Coolant flow
I don’t have time to walk you through a tune up.
I’ll say it again. 180 should be the hottest these thing run. No more. If you want to run more compression drop the coolant temperature.
If you don’t think coolant temperature affects inlet air temperatures you are wrong. They do. That’s why air gap style manifolds work. But look at it. Coolant still goes through it.
A temp gun and some time on a dyno would show you a lot.
If you don’t have a QUALITY annular booster that’s the first place to start. Then emulsion and the main air bleed size.
That should get you started.
BTW, Uncle Tony dropped a video today. Watch that and learn exactly what NOT to do. He’s so far in the weeds on his thinking he won’t find his way out.
EDIT: The video I might make won’t be from text books and ****. It will be real world testing and results. I couldn’t care less what the long haired engineers say. If they say to run coolant temperatures over 180 they are crazy or they are obsessed with their carbon foot print. I’m not. I care about power and driveability. You get more of that with cooler engine temperatures.
Did I mention oil??? That matters too…
Uh-huh. Don't have time to explain it, won't bother to help, just grandstanding. Got it. You know best, everyone else is wrong, including the guys that are designing these engines at the OEM level. Sure. If you were onto something, every OEM would do it, your advice is very specific, dyno's and drag strips. It's not real world either.
I didn't say coolant temperatures and intake air temperatures were completely unrelated. I said that coolant temp was only a one part of a complicated system, and not the most important part. You keep oversimplifying this.
I don't have a race engine. Plenty of cars out there run just fine with Holley 750 double pumpers. The fact that your advice on coolant temperatures is tied directly to your carburetor tuning recommendations should be telling you your advice is not practical for everyone- it's good for its own niche, but applying it to everything is a massive oversimplification. There are a lot of factors that go into engine operating temperature.
It is my experience that people that dismiss out of hand what engineers have to say are people that simply don't understand what the engineers are saying. That is not to say engineers are always right, there are plenty of engineers that have gotten it wrong or get so into the weeds that they lose the real world application. But that doesn't mean that every machine shop owner knows better than the engineers that designed the engine, and you certainly don't.
Tech Talk #81 – Takin’ It to the Streets
Highlight from the article:
“Use a 160-degree thermostat to help the cooling system maintain control of the engine temperature. I know that most modern automobile engines run at well over 200 degrees, but that’s driven by emission regulations. It’s easier to maintain a reasonable coolant temperature than to regain control after the engine has overheated. The cooling system has a finite capacity to dissipate heat, so keeping the coolant as cold as possible provides a reserve when things start to get hot under the hood”
Read, research, test, make your choice. Done.
Again, this is wrongheaded. The thermostat only sets the bottom temperature for the system. Once the thermostat temperature is exceeded and the thermostat opens, it has nothing to do with the cooling system anymore. Obviously you can't set your coolant temp range below the temperature of the thermostat, but it doesn't contribute anything to keeping the engine cold beyond that.
The rest of it is a band aid for an insufficient cooling system. If the rest of your cooling system is up to par you shouldn't have to set your coolant temperature colder just so you can keep the car from overheating. Your cooling system should be able to maintain its set parameters. If it can't that's not a sign of cooling system insufficiency. I've have no issues keeping my car between the cut in/cut out temperatures I programmed my fan controller for, even with stuck in traffic on in 110° weather. And if I maintain any speed above about 25mph for more than a handful of minutes, my coolant temperatures drop below cut in.
This article just further shows that guys that build drag race engines are not the best people to ask about what works best on the street. While those guys may be awesome race engine builders, they're just detuning race engines for street use and maintaining the same approach of tuning for maximum power as the most important aspect. They're clearly not used to being able to put together an adequate cooling system. For a race engine that makes sense, for a street engine it's silly. Put together a better cooling system and you don't have to run cold just to prevent overheating.
Yes.
Fuel distribution.
Fuel vaporization.
While they look cool, that induction system has issues. One fix is increasing coolant temperature to help with those.
See, look, you do understand that there's actually more to it and a blanket "never get these engines hotter than 180°" is too dramatically oversimplified to be good advice for every build out there.
