Cool results and very cool trip! OK, need to cool down the new engine... Thanks for posting pics.

Please post some info about your cooling system, thermostat, carburetion, etc. Maybe we can help with the overheating. Is it the stock temp gauge, or something more accurate/reliable?

Slant on,
Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

It's a Gates or Motorad high flow thermostat 170F iirc, that I drilled a 3/32" (or more likely 3mm!) bleed hole into, as I always do to any car.
The temp gauge is fairly accurate, (or I may have calibrated my eye to read it) :
When the needle is about 2/3 of the way it's alright at 175/180,
at the bold 2 o'clock mark it is getting hot under the hood, around 200,
when about to touch the letter H it's about to boil, I'd say 220/230f
and passed the middle of the letter H it's spitting the coolant through the overflow. (I have a 16lbs cap)

I can let it idle for half an hour it won't overheat and will stay between 1/2 and 1/3 of the gauge.
I can do some city driving, countryside roads or steady 60mph, the needle won't budge from that likely 180f position.
When the engine is fully at temp after a long 60mph cruise If now I cruise at 80 it will slowly creep from that 180f area to afore the letter H in about 25 minutes, and give it 10 minutes more at 80mph it will blow steam.
If instead I slow my pace back to 60 it will slowly go back to the 180 zone in about 5 to 10 minutes.

I had about the same problem years ago with the original 170 1bbl, but it wasn't really annoying as it wasn't feeling happy anyway pushing that wide car at speed. That's why I experimented with plugging the AAR hood scoop and tried my hood to radiator support noodle seal, as the car was in that same condition before.

Stock 19" radiator out of a 198 auto trans 71 Duster, but very same core and box as my original one except for the trans cooler (not used in my manual of course) I just got mine back acid cleaned and pressure checked from the local radiator shop, will fit it back when I'll have the car in the shop to change the oil).

I have acid dipped my block before assembling it this summer, with pressure washing through the freeze plugs so the cooling passages of the block are clean. The heater is connected but doesn't heat up the passenger area that much when driving at out of town speed or more.

I have a lightweight clutch fan made for some Mercedes of the 80s that pulls air really nicely. No shroud however, but shouldn't be the problem I have at speed.

Good new Gates hoses all around, and a new Delco water pump.

I have a felpro head gasket, is it a good idea to re-torque and if so, engine cold or hot ?

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To detail a bit more my build :

The 225 long block is out of a Spanish Dodge 3700GT. It only had 6.000km (4.000miles) from the factory before the car has been left to rot in a field in the middle of France.
Afterthoughts, I guess the engine started to have valvetrain noise, the Spanish metallurgy is far from nice on this motor...
I ball honed to clear the oxydation of the bores, put new rings as several of the stock ones were stuck and broke apart upon removal
New crank main and rod bearings, as the Spanish ones had the babbitt peeling/scaling off. Polished the journals, cleaned oil passages.
New oil pump which has too much pressure, but I kept it that way for the break-in.

Head is from a 71 Duster in which the owner started a turbo build but went with a Bmw V12 instead! I bought his engine and a ton of parts. The head was already ported, and seats redone, but the business end was just slightly resurfaced, so no bump of compression ratio unfortunately... I was in a very budget build. I wanted to save it for the better engine to come, but couldn't trust the Spanish one which needed new valves anyway, and my 170 head needs guides. I just backcuted the valves and fitted stock springs back to have lighter seat pressure for the break-in. I don't remember what are the specs of the better springs and dampers, will check when I'll install them. (Soon, I have already experienced valve float at about 4500rpm @105mph when checking how the car and engine behaved at speed).

I had a Comp 64-247-4 from the same source which I decided to use, it's an hydraulic cam (I don't know why as his block is a 1971 198...) but with .005" hot lash it seems to live fine (I cut my filters open after the cam break-in and after my first 400 or so first miles, not a single glitter, and valve lash didn't change). Will check soon how it did after the 2.000 miles trip.
It's a 212/212º at .050, .44" lift, 110º LSA, it would not be suited for my high rpm build and the Spanish cam wasn't really nice, so I used it.

I already had bought an Offenhauser 4bbl intake years ago, couldn't find an affordable Holley 390cfm list 8007, so instead I bought a much better, cheaper and lighter QFT SL-450-VS, and had a East-West adapter laser-cut out of 12mm aluminum (1/32 shy of 1/2") with the 4 port holes matching the diameter of the throttle blades. I blended/ported the transition between the plate and the manifold to help the air making that 90º turn to the runners. Didn't have time to port-match the intake to the head, but with stock size valves and that came I don't know if I would find many more flow with the gasket matching, will see if I get to play with this engine or if I concentrate on the next one !

My exhaust was toast, and was planning on having it done locally in stainless steel, so I used a set of A-body Clifford headers I bought used, they do fit nicely in the E-body, only had to hammer the collector a bit to clear a bolt head. So it should now be ready for the horses to come. The two primaries ties together behind the transmission, and to a custom straight through muffler.

I used the flywheel of my 170, a spare Rhino diaphragm clutch I had laying around, unfortunately only a 9" I'm not too sure how well the friction will hold, I already had to adjust the fork pushrod a couple of times.

I bought an A833 from a 70 B body 5 years ago, the date code told me if left the same factory my 3 speed had been made at with just 4 or 5 days appart in July of 69 ! I used the bellhousing off of the 3700gt, I had to get the hole of the bearing retainer enlarged as it was the small size bearing 833 they used on the Spanish Dodge.

And while changing oil out of my open diff 7-1/4 I noticed the spider gears and the shaft were rattling way beyond my liking. I was planning on using a Volaré 8-1/4 Suregrip I have, but I misread the width on the chart we can find all over the web, but a Volaré rear end is definitely way too narrow.
So I bought a E-body 8-3/4 housing, a complete B-Body rear end with a 742, which was unfortunately a 2.76 ratio. So I bought a DrDiff SureTrac2 helical gear locker and a new 3.23 gearset, bearings and all... And now the driveshaft is too long! Talk about a budget build!
I wanted to save my 4 speed 7.25 axle Barracuda driveshaft so I had a 4 door dart driveshaft cut and welded to the length but I suspect the guy didn't bother balancing it...

I also rebuilt and tune my tired factory power disc brakes setup, with a bigger diameter C-Body master, smaller rear wheel cylinders, rebuild the stuck proportioning valve, made factory looking lines but with nicop and stainless coil shield...
I now have a brand new rusted car that overheat , a shaking driveshaft and has a worn 2nd gear synchro!

I'm happy with this engine, sure with more time and just a bit more money I could have done something better...
But this one has plenty of torque, still revs nicely for what it is and gets that 3.500lb pig moving at least as fast as most of the newer plain Jane cars on the road here.
I'm not ashamed anymore with my really low performing, tired, greasy, smoky slant, and can enjoy the way the E-body handles.

Still will upgrade a few things before the end of winter:

-Ignition (right now the stock setup out of my 170 as I knew it was working ok) I already have a dizzy fitted with a pertronix from the V12 Duster parts, I have several Mopar electronic dizzy so I'd like to make an hei, I heard lot of good about the Ignitor III hei module in the V8 world, so was thinking of trying that.

-Valve Springs to push the valve float at a higher rpm.
It would be nice if I can get up to 5400/5500rpm in 4th, that would be 200kph (125mph) I'm curious if that 225 have enough oomph to push all that air in front of the grille, maybe with a Transam style air dam. Would be nice to use the full swipe of that speedometer!

-Transmission out
I need to fit offset dowels to the bellhousing as I had some runout, and need to change the synchros in the transmission.
Have a reliable place to balance the driveshaft.

-Bigger radiator? If that 19 incher isn't up to the task (which seems weird to me, a 289 Mustang radiator isn't bigger and must cool a bit more HP than I do?

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