Brought my Coug' home today. Jesus H. Christ!

Scares the bejeezus out of me. The motor is only partially broken-in, no tuning except for a change of power valve, and the timing is retarded to be safe. At a 30 mph roll it fries the 255 BF Goodrich's up to 6500 rpm (almost 60mph) and breaks 'em loose again in second gear up to 70 mph or so. Shooo weee! Southside Machine Lift Bars help, but traction is still just a dream. Maybe I'll get some drag radials.

Motor is running a bit hot. Slowly gets up to 185-190 on the highway then stays there. In town it has got up to 200 degrees in traffic. Some of you know my block is half full of Hard Blok. I have a 4 core brass radiator, clutch fan, shroud, and Ebok water pump. I have a March underdrive fan pulley, but I am using the factory crank pulley which is bigger (runs water pump faster) than the March crank pulley. Also running a thermostat, I think it's 160 degrees.

Any suggestions for cooling in the Kansas summer?

I could put the March crank pulley on which I think would circulate the water slower. This may be good with the block half-filled as there is less coolant volume in the block. Maybe moving it slower would help transfer more heat? I also have some coolant restrictors I could put in to replace the thermostat and possibly slow down the flow. I have a friend with 650 hp Poncho 455 Hard-Blocked up to the top water pump passage and his cools fine on the street so I know it can be done. He did have to experiment a bit to get the right setupfor his combo, though.

My last 428 stayed at 180 degrees most of the time. It was not Hard-Blocked. It was also fully broken-in and had ceramic coated headers which I think helps. I am going to take my new headers off the motor and have them ceramic coated in the next month or two.

Thanks for any thoughts on cooling.

Paul