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Matt I am hoping that you will be adding the disc brakes to your car this year. I too am interested in using the same set up on mine. Do you intend to use a front disc only arrangement? Or are you planning on going fast and needing four wheel discs?
Out of curiosity, has your engine temp shown a tendacy to drop with the cooler ambient air temps of winter? We talked some about that before but have never really followed through to a conclusion as to what the source of the higher than normal temps was. Best of luck. Bob Ingman

Ill have the SoCal disc brakes on within the next month. Ill keep you posted. Front disc only, Im keeping rear drums, at least for the time being. Im thinking that will be enough brake for my car; front disc, rear drum.

In relation to my engine temps, yes they have dropped with the cooler weather. I havent driven her lately, but I did notice quite a difference once the temps cooled off. I think the biggest source of my heat was 8.2:1 CR with stock cam, stock heads, stock intake. Dropping that down to 7.57.1 with .040" copper head gaskets(shims) seemed to make a noticable difference. Ive now added 1.4 ratio rockers and Im considering removing the .040" copper. The combination of the coppers and the 1.4s seems to have taken some poop out of the stock parts 1776 engine combo. I want some of that kick back.

I was sweating 220-230 oil temp on the freeway at sustained high speeds for 30 minute runs. After reading other peoples experience all over the web, Im now just going to live with it. Also, my bus trans gearing(4.86) with a smaller than ideal tire(27.5" at last measure) is kicking up the RPMs I think. Im finally going to get the tach in real soon too. Ill keep you posted.

Thanks for getting back with us Matt. I`m sure you`re correct in that the front discs will be adequet. I checked with Andy at SoCal and learned that the rear sets are not compatable with aftermarket rear trailing arms.
I once had a 69 KG convertable and installed a new from crate 74 Calif 1600 dp engine. The only change made to the engine after removing smog (excuse me , emmissions) devices was to fly cut the heads. Being young and inexperienced I removed entirely too much metal boosting the CR to about 10.5:1. The engine ran strong but required avgas to eliminate pinging. My point is that even though I lived in a very hot area the car never ran hot. A stock engine with very high comp and no excessive temps. But then too the weights and aerodynamics of the two cars are vastly different. My gut feeling is still that an increase in oil volume will help aleviate the symptoms. Perhaps not a cure but the same as. Put a pan of oil on the stove and turn on the burner. Measure temp when it hits max and holds steady. Now increase the volume of oil without increasing the heat and you will see that the same amount of heat will no longer produce the same temp in the oil. So perhaps an external filter/cooler combined with a deep sump will be enough of a volumetric increase to drop temps into a cooler zone. Probably worth experimenting with. I like your use of ratio rockers though. If that is working for you then all the better.
Yes by all means please update us when the SoCal disc kit is in place. Best of luck. Bob Ingman

matt,

220 on the highway is not so bad, depending on your rpms. if you are getting up that high at under 3400 i would be worried, but you are probably well over that, yes?

oil temps are completely rpm dependent, as rpms rise, so too do oil temps.

so long as they stay at that level i would say you are on the borderline of optimum, optimum being 180-210. if you were seeing temps over 230 consistently, then i would look into making some changes.

scott lyons