Good luck with the tax lady 190 is not an issue, especially with the AC on that’s damn good! 200 isn’t a worry either 210 is fine 220 eh it’s getting warm Put a 180 thermostat in it.
Ok sounds good. Got to get rid of that HD fan clutch. I bought a Buick NOT an airplane. I might try a flex fan blade just to see what the noise level turns out to be. Seems the lesser of money output. I hate to have the old fan clutch reinstalled.
Flex fans are garbage too. When you say “old fan clutch” you mean original?? If it is the original replace it with a new standard duty clutch. Are you having issues with temps just at idle or while your cruising?
The shop replaced my "original" Buick clutch fan with a HD model clutch fan. (1) Because the mechanic thought 190 water temp while cruising with A/C running was too high and feared that it would get worse over time and in traffic. (2) When I drove the Buick, with the HD model, the water temp never got above 160, "GREAT". (3) However, the noise from the HD fan increased 3-fold, way too loud inside the driver/passenger compartment. You might as well not turn on the radio. (4) What I want the shop to do, is reinstall my "original" clutch fan. I can live with water temp at 190. (5) To prove my point, I just purchased a Decibel Meter so I can prove the HD clutch fan is a lot louder than my original fan. I'm tired of mechanics telling me it's not that bad. Now you know the whole story, as Paul Harvey would say.
190 IS NOT too hot. IIRC, the factory setting for the temp light to turn on was around 250 degrees. Your HD fan clutch MAY be defective. I had a ‘75 Electra 455 I towed my 24 foot Sea Ray back in the day, I had installed a fan clutch for a Dodge with a Cummins diesel, it acted/ sounded normal until the clutch engaged, which would happen on a long upgrade, all of a sudden you’d hear it roar, the it felt like the engine lost 20 hp. Also if your thermostat is a 160 and your running 190 that tells me your radiator is plugged/dirty
Well, very interesting. Roar, that's the word I was looking for. I did have the radiator drained and new coolant/water added,, I never asked if it was cleaned. I did find a receipt from the previous owner that his mechanic said there is a major water temp heat problem. He also had major detonation problems and I thought that was the cause. I had a friend drive the car and he said he could smell octane booster. I assume he was using octane booster to help minimize the detonation issue. He also had the distributer rebuilt because it was set completely wrong by someone else. Mechanic said it's total advance was set to 42 degrees when he started to rebuild it and reset it to 35 degrees. I had it changed over to a MSD system. No more detonation. My mechanic said the previous mechanic used springs that were too light and cause the distributor to advance way to early. You can see I've had some serious problems trying to get the 455 back to specs. Defective clutch fan, that never occurred to me. I did have a new Qjet defective right out of the box one time. Thank you for this trouble shooting advice, I will be looking into the defective clutch fan and ask if the radiator was cleaned. VET