Best fan for rowdy 383

[Newport Oregon]

Not this clean anymore. This was when it was freshly installed in 2013.

 

[CBODY67]

From my experiences on my '70 Monaco 383 "N" with the HP exhaust manifolds from the factory, there have been no real issues about the rh exhast manifold's heat cooking the valve cover gasket. In the middle '70s or so, Chrysler did come out with a pure orange silicone valve cover gasket for the high heat situations (namely "police"). When I found out about them, I ordered a set, but never needed to install them. To me, they seemed "permanent" as they were solid rubber and as long as the valve cover flange was completely flat, with an extra dab of high-heat silicone to ensure a good seal, they should last a very long time. Changing spark plugs is not that bad with the HP manifolds, providing you have the CORRECT set of spark plug wires with the CORRECT boots for each plug (meaning, "straight", "90-degree", or "135-degree" angles) and the correct wire lengths in quality wire sets. Add in some Iridium spark plugs (with their 100+K mile durability under normal conditions) and several serveral service issues can be lessened quite a bit, to more "modern standards".

Key thing to me is that with some selective upgrades in materials and such, starting with some very good machine work on the block and cyl heads, seeing just how long a Chrysler engine might last could be a lifetime pursuit. With quality oil filters and modern syn motor oils.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[Gerald Morris]

Living down in the Sonoran desert, where we get mild spring temperatures like 114F now, my 383, fed with a 2-bbl Stromberg WWC carb, runs a 6 blade DeRale 18" clutch fan, a Hayden 2747 thermal clutch, 22" aluminum radiator (ECP) with a 16" A Team fan in front as a pusher set on a thermal switch for temperatures over 200F ON, and OFF at 170F with a Mr. Gasket copy of the Robert Shaw thermostat, set for 180F. I also use a nice little B & M transmission cooler, and THAT works WONDERS for its size!

I'm building a fan shroud this weekend to enhance the flow pulled by the DeRale fan. Even with ambient temperature at 107F at noon today, the coolant temperature didn't get over ~184 F until I pulled into the long driveway of this trailer park we bide in. Then it crept up to 200 as I idled around, but hey! THAT'S WHAT THE PUSHER FAN IS FOR!

I've run this system since ~mid-May with no overheating, and only seldom getting above 185F, but with this super heat wave coming on strong now, I'll be testing my cooling system hard, and reporting results to the Elder Moparians on this Forum. Like the Wise CBODY67, I drive a 66 Newport, and in the 5 years we've been blessed with this excellent antique, it has NEVER seriously overheated, and very seldom gets over 200F.

It came with an 18" 6 blade rigid factory fan and an EXCELLENT hi-altitude+AC+towing intended 22 inch radiator, which has a few leaks, thus my replacing it with a same sized aluminum radiator this year, after using a Cold Case 22" x 16" radiator prior, until a badly placed bonding jumper caused it to electrolyze. But I WANTED the radiator I now have all along anyway....

My point is, get a 6 or 7 blade steel clutch fan at 18 inch diameter, shroud it if you like, and your rod should run at a nice 180-200 Fahrenheit.

 

[detmatt]

180 T-stat won’t make it run cooler than it is now. I’m not a fan of “high flow” anything in the cooling system. It needs to flow slower to transfer heat. So I like a regular 160 T-stat.

how is the air fuel mixture? If it is lean it will run hot.
Try using ethanol free fuel it will richen your air fuel mixture and help with hot starts. Get most or all of the ethanol gas out first. Won’t help to miss it with 1/4 tank of alcohol.

I had a stock 440 with a stock carter rebuilt and it was pretty, but it ran hot and nothing couldn’t fix it. Couldn’t go far on the freeway and it was minumim 210 and up to boiling over when stopped. Finally swapped to a know good carb From another car for testing and the car was excellent, never got hot again.

I can’t imagine a 160 stat would ever close if you’re having overheating issues to begin with so the radiator isn’t even being given the chance to do its job.