I have a 70 454 with AC and the fan shroud does not cover the entire radiator, I was told by yearone that this is how it was delivered from the factory, can anyone confirm this, about the shroud. Can anyone suggest a source for a shroud that will cover the entire radiator?

I am having over heating problems or I have bad temp gauge, running about 235 when it's 75 degrees outside.

Ruti

What part of the radiator isn't covered? All I've seen are pretty much covered.

More importantly, has the system been flushed and the thermostat replaced lately? Does it have a clutch fan(that works)? Where's the temp sensor, in the head or intake?

The drivers side of the radiator is outside the shroud by about 6 inches, the outside of the shroud is a thin platic piece that runs from top to bottom. The whole engine in new including the cooling system just replaced the fan clutch which was just fine oops dont know where the sensor is will look in the sunlight.

Well, here's what the shroud should look like

http://www.carsinc.com/chevy/1964_1977_chevelle/classic_parts/935/part/14069

The temp sensor will give better readings in the intake. Water is flowing better there and gives a truer indication of the water temp than in the head where you can have a hot spot.

If the shroud is not covering the radiator completely, it will run hotter than it should. The hotter the weather, the hotter the engine will run. A cooling system in otherwise perfect working condition will not cool an engine without a good shroud.

I had a neighbor whose Dodge truck ran hot regardless of what he did. In desperation, he fabricated a sheet metal shroud (he worked in a sheet metal shop). It came in two pieces - a right half and a left half. We installed the left side then the right side. There was overlap at the top and bottom so we connedted the two pieces with sheet metal screws to minimize air leaks. The shroud was too shallow (the fan did not go into the opening far enough) so we had to install one of those extension spacers on the water pump shaft to move the fan far enough into the opening to pull all the air through the cooling fins. That solved the problem.

You will need to install a shroud that covers all the cooling fins of the radiator.

My radiator guy told me that overheating was common to the big block cars and that the fix was to install a 3" core radiator. That's what my '70 SS 396 has. The tag on the radiator says 1974. That is when the change was made.

My 305 came from the factory with a 3 core radiator. It's cooling capacity, during the hottest part of the summer, while towing my boat leaves something to be desired. The temp can get up to 220 at sustained highway speeds. Otherwise it cools fine. For that reason, if I were to replace my radiator, I would spend a few extra dollars and get a 4 core unit just for the extra cooling capacity. You might consider doing the same. It's not much extra money.