400 BB build issues

heres my response's in red
your qoutes in basic black
and me quoting myself in

Quote "txstang84

Link didn't open for some reason...

What is halfway on the gage? 160? 180? 200? its the factory dash gage so 180 ? same spot my built and boosted slant lived at 20lbs of boost for awhile

Do you have a fan installed? I can't see one... no fan or shroud installed wanted to finish the full break in first

Fan Shroud? Don't see one of those either...

Stock radiator? I can't tell but the one in the pic above looks stock; and I'm going to hop on a limb and say a 400 probably needs significantly more cooling capacity than a slant its not a stock radiator, well not for a slant atleast its a 18" tall 24" wide almost 2" thick radiator from a 4x4 A/c road ramcharger, and my boosted and intercooled turbo slant ( at 20lbs of boost)and cooled it just fine


Bottom rad hose staying open? (not collapsing at increased RPM) I've seen this too many times...nope hoses are brand new and not collapsing

Timing? If it's too far retarded, you'll have poor throttle response and mixture still burning leaving the engine...heat soaks the heads...
timing is rock solid, aside from running lean at idle and richening when "whacking the throttle" and there is zero lag when bliping the throttle by hand

I can't say with any level of familiarity, but there have been some guys on here that had issues similar to yours with the 440 source water pump housing if memory serves... I know what your taking about, and it was with the passenger side pump housings having their cooling hole too small, you can buy them for half what a correct size opening one goes for and with an hour or so work of grinding and smoothing to gasket match your good to go

oh...running without a t-stat can be just as bad as running the wrong one...

Again I ran without a tstat for the initial break in, the car hasn't been on the street, simply backed out of the garage twice


...and man, i know a 400 is a pretty heavy beast, but what's up with the rear end? It looks like you're stomping the brakes from 100+ I pulled the k-member off for re work( fully welded seams, cutting and fitting of the swap mounts and installing the big block and trans (( with headers installed)) factory style rolled it under the car for install, also installed solid aluminium biscuits at the same time, the rear is my attempt at making XHD rear leafs and failing, but atleast making the attempt, I now have 5 leaf drop springs from ESPO/springs and things with poly bushing ready to install

Holy **** man--I finally saw the video--no wonder you had an "explosion"... You have no turning water pump no fan no shroud...dude, quit torturing that poor 400--what did it ever do to you? again if you READ my first post the belt was originally hooked up for break in, it was suggested to disconnect it and see if exhaust is escaping in the coolant and causing the issue first issues with was on first start, brought up rpms for break in, then water puked from the rad filler neck, I just figured huge air bubble, shut it down to cool continued to try and burp it, nothing was working.

disconnected wp/alt belt and it still was puking from the rad filler neck, not good

What you're experiencing there with the "explosions" are due to VERY HOT cylinders and heads trying to dissipate the heat heat because there's no water flowing past them and when water does touch them, it steams up instantly and the expansion looks for the first easy path out--the water neck on the radiator...just stop...stop what you're doing and get a friggin belt on that thing with a fan and a shroud and a 180 stat just like RRR said.
she has a belt on, just not in that video and still has the same out come

one down.....moving on to #2

quote"RustyRatRod Nowhere near enough radiator. That's the original F body radiator I see.......actually if you look close you will see that the factory shroud was opened up to fit the larger 18" tall 24" wide almost 2" thick radiator from a 4x4 A/c road ramcharger, and cooled it just finelose it for something better. A LOT better. RUN A THERMOSTAT. Put a 180* Mr Gasklet high flow thermostat in it. They work GOOD. Where on God's green earth do people come up with the idea that not running one is a good thing? Put a BIG box fan in front of it for break in. The more air flow the better. I had a 36" big round industrial fan in front for air flow, hence the reason the whole engine bay is covered in red rust water

IMO, if you have no white smoke, no water in oil, no oil in water and no skips you can RULE OUT a blown head gasket or cracked head. But if you keep running it with a half *** cooling system, that won't be for long.

Yup. He has no belt on it in that video. Jeezus man, FINISH the thing and THEN get it running. What the HELL are you thinking? there is a belt on it, again I pulled it for trouble shooting, and again i am thinking i have F$%&ing coolant issue and i am trying my best to figure it out, and asking for advice before i have a $3,000 boat anchor

Quote" dozer556 Are you running the engine without the water pump/fan belt in that video? And then pouring cold water from a hose into what appears to be a hot engine? With the system open (not under pressure), and no water pump circulating coolant, you're basically using your engine to boil water.

If everything was installed properly and the system was buttoned up when you first started it for break in, how did you have an "explosion of water"? Where did it come from? the explosion of water came from the radiator filler neck, the cap was left off to help the system burp out any excess air, and thats when it started gushing out of the top, i only splashed water in the rad to show how its geysering out of the top, again i know its smart to mix warm and hot ( it was 100+ in the sun that day, that and with the fact there is 100ft of hose in the sun, the water going in might have been hotter than the water coming out

you know there were some seriously DB response's posted and i did my best not to lose my **** to a few of them, how bout a few of you get off your high F#@%ing horses and realize i am only asking for help, you would never see Slant guys treating each other like this