Hello, Once again seeking the quidance of the OSO crowd. I am putting new 350's in my 86 - 272 Formula. Standard one piece main crank blocks, cast iron vortec heads, aluminum intakes (Professional Products) with my old Q-jets sitting on top. The intake I am using has cooling ports at all four corners that can be used for cross overs and such or blocked off.

With Alpha drives, what is the best cooling setup to run for raw water cooling? My old thermostat housings are shot, so I need to get new ones anyways.

Is there a better style to use with the vortec setup as what I have was from the mid 80's?

Thank you, Brian

engien as it sits:


Old thermostat housing:

Is it better to go to the newer style, late 90's design? has two fewer outlets so no hose then to the risers, just the exhaust manifolds.

would still need to find out what to do with the intake ports, thought they had to be crossed or something to help the vortecs cool.

Attached is the schematic to the newer cooling layout.

Need more research....

Brian

the hoses run up each side to aluminum spacer block, between intake and riser. hose size helps regulate flow, but still balanced under t-stat. think cpperformance has the blocks.

Thanks keith. Between intake and riser, by riser are you saying the thermostat housing? This would allow hot water from the back of the engine to circulate forward to be discharged into the exhaust.

The other thing I thought I read about was running it from the rear of the intake manifold to the port on the exhaust riser. My old setup had something like this. The top T fitting on the thermostat housing went to the exhuast risers with check valves preventing hot water from flowing back in.

I thought there was some concern on cylinders 7 and 8 running hotter due to the cold water coming into the front of the motor and leaving the front through the intake manifold. Seems like 1 and 2 would run the coolest, 7 and 8 the hottest. Can't remember where I read about pulling water from the back of the intake manifold to help flow back there.

I thought I read something on OSO about pulling some out there and dumping it directly overboard. Use a valve or hose size to limit water flow. You do not want to rob too much from the exhaust system or drop water pressure too much.

The picture is the setup of my old 350's in my 86 - 272. Seems the newer layout puts everything in the bottom of the exhaust manifold, nothing into the riser anymore.

Sometimes it is a pain being an engineer and having to over think everything....

Brian

This is the way mine are plumbed, have no issues for 6 years.
Use the riser gaskets that have two big holes and two small holes.