I don't like $600 radiators, milky oils, segmented and clamped heater hoses, or overly complicated stuff. I'm starting to get all kinds of hot for Gen1. Same cheap bottom end, but cheap iron heads and intake manifolds too. I even like the big round 14" air cleaner element. Huge surface area there. I'm only 34, and I'm really starting to think they did it all perfect by about 1968.
So I'm thinking that I want to replace anything that breaks with generic circle track Gen1 stuff from Summit, and I'm wondering why our Gen2 heater hoses have four different pieces with plastic fittings (I used an old socket for a restrictor, and coolant for all metals) and our radiators don't have caps, and our reservoir is plumbed in through the heater hoses.
GM must have had so much faith in their iron castings that they just didn't care how hot they got. Theoretically, if you didn't notice the lights or hear the "ding", you might just keep driving as bearing temps went to 300+ degrees. Sound right? No pop, and no rush of steam?
Why is that? Did they need huge pressures to eliminate hot spots in the cylinder head passages? Were they going 10/10ths by forcing heat rejection by running elevated head temps like Winston Cup? Did they have a real reason for running 230* head temps?
Why not just run a set of 5/8" heater hoses to the pump and a Gen1 style radiator with an overflow tank instead of a pressurized reservoir? Is it that reverse cooling put too much air in the system and the pressurized reservoir was needed to remove that air and prevent steam and hot spots? What if you never get above boiling point?
*I don't actually have a cooling issue, I'm just wondering.* *I do like the Gen2/LT engines quite a lot*
So I'm thinking that I want to replace anything that breaks with generic circle track Gen1 stuff from Summit, and I'm wondering why our Gen2 heater hoses have four different pieces with plastic fittings (I used an old socket for a restrictor, and coolant for all metals) and our radiators don't have caps, and our reservoir is plumbed in through the heater hoses.
GM must have had so much faith in their iron castings that they just didn't care how hot they got. Theoretically, if you didn't notice the lights or hear the "ding", you might just keep driving as bearing temps went to 300+ degrees. Sound right? No pop, and no rush of steam?
Why is that? Did they need huge pressures to eliminate hot spots in the cylinder head passages? Were they going 10/10ths by forcing heat rejection by running elevated head temps like Winston Cup? Did they have a real reason for running 230* head temps?
Why not just run a set of 5/8" heater hoses to the pump and a Gen1 style radiator with an overflow tank instead of a pressurized reservoir? Is it that reverse cooling put too much air in the system and the pressurized reservoir was needed to remove that air and prevent steam and hot spots? What if you never get above boiling point?
*I don't actually have a cooling issue, I'm just wondering.* *I do like the Gen2/LT engines quite a lot*