Thread: Unique-ish Cooling Issue on my GTP?

thanks for the strap idea. My biggest issue was being able to turn the tester hose to thread it in. I wised up and made a duct tape 'handle' at the top of the hose to give myself more turning power. So I got all the numbers now:

1: 120 dry, 135 wet
2: 145 dry
3: 125 dry
4: 120 dry, 145 wet
5: 130 dry
6: 145 dry

so per head I have:

front 120, 125, 130
back 145, 120, 145

I retested the two lowest cylinders wet as well to help determine if piston rings might be more to blame... Maybe?

the biggest margine is about 17% on the back head.

Is this a cause for concern for the heads?

and the big question: Am I going to want the build this one?

I didn't get around to the water pump yet (pending my decision on whether or not to sell), and the LIM has the black stock gaskets, though I didn't see any puddles around the LIM bolts. A bit of grime, but not puddles.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

Compression seems alright, is it perfect no but it's not going be a huge cause for concern in my eyes.

People throw down 300+ whp in 200K mile blocks they snag from the junkyards. If it's got a solid bottom end and the pistons ain't chipped it's a good running engine to me.

I hope the bottom end is solid enough, though piston rings seem like they might be an issue on at least cyl 4, since the wet test compression was so much higher.

Also, when I went for a shakedown drive after replacing the plugs last night, I found another top-engine noise that didn't go away after warmed up. Coming from the injector area for sure, but seems loud for injectors. Maybe I never noticed it before because you cant really hear it with the hood shut. Here is a link to the sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u6gBWBFc1Y

Geez, I just looked over your mods. She get up and go Scotty?

Nice! Bet that late-model Charger owner loved getting beat by a 98 Regal.

Update on this initial issue:

I pulled the water pump and it looked fine. No leaking and the blades looked good. No obviouse wear. It wasn't noisy before, so I bet the bearings are ok. I reinstalled it. While I had it out, I sprayed high-ish pressure water into the hoses that go to the heating coils. It pushed plenty of coolant out, but no gunk. I put everything back together, filled and bled (and bled warm multiple times). Then I did my stress test by running the engine at 3,000 RPM in park for a few minutes. Same thing happened, gauge climbed and climbed, fans kicked on around the 210 mark, but the needle kept rising with no sign of slowing down. The purpose of the test is to simulate long slow hill climbing, which there is a lot of here in Utah. I'd say the cooling system is still failing the test. Should I just not expect to be able to hit mountain roads in this car?

The last thing I can think of that could be causing the cooling issue would be grime/blockage from the LIM gaskets. Does that sound about right? I figure I will do the LIM gaskets soon, at the same time I do the rocker arms, lifters and valve cover gaskets. When I do it, is there any reason I shouldn't try cleaning out all the coolant ports with high-pressure water and compressed air (after blocking off the intakes of course)?

I'm still trying to figure out if my cooling condition is normal or not. I got the torque app and bluetooth. I have been watching my actual temps for the last two days. Under normal driving conditions (85 degrees outside, on flat surfaces without heavy traffic), my temps sit at 212-215 degrees. Parked at 85 degrees, same thing. In heavier traffic at 85 degrees outside, the coolant temp rose and fluctuated between 220 and 230. I drove one long hill for the sake of testing, and I ended up turning around when the app read 238 degrees, with no signs of leveling off. However, driving to work this morning (a 40 minute drive) it was about 57 degrees outside, and the coolant temp never went above 180. I have a 180 T-stat in there... So I'm wondering, do these actual temps seem normal? Or is it simply running too hot?