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While talking about a cooling problem, a BBC owner chimed in he replace his good thermostat with a stainless steel washer called a restrictor plate. Same OD as stat and a 5/8 hole in the middle. He claims all his cooling issues went away. Said it slowed down the water flow which allowed radiator to cool fluid more before going back into engine. Anyone else try this?

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I would think a properly working thermostat would accomplish the same thing

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If you have a cooling problem you want to flow more water, not less.

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and so do the Nascar Stewart water pump people. the arguement that slowing the flow lets it have more time to cool doesn't hold water because the opposite if one block of water leaves the rad quicker (not cooled as much) then the next block enters faster (& get started cooling quicker) so it reaches an equilibrium whereas slowing the total flow would counteract that & make it run hot if you went too slow with the water speed. On the street you need a stat to close it for faster warmups as until then wear is vastly increased and for atomization also during warmup (for mileage and for puddling of raw fuel that washes rings). Water restrictors are for circle track engines that are already warmed up & I'd think they would keep the temp from dropping too low but unless chebby's have EXTEREMELY efficient block/head cooling I cant see that being the case but I dont know everything and Mopar SB circle track engines will only run too cool if the head/block passages/wp/timing cover/pulley ratio (in other words everything) are modified which lets me run a smaller rad (less front weight which is ALWAYS welcome). Can be easily done but as is OE needs work EDIT with more thought I think they sell the plates to restrict flow so the water will have more time to cool & speedway motors (chebby circle track heaven) is a mile away from me and they sell them but I dont buy the theory but they've forgotten more tech than I know (or will ever know) so.....

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This was trick we used on circle track cars where the rpm's were in the 6's all the time. Chevy water pumps really have a probem with cavitation and slowing the flow down helped keep them cool.

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