Well...finally got a good chance to cruise the Arrow today and see where the temp is going to level off at. Its about 80-82 I guess today and stop and go traffic in town it would get to about 205 and then drop to 190-195 when cruising. I cooled it off and then decided to meet my wife for lunch, took the car into town it got to about 185 and parked, I didnt want to leave the fan and water pump running so shut it all down. When I came back out after about 30-40 minutes the temp was still about 160 and it had a puddle under the car.
It was a little slow to start, turned over fine, but just didnt want to fire, almost acted like it was flooded, I held the throttle wide open, cranked it and finally it fired off and ran fine. Drove home to get the hood off and find water peeing out from a freeze plug. It will be easy enough to change it after I get the front tire and the header off.

Here's my question...
Why? Other than just a bad freeze plug installation. I never like to just turn one off hot with out the water pump and fan to keep going until it cools, but, we do it all the time in our daily drivers my truck runs all day at 195 and I'll shut it off and walk away after driving 4 hrs. I have a closed system on the cooling system for recovery with an 18 PSI recovery radiator cap. I may just be paranoid but, I just ordered a Moroso thermostatic switch, I'm going to wire the water pump and the fan to, it comes on @ 160 and off @ 140, this I hope will help, just more wiring I need to add to the car.

Any thoughts?

What stat is in it... did you make a shroud

I was shopping for fans today..I think I may relocate the trans cooler to the rear of the car and then put dual pusher fans on the front of the radiator, but my question is how much CFM is the minimum possibly required? This may solve my space problem between the radiator and the engine.

How big is the radiator

Freeze plugs usually don't care how hot the motor gets, they will expand more than iron. I have been battling freeze plug and head gasket leak problems for several years now, I haven't solved everything, but I carry rubber spares and check them often. The main culprits are the 4 in the iron heads. I have learned to stake them when installing them, only one failure since I started doing that.

You might want to check for compression in your cooling system, I always thought that was my problem, but my cylinders are good.

Dave its a real grill, Mike the radiator over all is 31 x 19, core is 27 x 19. I wasnt aware that pushers were that much more inefficient than pullers.

I was concerned about cylinders leaking but its really not pushing water.

Well, I sorta have my freeze plug issue figures out for the moment atleast. Thanks to Mr.P body, Advance has the plugs on order, cant get them until Monday; but I have a temporary fix in place.

I put a switch in the cooling system so I can park the car and turn it all off and walk away, but keep the fan and water pump running, it opens @ 160 and closes @ 140 degrees. Drove the car this morning, with out the front end on it so it took longer to warm up, finally got it to read 160, then came back to the house and let it idle until the gauge read 180. I put a thermometer in the radiator and it was only right @ 162 degrees. I shut the car off and the fan and water pump continued to run as planned. I kept the thermometer in the radiator until everything shut down, it was right at 140 degrees, but the gauge in the car was still at 160. I understand I am not using calibrated equipment, and also the fact that the water has passed through the cooling fins with the fan running, but the switch operated right at the advertised temps and the gauge in the car was still 20 degrees higher.
Should I replace the gauge? Or just keep in mind it reads a bit higher than actual temp?

I'm still working on engineering a fan shroud.

I still have not put a thermostat in it, I broke the t-stat housing I had (not a Mopar piece) and bought the Summit swivel housing, works OK but its engineered for another brand and will not fit my t-stat. I need to find a swivel housing that will work on the aluminum housing and use the Mopar t-stat, or find out if a GM t-stat will work in my housing. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
John

I mark on my gauges where it should be (for the operating
pressure or temp). If you open the back of the gauge
yours might be adjustable to set the zero... set it to
your thermometer reading. The stat, a GM should be fine,
drill some holes in it

John,
I use water wetter or that royal purple water treatment..It makes about a 10-15* difference.

I have seen many manual(non electric) aftermarket temperature gauges read high like yours, Autometer, Stewart Warner, Autogauge and so on. A freind of mine is having the same problem as you are right now with his gauge reading around 35F high at low temps, 100F actual reads 140F and it gets closer when it gets warmer, 160F actual reads 180F on the gauge in the car(verifying with a infra red hand held and several good quality industrial thermometers So much for good quality American made gauges

Made some changes in the cooling system, I installed an t-stat housing with the radiator cap on the top to make sure I can get all the air out. I looked every which way to install a shroud, there just isn't enough room up front. I did do some sheet metal work and boxed in the radiator with the grill and installed a different trans cooler so to not obstruct the radiator. With rad boxed in I can place a sheet of paper on the grill with the fan running and it sticks so I have good flow. I had a 15 degree drop in temp. I cruised around town (about 85+ degrees today)and the temp never got over 185 in heavy stop and go traffic, just cruising it it stays right @ 170. So I'm happy!!!

Now I just have to chase down a darn trans leak. I bought one of the good gaskets from the dealership, I have the MP deep stamped steel pan and it still leaks. I'm going to order a deep cast pan and try the gasket with it and see if that makes a difference. Thanks to all that provided opinions and advice!!!
John