I have a 350 Chevy S/B bored to .060 over and it's over heating. Not so much as to be kicking out all of the coolant but you can really hear it boiling (a gurgling sound) when it idles and also just after its turned off. You can feel the "pulse pressure" build up in the radiator hoses at the same time as the sound. I know I have some mismatched parts for optimum performance but hey, I'm on a budget and this is what I need to work with right now.

The car is a 1932 Ford steel roadster project with the usual 350 S/B Chevy engine, 350 A/T, and 8" Ford rear end. Some of these parts are new and others are well used. HEI generic distributor is set as follows, 15 degrees BTDC at idle, 30 degrees BTDC at 3000RPM with initial plus total mechanical advance, and 50 degrees BTDC combined initial+mechanical+vaccum all measured on the crank. I confirmed the timing marks to be correct with TDC on number one cylinder. The distributor vaccum is currently connected to the right side (passenger) timed vaccum port on the Edelbrock/Weber (Carter AFB) carb. I have tried it with full manifold vaccum also, and the over heating problem is the same. The block is cast with #3970010 on the rear and stamped in the front with V1201TYZ. The intake manifold is a "single plane" Edelbrock Torquer II with a "very lean" stock jetted #1406 model carb. I know this is not a good combination with my (advertised) 292 degree duration hydralic cam, 2.73 R&P, and 30" tall tires. The car has 1 3/4" shorty headers and a 2 1/2" dual "X-Pipe" exhaust system. The car has a brand new Walker four pass radiator, a 16" electric puller fan, 180 degree thermostat, Coolant with Redline "water wetter", and I've tried both 7# and 16# pressure radiator caps. The engine has an aluminum water pump of the generic imported variety. The car has no heater hoses and the pump and manifold outlets are plugged off.

Last weekend I pulled the heads off to check for bad head gaskets or to inspect for a cracked head and everything apears to me to be OK. No signs of water getting into the combustion chambers. The engine was rusty at some point in it's life and I cleaned out the water cooling holes in the heads around the spark plug areas from rust and scale. Is it posible that I have some kind of a "air lock" and the engine is not full of coolant?

My other "related problem" is a VDO water temperature gauge that has worked erratically since it was new two years ago. It stays at 180/200 degrees then quickly shoots up to 250 degrees and falls back to 180/200 for awhile and then repeats its cycle. The VDO gauge and sender were checked by a well known gauge shop and both "tested" fine. I have rerouted my wiring to avoid electrical interferance but nothing has helped this problem.

Sorry for my long post. Do any of you have any ideas what I should check next on my engine over heating, or gauge problems. Thanks for you time, John Palmer