Picked up a set of ceramic coated headers at the swap meet today for $200. Not the ones I originally planned on, but I can't pass up a deal. Got a tank I'm thinking I can use for my air cleaner idea. Reckon I'll get busy.

 

Sorry but that's not the car/engine.
It was the Chevy Corvair
http://mikescorvairparts.com/product...roducts_id=559

 

Your moving forward, that's progress.

 

Made some good progress on the electrical box today. Got the motor mounts painted and installed on the subframe. Cleaned up and painted a few other brackets. Coming along nicely

 

So am I crazy for thinking the stock radiator will be sufficient for cooling this small block since everything is open?

 

Yes! Get a larger rad

 

You are indeed crazy thinking that a stock HHR rad would work. The heat transfer is barely enough for 4 cylinders.

I am no physicist, but just eyeballing the difference I can tell.

Are you planning to change the fuel delivery system? I'm not sure how a carb is going to handle fairly high pressure no return.

 

My reasoning was radiator size, and ability to dissipate heat. A sbc in an enclosed engine compartment with exhaust manifolds requires x amount of radiator to cool. That same small block sitting in the open air with headers is much mire efficient at dissipating heat. The factory core in the radiator for my 305 in a 78 Chevy pickup measures 26"x17"x1.25". The HHR radiator measures 22"x18"x1". I assume 30 years of radiator technology would give the newer radiator better efficiency. My plan is to buy a new aluminum radiator from summit for about $150, and use the electric fan from the HHR. Figured I would get some opinions

 

I'm gonna run a fuel cell. I'll use the mechanical fuel pump on the engine to run this carb. 40psi would probably blow the top off the carb Im keeping all my fuel system components for when I do upgrade to fuel injection.

 

Not so much the size of the radiator but it's capacity. And if you go with a larger surface area/capacity radiator, you'll probably need something better than the HHR's fan.