So you remember I went through my entire engine bay for the '68, re-doing everything in sight. Stripping, painting, etc...
Well, I was on the freeway doing a debug run on the car when I noticed the temperature slowly climbing. The gauge moved from 50% to 55% to 60%... I was getting worried so I pulled off thinking there was a timing issue generating the heat at speed.
After pulling off the freeway and doing some normal city driving, the temperature continued to rise. Not cool, considering the fact that I also added "Wetter water" to the mix.
I let her cool down for a while, and used side streets to get home... same problem, steadily rising heat.
I got it home, and went through the normal checks, pump flows, thermostat opens, good seal around fan shroud, plenty of coolant, then I see it...
The color of the radiator is the exact same color and shade as the headers! I had mistakenly painted the radiator with high temp ceramic header paint! So what you say? Well, this particular paint is designed to help RETAIN heat in the headers to reduce engine compartment heat. Guess what happens when you put a non thermally conductive paint on a radiator that needs to transfer heat from the fins to the air? Absolutely Nothing!
On the plus side, I now have a 3 row modern radiator instead of the original 37 year old (never re-cored) 2 row that barely functioned in modern traffic.
My knuckles love me...LOOOOVE me...all swollen and bloody. hah!
