Hey all,
I am in the process of diagnosing a cooling problem in my car. I recently installed Twisted Wedge heads. It was about 90* here today and I was burping air out of the cooling system. I think I got all the air out, not totally sure yet, I kinda ran out of time for the day. Meanwhile, I noticed my fan clutch is bad. It spins super freely. So I am replacing that asap. Anyways, I took it for a short ride, about a mile down the road and back, and noticed my temp. gauge hovering between 215 and a shade above the 220 mark. I have a mechanical gauge that reads to 280. The center mark on the gauge is 230 and I kept a close eye and it never hit the 230 mark.
I am new to the world of aluminum heads, other than the ones on my Ranger, and being that aluminum is a softer metal than iron, how hot is too hot for aluminum heads? How hot before any damage occurs? I did overheat my car big time a few years ago on the highway, during the summer. The belt flew off in traffic and I couldn't pull over and the gauge pegged out well past 280. Probably into 300's. I let it cool down, put on a new belt, filled with water and drove it home. Never had any problems. That was with the old GT40's though, I could never do that to my expensive aluminum heads. Anyways, just curious.
Thanks!
I am in the process of diagnosing a cooling problem in my car. I recently installed Twisted Wedge heads. It was about 90* here today and I was burping air out of the cooling system. I think I got all the air out, not totally sure yet, I kinda ran out of time for the day. Meanwhile, I noticed my fan clutch is bad. It spins super freely. So I am replacing that asap. Anyways, I took it for a short ride, about a mile down the road and back, and noticed my temp. gauge hovering between 215 and a shade above the 220 mark. I have a mechanical gauge that reads to 280. The center mark on the gauge is 230 and I kept a close eye and it never hit the 230 mark.
I am new to the world of aluminum heads, other than the ones on my Ranger, and being that aluminum is a softer metal than iron, how hot is too hot for aluminum heads? How hot before any damage occurs? I did overheat my car big time a few years ago on the highway, during the summer. The belt flew off in traffic and I couldn't pull over and the gauge pegged out well past 280. Probably into 300's. I let it cool down, put on a new belt, filled with water and drove it home. Never had any problems. That was with the old GT40's though, I could never do that to my expensive aluminum heads. Anyways, just curious.
Thanks!