ok i was driving the car home around 8 or 9 ish and i pulled up to a friends house and idled for about 15 min an than noticed i was spewing radiator fluid,ok there its the story here are the specs the radiator is about 10 years old not an aluminum i have a belt driven 5 blade flex fan, stock water pumpm, the temp was reading 220-225 the sensor is in the head. it has a 180 tstat, on the driver side the radiator has some discoloration but not a lot and it was only spewing out of the radiator cap. i dont know if the car reallyu over heated or i just over filled it.

i filedthe radiator today because i did loose some from changing a heater core hose and i also lost some from changing the temp gauge like 6 times cause i kept doing rookie mistakes like not threding it through the pod and such. my resevuar tank dosnt really work cause it has a crack in it and i never really notice any coolint in it

if there isn't an overflow on the system (open system) then if you filled it recently then yeah, it could spit some out...

are you running a shroud ??? a fan clutch ???

that temp seems a tad high to me.

yea i dint like the temp either i thought maybe a smaller tsat like a 160 might help i do have 1/2 a shroud only the top hald,and i dont really know what a fan clutch is so i am guessing no i dont have one

if you drained out the coolant it's possible you have an air pocket trapped inside... that could cause the heat issue.

refill it and keep an eye as it warms up. make sure T-stat opens, it's circulating and refill/top as needed...


a fan clutch is a cooling item that bolts to the water pump, the fan bolts to the clutch. at low speeds the clutch thermally engages and it spins the fan at a higher rpm than the engine is rotating... at higher speeds it disengages and basically freewheels as the ram effect takes over and cools the radiator...

ok i dont have a fan clutch

how far is the fan located AWAY from the radiator Daniel ???

ha ha found it here is an old pic of my fan
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee16/gfercaks33/S5030168.jpg

well my depth perception sucks and i'm blind ta boot. :eek:


you want the fan half in, half out of the shroud... you also want the BIGGEST fan to fill the shroud. (maybe 3/4 inch clearance on sides)

looks to me like the fan isn't even IN the shroud which to me means the fan could be pulling air from AROUND the shroud instead of pulling air Only through the radiator.

also i bet that car is supposed to have a clutch.

by clutch what do you mean it is an automatic transmission sorry if thats a stupid question, so do you think i need a new shroud?

what year is the car... i know it's a 3rd genner.

here's one for a '72, 350 w/4bbl... a HD one... others are available.

you'd need the appropriate fan to go with it and the lower half of the shroud.

this doesn't guarantee that's the only issue... it's just what i see that's different from what came on the car from the factory...

http://www.autozone.com/R,APP237215/vehicleId,1425703/initialAction,partProductDetail/store,2839/partType,00118/shopping/partProductDetail.htm

i'm pretty tired right now and i may not be thinking straight... the fan clutch may not spin faster than the engine's speed... so take that as a disclaimer OK ???

its a 73

A thermostatic clutch doesn't cost you any horse power when the car is moving. This is because as the car runs down the road above 40 mph there is enough air to cool off the car and the fan senses the lowered temp and disconnects itself to free wheel on bushings.

Here is a picture of a thermostatic clutch fan installed on a BBC Nova

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f63/3454545/PCCARSHOW021.jpg

And here is the front view of a five bladed (SBC) Thermostatic clutch fan (a BBC uses a seven blade fan instead of five) You can see the thermal bimetal strip in the middle of the hub that senses the temperature.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f63/3454545/DSC03015.jpg

The tip of the blade has to be covered by the shroud or the air will be slung off the end of the blade (like what happens inside a centrifugal blower) It should just clear the shroud (allowing movement to compensate for engine torque in the engine mounts)

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f63/3454545/Info008.jpg

A flex fan like you have never saves any energy, and yours is too small to move enough air at idle to cool your car. GM experimented with flex blade fans that you can find in junk yards. They are made of stainless steel having seven blades on BBC motors (18" diameter) found on old pick-up trucks. GM did this to cut the cost of the thermostatic clutch, but had to discontinue using them because of the noise they made moving all of that air caused customers to complain Which is another plus for the thermostatic, they only make a noise when you need to cool your car at idle. Since most folks rarely spend a lot of time idling BBC cars with the price of gas today, you will hardly ever hear it.

Big Dave

Get rid of that fan, all that is good for is robbing horsepower.

ok so what i am understanding i need a new shroud and a new fan, the fan came on the car so that is why its there can any one point me to a good fan and shroud, also would an aluminum radiator be worth the investment. on those i see jegs and summit brand for around 280 and than be cool ones for 7-800 any suggestions on those

ok so what i am understanding i need a new shroud and a new fan, the fan came on the car so that is why its there can any one point me to a good fan and shroud, also would an aluminum radiator be worth the investment. on those i see jegs and summit brand for around 280 and than be cool ones for 7-800 any suggestions on those

The difference in price is because the Jegs-Summit versions are universal fit, which means they will fit every car but yours. :D This is paticulary true about the 45 degree lower outlet which will fit a 'vette nicely but requires a few adaptors and change of hose sizes to fit into a Nova-Camaro chassis. Itcan be done and for less than the price of a radiator designed to replace the stock one but it won't look stock (if that is important).

The difference in price is because the Jegs-Summit versions are universal fit, which means they will fit every car but yours. :D This is paticulary true about the 45 degree lower outlet which will fit a 'vette nicely but requires a few adaptors and change of hose sizes to fit into a Nova-Camaro chassis. Itcan be done and for less than the price of a radiator designed to replace the stock one but it won't look stock (if that is important).


dave i am not looking at a universal i dont want to deal with those i want a direct fit here is a link
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2D380458&N=700+4294925074+4294908216+4294907681+4294924500+ 4294839040+4294840140+4294810996+115&autoview=sku
by the looks of it it is the same dimensions as my radiator

Ok that radiator is a new OEM radiator that is made of aluminum but not to the same specs as the Griffin or Be-Cool brand radiators. The `aftermarket makers use a large (1/2" diameter or larger) tube heli-arc welded to an aluminum tank so that you can run 25-28 psi radiator caps instead of the lower pressure stock 14-16 psi caps the OEM's use. The larger tubes allow for more surface area for heat transfer, and the welding beats an epoxy glued on plastic tank that can not sustain higher pressure (the higher the pressure the hotter the block can run without boiling the coolant). The hand welding drives up the price over the gluing.

what about some fans and shrouds after market or stock where is the way to go?

Stock parts will work just fine. Everyone that uses a stock shroud with a mechanical seven blade BBC fan has no cooling issues with either a three core brass radiator (or a four core) or with an aftermarket aluminum one. Most guys who do run an aluminum radiator and mechanical fan with a proper shroud have the opposite problem; not enough heat to stay warm in the winter, even with a 180° thermostat.

Big Dave