Originally posted by Deluga
Boy did I open a can of worms. I should probably give you the specs as I know on the engine. 350 with a Comp 292 cam, Keith Black dome pistons, 350 trans , 411 rear and 2800 stall converter. Engine completely rebuilt with about 25 hours on it. My son bought the car, 71 Nova, over E bay. After running the engine , about a total of three more hours, the valves started to tap and then the engine started to smoke. The engine was bored 30 over. Did a compression check and was 170 accross the board. Decided to pull the heads and take them to a machine shop. Bad news. Nothing in the head was what it was suppose to be. No new parts like the write up said. I decided to take the block over to the machine shop and a quick visual it was determined that possibly some of the rings have not seated. Am waiting for teardown and answer on just what is what. Well anyway getting back to the oil cooler, the engine did run very hot , according to the temp gauge. The machine shop it should'nt and they'll try to find an answer why. So I guess the engine cooler might have helped to an extent. Just not quite sure where to go from here.
Another idea is run synthetic oil.This will help lower your oil temps.