddy's car we could hear it a little also just not as loud. Is that normal?