440 of unknown origin in a '70 Barracuda gets HOT! Engine was pulled from mid '70s truck 15+ years ago and installed into the car (originally a 318 car, prior owner swapped in a 440 also but kept it upon sale).
Has a flex fan and upper half of a generic chrome shroud.Fan is half in/half out of shroud. Night time drive to "operating" temp in 67° weather results in the following (infrared temp sensor):
Thermostat housing 207°
Rad next to upper hose 220°
Rad next to lower hose 190°
Got on freeway for an easy 2 miles at 60mph. Checked again on the offramp and basically no change to temps.

Normally I'd suspect the cheesy fan/shroud arrangement but because the increased air through the rad had no effect I'm thinking the old radiator is not up to par.
Thoughts?

Sounds like it has a 195 thermostat in it. Thermal efficiency is 210. Hot would be 230 to 240 degrees. Looks like the fan and radiator are doing their job. Take the thermostat down to 180 if it bothers you.

Yep - 30 degree drop from the rad sounds pretty good

Suggest you install an accurate water temp gauge. A low cost auto parts store mechanical gauge would be fine. Measuring water temp directly is much more accurate than a temp gun on metal surfaces.

Also, for a short test, remove the thermostat and try again and see how it does. Agree the highway test pretty much takes the fan and shroud out of the picture.

Okay, thanks all for putting my mind at ease. I owned this car many,many years ago and just got it back last weekend. Trying to enjoy it for a bit before it goes into storage for the winter (where I'll do some upgrades).
I guess my mind was locked into thinking "180 thermostat" and all these figures were too high for that. I was seriously in panic mode thinking the coolant entering the block was hotter than the thermostat setting! It didn't help that I can open the hood after casual driving and watch the fuel disappear from the filter in a matter of minutes. Heck, even the key is very warm when I pull it out of the ignition switch.

" fuel disappear from the filter in a matter of minutes"

Your fuel filter is boiling fuel?? i

Sounds too hot to me.

Some folks forget that if the fuel mixture is lean then the motor will make too much heat.

With today's ethanol fuel I can promise you, your car is running leaner than if it was running 100% gas. Then if you have stock jetting... or a "mileage carb"...it's lean under load in many cases.

Also I can promise you if you rich en it up it will run cooler.

Also the flex fan and poor shroud can easily cause it to get hot at idle. On the highway usually is jetting.

Always run a thermostat, 180 or 195 even better. I have run both with no trouble and favoring the 180 thermo for my cars.

It's not physically "boiling" but a 3/4 full filter at shutoff will be down to just a little dribble in the bottom after about 5 minutes. It's mounted horizontal above the intake/valve cover so it's not like it can drain back down to the pump. Plus the fuel level winds up lower than the inlet/outlet ports so it seems to be going somewhere. This is what I attribute to the "hard hot start after sitting more than a couple minutes".

As for running lean, I'll pull the plugs and see how they look. Car idles good and has no noticeable stumbles during driving but it's no torque monster either.

Thanks for all the input guys, I'm open to all suggestions.

I have a BB and re routed my fuel line... filter is low coming off the fuel pump (down by the corner of rad area).. then running a fuel line up the side wall, on the ledge and then straight into the carb... never going near the block... should try it.. doesn't cost much to modify BUT YOU GET HUGH POSITIVE RESULTS in your performance... get nice cool fuel into the carb

I'd confirm as said actual water temp. toss stat for a day (wont hurt anything). see if it runs hot at a lower (medium) speed tho a 30 deg drop pretty much elims the radiator. (do this before you pull the stat). timing/mixture in the ballpark I am assuming. this might be a stretch, pulling the freeze plugs & blasting it out with a car wash wand might be needed.