Big Block Question

[marshmaster pat]

Know some guys with a 454 on a Panther that have a occasional problem. When run hard, it appears that an air bubble is created in the intake manifold. After a while the motor starts running warm. There is a pipcock valve on the manifold that you can open to let the air out, top off the radiator and she is good to go. She looses a little water from the radiator when run normally, but cannot tell if that is just from unseen little leaks or something else.

Saw it on a few 350s when I was running seismic 10 years ago, just regularly cracked the valve to let any air out and topped off the radiator. Never had a serious problem, but theirs seems to be getting worst.

Any Ideas - is this a head gasket problem?

 

[kb27_99]

We drill a 1/16 hole in the base of the thermostat, it helps this problem. It allows all the air trapped to bypass the thermostat and escape to the reservoir.



Kevin

 

[Bigfun]

I have a ZZ4 and did several hours on dry ground, marsh with no water, yesterday and never had a problem. I have (2) 1/16" holes in my thermostat

 

[cntry141iq]

I run a restrictor ring intead of a thermostat. If you dont want to buy the ring set just take a screwdriver and knock the guts out of the thermostat and put it back an it works fine. The roundy round guys do this all the time and those motors are wide open from start to finish at rpms that we dont even come close too well most of us anyways.

 

[c chardt]

WE don't run t- sats every one I know takes the t stat and cuts the bottom off and you just use the housing so it will slow the water down. I run a 350 with no t stat just the housing and my boat never ever gets over 160 no matter how hard I run it dry, or in the water it can sit an idle for hours and never gets hot.