several years ago i built my mild 440 in my 1972 dart. I cant drive it in the dead of summer here in TN. because of the rediculous heat and humidity. in normal weather its fine but when its 95 degrees and the humidity is way up, it gets too warm when idling at a stop light and takes it a few seconds to cool down after getting moving again. When its hot out it will go down the road at around 190 degrees but when i come to a light or a stop it will climb up to 220 and even more if i let it. The radiator is the stock one this 1972 dart came with, originally a 318. Its the 22". Also has the stock shroud still on the radiator and i have a 6 bladed flex fan on it with a spacer and it sits about 1 1/2" from the radiator. I dont run a thermostat but i will be getting one in my mission to make this thing run cooler. What else can i do? I dont want to hack up the body to use another radiator or electric fan or whatever. I dont know where to get a smaller water pump pulley,,? Help! I wanna drive this thing more in the summer.

I still use my 22" rad but went with a 3 row high density core. I also use a 7 blade solid fan about 1/2" away from the rad. Engine ran in the 170's, and never overheated until I changed to a 175K converter (2x since then). If I can ever find any spare time I'm going to put in an aftermarket trans cooler and separate the trans cooling from the engine cooling. I've also been told that an air conditioning water pump has more flow but I've never checked into that.
Randy

x2! more rows in the rad and make sure your hoses aren't collapsing.

Better radiator
Thermostat
No flex fan

Read this info.
http://www.waterpumpwarehouse.com/servlet/the-45360/Dodge-A100-318-V8/Detail

Water pump pulley ratio. Water pump MUST turn 15 to 20% faster than crank.

been outside fooling with it, the pulley is about 6", it damn near touches the crank pulley, need a smaller one. today its about 85 degrees out but humidity is very high, it wont get over 210 idling, if i shut it off for a few minutes and then start it back up, it will be around 235 but will drop right back down to 210 after about 5 seconds of it running..

If your crank pulley is 7.25" your 20% overdriven right now & you're good there

What is your engine combo? Timing at idle, etc?

Which pump are you running and which housing?

You have a decent fan and shroud. The WP and fan is turning fast enough.

190 F on a roll is OK... but if its that hot without a thermostat, the radiator is barely keeping up. On steady cruise it should be running a lot cooler than that w/o stat.

You just need more radiator. If you don't want to cut the car for a 26" radiator, you need a really good 22". Depending on the radiator shops in your area, you may be able to get your current radiator re-cored with a high efficinecy 3 core. Or get a high efficiency aluminum. Mancini sells two lines with top tank style - "Muscle Car" and Griffin. I use their "Muscle Car" radiator with good results.

its a mild built 440, 9.4:1, MP 284/484 cam installed 4 degrees advanced, initial timing is 15, The water pump housing is the original one that came on this 1975 440 and i believe the pump is the a/c one, the water pump pulley is about 6 1/4 inches and the crank pulley is 7 1/2". seems like if i could get just a tad more air through the radiator it would work..

you can flow the coolant to the radiator as fast as you want but if it doesn't have the capacity to cool it whats the point. a 22 inch 2 row radiator is not going to cool a big block engine especially when it's hot out. take your radiator to a radiator to a shop and have it re-cored to at least 3 rows.

when measuring the radiator, do we measure just the cooling fin area or the whole thing tanks and all? i measured just the cooling fin area and got 22". What about this one? would it bolt right up and do the job?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ALUMINUM-...=item2566b126d4

core area only. that rad should do the trick but (and this is just me) i would take the one (yours) that you know fits and bolts right in and has the inlet and outlet where you need it to a radiator shop and just have it re-cored. again, that's just me.

heres a 4 row
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-Row-196...=item2c5e873366

i would recore the original but have read on here that its very very expensive, not much funds these days.

i had mine done over 15 years ago (still working great) so i wouldn't know how much it cost today. might be worth a couple of phone calls. and i completely understand about lack of funds!

I would try a mopar clutch fan. They seem to move more air than a flex fan. You could probably find one at a junkyard, and if it doesnt help, atleast you aren't out anything.