Running hot

More information. EXACTLY what aluminum radiator? How many rows? How big are the tubes? What thermostat? 160, 180, 195? Do you have a fan shroud? Are you running more than 50% anti freeze? When does it run hottest, slow speed stop and go, or extended highway speeds? What is your ignition timing, at idle, and at cruise RPM? If you tell me you don't know, I advise you to find out, it's important.

As far as I am concerned, electric fans in front are a big mistake, especially in conjunction with an engine driven fan. The fans in front are restricting air flow through the radiator. Look at the engine in my signature. My engine runs right at 180* with nothing more than a 16 year old 2 row aluminum radiator (1 1/4" tubes), and a stock 18" 7 blade clutch fan and stock fan shroud.

 

OK, I think those fans in front are hurting your air flow. I would run a good clutch fan. Most aftermarket electric fans can't match the OEM stuff, at least that's what I have read lately.

100% water with a corrosion inhibitor will give you the best heat transfer. I like Red Line water wetter,

http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=74&pcid=10

The more anti freeze you run, the worse the heat transfer will be. Of course you will need anti freeze when it gets colder. Blue Devil is a sealer, that won't do any good unless you have a leak somewhere.

Lastly, I think the most misunderstood topic for car enthusiasts is ignition timing. The amount of confusion about this very important part of engine tuning amazes me sometimes. Guys will change virtually everything in an engine, and then look in a book and set the initial timing to stock and call it a day. The only time an engine runs at the initial timing is at idle. As soon as the RPM increases, so should the timing. Mechanical and vacuum advance add ignition timing at higher RPM. What you don't know can hurt you. 4* BTDC is relatively retarded timing. If you idle an engine at 4* BTDC, that alone will cause it to run hotter. What you need to do is get a timing light and find out what the timing is at your cruise RPM. You need to verify that your mechanical advance, and vacuum advance are working, and measure how much advance they are adding. You can't just increase your initial timing without measuring the total timing. All stock distributors have different amounts of mechanical advance built into them. That cannot be easily changed unless you have an aftermarket distributor like an MSD. Back in 2002, I started a thread on ignition timing. It's a long read, but there is alot of good information in it.

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?63475-Power-Timing-your-Buick-V8

Running at 210* is no big deal. That is not overheating. It won't hurt anything. A hotter running engine can be more prone to ping/detonate. In general, you'll want it to run less than 190 for best all around performance.