BBC cooling modifications

[Greg D]

Anyone have any experience modifying BBC's for better cooling? I am not so much trying to lower the temp the engine runs at as I am making sure the engine runs the same temp from front to back and cylinder to cylinder to stay as far away from detonation and pre-ignition as possible.
What I am looking at is running 2 coolant lines from the back of the manifold to an adapter underneath the thermostat housing like is seen on SBC's. I haven't seen this done on a BBC but it is common on SBC's.
The reason I think the engine needs it is I installed a temp gauge in the back of the manifold and noticed that the temp there was 200-210 while the temp at the front of the manifold at the thermostat housing was 180-185.
Greg

[Ed-vancedEngines]

a 4-7 swap cam will help some to equalize the rear colling or heat exchange because it brings the pairs of cylinders to the front where the fresh water is entering at the 2-4 cylinders, instead of at the rear as in standard Chevy fireing order.

Can't see why that old circle track trick won't help you.
Ed

[Greg D]

Thanks Ed. I actually have a 4/7 & 2/3 firing order swap cam in the engine now.

I came across this modification performed on an Edelbrock 454R intake. I am curious if this would help keep the intake charge cool and prevent detonation.


I've even been toying with the idea of reverse flow cooling the engine, but it seems like no one does that, so maybe it's not as good as Smokey proclaimed it to be???

[Mark Workman]

The extra coolant supply and return lines are only the part of the equation that you can see. Restrictors between the water pump and block(.50"), and at the front intake/head outlet(.31") are needed to force the water to flow to the back of the block. -10 supply lines from water pump to between middle cylinders and same size return lines from rear of heads to T'stat housing. These sizes are what we use for the SBC, so take that as your frame of reference.