What's reverse cooling? LT1s are reverse cooled, as opposed to say L98s. What other GM vehicles, and engines have reverse cooling?

 

As far as I know the LT1 is the only Reverse Cooled Engines!

 

The reverse cooling is due to the heads needing to be cooled due to a higher compression ratio to prevent detonation right?

Sorta like a low temp thermo stat?

 

Yea it has a coolint line that runs from head to another!

 

Really?

I honestly don't know...

You aren't just screwin' with me are you?

 

No sir, if you have a friend or someone that has taken the engine out of there car just look on the back of the LT1, look at the heads. Its not like a rubber line its like a medal line that has 2 bolts that screws into both heads. Thats how your coolint goes from one head to another. The bolts have like little pin wholes which the coolint travels.

 

Cool, to be honest I have never seen a LT1 engine in person. Hence why I am reading about them now!

 

Thats not a coolant line, its a steampipe, it pulls steam out of the heads, it doesnt share coolant with the heads at all.

 

This is the setup on back of the Engine that they are talking about..mine is a little custom. The Factory is 2 Banjo Bolts and a Metal Tube going to the Radiator, otherwise known as a Steam Tube.

 

reverse cooling is what is says. Gen1 engines the block is cooled and then the heads. GenII. If you follow the coolant flow in the water pump up to the head and down and out thru the block. The block is mostly cooled by oil not the water. One reason hardblock can be used and not really hurt anything. The steam line was required to help water get from one end of the head to the other before it turned in to local spots of steam. Mostly around the ext. valve. at low speeds.

 

#7 and #8 Cylinders on these Engines are mostly the ones that blow, they tend to get the hottest.

 

im pretty sure this is incorrect

 

It is, theres not much coolant in that line, its a steam line that brings steam (and a little coolant) from the back of the heads to the radiator, thats why it connects the two heads then goes up to the radiator rather than just connecting the two heads.

 

Wow you guys managed to really screwup a pretty simple discussion.

Reverse flow cooling means the heads are cooled first a few of you got that right. The waterpump feeds each side of the engine seperately.
The "steam tube" that runs from head to head and then up to the TB in stock form(most of us bypass the TB) is there to allow air and steam pockets that might form a way to escape. Otherwise due to the whole being lighter than water thing they would get stuck at the high point in the heads and the heads would not be cooled properly. If there is not air or steam then coolant flows through that pipe. The only reason the steam tube runs from one head to the other is to join them into one line for easier plumbing, it is not a crossover.

 

You know this is exactly why they they quit making the LT1. Way to damn complicated.

 

The only thing complicated is the water pump and thermostat, everything else for the most part is gen I SBC++, better flowing heads, better intake, "better" distributor. You can put a standard sbc distributor on a LT1 (with LT1 intake no less!) and then for the most part you have a sbc. The cooling system is a bit touchy but its not that overly complicated.

 

Reverse cooling is awesome. End of disscussion.

 

If I dont do an LSx engine in my mercedes I'd like to convert a Gen I SBC to reverse cooling and put something like SB2.2 heads on with a single plane converted to EFI with a DIS ignition system.

 

You are going to be paying some money for that, unless that got cheaper to do. Just drop the LSX in it, they actually cool pretty good with all the passages they have.

 

i just took the heads off my car today because i blew a head gasket. When i took them out i bent the steam pipe behind the head and it broke in half, i was wondering if i can just connect a high pressure rubber hose with a clamp on each side. I don't want to have to go spend 100 bucks on that dam steam pipe when in reality the dam pipe is almost brand new. Something like the way the_merv has on his engine