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Captain_Ronnie's avatar
Nov 20, 2013

New crate 454

Last month I broke the crank in my 1988 Winnebago Super Chief. It had only 57,000 miles on it. I located a GM crate engine 454. I took my time and installed the engine piece by piece. I went with a new 4 row core aluminum radiator. Everything on the engine is new, fan clutch, water pump, hoses, everything. The engine fired right up on the first try and I set the timing, 4* BTDC. I had the carb rebuilt by a professional and tuned to the new engine.My issue is that this new engine runs hot, 220 all the time, 230+ going up hill. My old engine never ran hot at all, not even in Death Valley at 110* in the shade. I am running a 50/50 mix on the coolant with 2 bottle of cool water additive. The weights on the distributer are great and move freely. I did a muffler clog test and they are clear. I have 12 to 18 on the vacuum gauge. All my VACUUM switches are new and operate, including the EGR and the valve at the header exhaust on the left side (forget what it is called) I am no novice to Chevy engines and Big Block issues, but this one has me dumb founded. The tranny has it,s own cooler, as well as the oil. In fact, when the engine is running hot at 230, the engine oil is only at 140/150. All my gauges are mechanical. Now, the engine temp sensor is located on the right side head just behind cylinder number 4. The other temp sensor in located on the left head just behind the number 3 cylinder. I have redundancy with all the gauges. Tranny is a turbo 400 and runs cool. Any ideas or help would greatly be appreciated .....

55 Replies

  • Are you sure the new aluminum radiator is as efficient as the original copper and brass radiator? Or did it come with an aluminum radiator originally?

    I have had horrible luck with buying new fan clutches in the last 15 years or so. I have had new ones not work correctly from the get go and have had several warrantied that didn't last more than a year or two. I have tried multiple brands and it doesn't seem like I can single out a brand that is worth a crap.
  • What degree thermostat do you have in it? 180 would be my suggestion.
  • Could be an air bubble in the cooling system.
    Verify temperatures in the radiator. Could do by feel but a thermal gauge would be best. Water may not be curculaing through radiator properly.
    Thermostat? Whet temperature one did you install?
  • j-d's avatar
    j-d
    Explorer II
    Is your engine-mounted water pump of the correct rotational orientation? Used to be that the pumps for V-Belt equipped engines were built for same rotation as the crankshaft. Then with Serpentine Belts, the pump rotation (and therefore the Fan...) rotated in reverse. A pump trying to circulate in reverse didn't do very well. It seems that since, at least some pumps are built to work either way. Do you have the pump your application calls for?
  • Many engines run hot during break in. I would wait and check after 5000 miles. You should check for radiator temp bounce though.
    MM49