[John2kx]

Sean,

Pictures of your installation would help in troubleshooting. Without seeing it, I'll offer these:

1. Change thermostat out and replace with the Mr. Gasket "high flow" unit. It looks different than anything else out there and does flow more water when open due to its design. Available at Summit and Jeggs. This was the cause of my problem when first running my car in the Georgia heat. I tried several run of the mill t/s's until finally trying this one.

2. Check your hoses for possible kinks. The most common area is at inlet to water pump (this is about the tightest turn in the system). If you see a partially crimped section, try to eliminate by inserting a steel spring in this area to eliminate collapse at high rpm. The next most common area for kinks would be the two hoses exiting pump and running to block. Hard to see when installed in car but you can check by using mirror or feeling entire line when cool.

3. I've heard that a 50/50 mix of antifreeze/water does not cool as well as when running with less antifreeze. Pretty cheap and easy to try. You could drain two gallons of what your running and add fresh distilled water, purge system of air several times and see what happens. This would be a good time to use a flush kit as mentioned above.

4. You may have a damaged water pump impeller (pitched a blade) if you run a thermostat without addition of bleed holes. The bleed holes releave pressure at pump (protect impeller) while thermostat is closed. Renegade warns against operating engine over 2000 rpm until it begins to warm up.........this is without the bleed hole mod.. Checking for a thrown blade would be the last thing to try due to the level of effort required to disassemble pump.

5. You mentioned no air in system. What are you running for a recovery tank? Does the level in tank return to the same spot after a full cool down (overnight)? If not, your loosing water somewhere. If your sure there are no external leaks, it's time to test with pressure. Rent a cooling system leak tester and attempt to run down source of engine leak. Double check for external leaks with leak tester prior to checking anything else. As mentioned earlier, the hoses at front of engine cannot be seen very well. Check this area good while at pressure.

A blown head gasket or leak between intake to heads are the most common. A chocolate milk colored film on dip stick would indicate a on going leak of system. I have seen internal leaks that did not show this milky substance on dipstick.........probably due to the leak being new. If you can't hold pressure on test device (20 lbs. for 10 minutes is what I remember as a good test), you could drain oil from pan and pull all spark plugs. Leave drain pan plug out and again pressure test system. Water seen coming from oil pan plug or any of the cylinders would help pin point problem area.

6. A different rated pressure cap is easy to try. Renegade recommends a 16lb. cap for their system. If your using another cooling system, you'll just have to experiment.

7. Backing off timing is worth a try as mentioned by someone else.

8. Have you ever had air/fuel ratio checked? A lean mixture may cause engine to run hot. I had mine tested while on dyno to verify ratio was right throughout rpm range.

Is this something that just came about and have you operated car at your current ambient temperature before? If it all of a sudden occured, I'd go after thermostat and a pressure test.

Where is water temperature sender located? (heads, block, intake, other)

How dependable is your temperature measuring device (gage)? A second gage and sender is recommended.

Are you sure your water pump belt is not slipping?

Provide the diameter of your water pump pulley. There seems to be a couple different sizes being sold for conversion kits. The smaller one would provide more flow.

Are your water hoses routed in longs. or down center of chassis?

What size is your inlet to radiator? My hole is measured at 4" x 20" (80 sq. in.). It is recommended to have twice the outlet size as compared to inlet. Is the radiator sealed with a shroud? ie, inlet and outlet provide forced air through radiator and not allow air to escape through openings at any side, top or bottom.

A indicator of fan status is recommended (on/off light). The fans don't do much good over 40mph but you want to make sure they are cutting on when speeds are lower than this. You want to make sure fans turn on at about 175-180F as measured at radiator. You could have a situation where fans turn on too late and the system can never catch up.

Which water pump are you using? The Simpson is rumored to have a smaller inlet to pump as compared to what Renegade sells.

That's about all I can offer this early Sunday morning. Just as a comparision, my car runs @ 170-180 in traffic and about the same at sustained highway speed at 80 mph. With the recent addition of a/c, my in town temps. will go to 200F with near 90F weather, with highway temps. remaining at 170-180F.

John