Well it's been a little while since I've made a long post here, but I'm back from vacay and driving the car again. Today I was supposed to take it about a 26 mile trip, 35 minutes away to an alignment shop.
It's an uphill grade most of the way there and I watched the temps climb from 180 to 190 and then 200 and when it hit 210 going up a hill I called it quits. With my TH350 and stock '55 rear end (not sure the gears) I'm between 3100-3500 rpm at 60-65 mph.
I let it cool off and turned around for home, thinking it would be okay going downhill but at a red light at the base of a hill it hit 200 again and when I stepped on the gas to go, it bogged and died. After an hour a guy pulled over and helped tow me home, big shoutout to him, but I haven't been able to get the car started since this happened this afternoon. Did it vapor lock? I checked and it was getting fuel to the carb, but we cranked it until the battery died and no go.
details:
ECP aluminum radiator in V8 position
Derale 17" six blade mechanical fan
Unknown thermostat (a buddy told me to try driving without one, would that work?)
No fan shroud
Fan is only about an inch or so away from radiator
Side note, my dad is always a bit of a safety freak haha and is saying I shouldn't drive the car on an upcoming 9 hour trip to Kansas, but obviously the car needs some work and shouldn't be overheating at all, it should be ready to go anywhere, anytime. Right?? If the car overheats on a 26 mile trip, that doesn't mean it's a horribly unreliable 70 year old junker lol (i'm still proud of my car and want to prove it can go anywhere anytime even though it looks like crap 💀)
