Did you make sure to leave the cap off the radiator in order to "burp" the system? When I fired mine up for the first time I had to keep adding a lot of fluid. You should try and time it while it's running. Too little advance can cause over-heating. Just twist the distributor counter-clockwise if you can't get a gun on it. A mechanical temp gauge is cheap and easy to hook up so you know how hot it's really getting. Good luck.