This overheating problem seems to be a common thing shared between most firstgen bird owners (at least us w 400 engines). Mine is totally stock, with newly rebuilt radiator, all baffle pans, shrouds, x-pans etc in place, timing advanced accourding to the factory specifications an a vanilla (066) cam. Still, after sitting for 35-40 minutes in a traffic jam this weekend, the temp gauge slowly but steadily crept towards the top, just passing the marking below the 250F (having rally gauges) when I got out of it. Since I refuse to believe that there were no traffic jams in the late sixties, there must be something different with the engine compared to what came out of the factory late 68.
One item that might cause the problem would be that the coolant flow through the system is insufficient at low rpms. Has anyone here tried using a hi-performance water pump with improved cooling at idle as a result?
