Radiator Cap

[Terry Martin]

Clare Snyder wrote:

> This is exactly what I said several days ago - hot spots WILL develop in
> certain areas of the engine without a thermostat or restrictor plate
> installed. I'm not an engineer, but I have replaced numerous cyl heads
> cracked by such abuse - particularly on Olds 350 and 455? V8s from the
> mid seventies that had overheating problems(afterboil) 

That's probably more of an effect of too much of a good thing. Try
dumping cold water into any hot engine. The thermostat does not only
regulate how hot the water has to be to circulate, it also regulates how
cold it has to be. There is a point to be made that to maintain
circulation through restricted areas requires some back-pressure. Watch
a creek sometime. 

There's a formula around somewhere in my brain cells that defines heat
transfer to a moving liquid. The faster it moves across a heated
surface, the greater the heat transfer, and that includes over boiling
point surface temps. As a matter of fact moving the temperature from a
colder state to boil in a given period requires the greatest heat
exchange efficiency, as is evident on the face of it. Something like
wind chill factor.

Terry