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Bored&Stroked · 05-25-2020, 08:10 PM

Hey Tim: Something to think about is not only flow, but where does the flow actually go to pull the heat out of the block.

In the 49-53 block design they deliberately put the LARGER water jacket holes at the rear of the block. From what I gather and in thinking about it, this was do give the water a better chance of flowing to the BACK of the block to pull some of the extra heat out of the rear cylinders (which tend to run hot).

So - one could also ponder how much water do we want to let out of the middle of the water jackets - versus maybe a better distribution to the rear of the block (in the 39-48 blocks). Is letting too much of it out "early" a good thing or not? (Don't know).

Obviously I have not done any scientific testing (with various deck/gasket combinations), but I do believe it is a good thing to try to get the cooler water from the front of the engine to the rear. In some big HP race engines, they put water manifolds down at the base of the block (above the pan rails) to deliberately direct water flow to the back of the block. Another method was to put a sort of "water tube" inside the block that was fed up by the water pump - to have a special flow to the rear of the block.

So - letting too much of the cool water out the middle of the block MAY actually NOT be a good thing (again, never tested by me and probably nobody else alive that I know - other than maybe Pete!). I am more inclined to expand the water holes at the rear of a 39-48 block - to try to get more water flow from the back of the block . . .

05-25-2020, 08:10 PM	#18
Bored&Stroked Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Central Ohio Posts: 5,062	Re: Would You Use it? Hey Tim: Something to think about is not only flow, but where does the flow actually go to pull the heat out of the block. In the 49-53 block design they deliberately put the LARGER water jacket holes at the rear of the block. From what I gather and in thinking about it, this was do give the water a better chance of flowing to the BACK of the block to pull some of the extra heat out of the rear cylinders (which tend to run hot). So - one could also ponder how much water do we want to let out of the middle of the water jackets - versus maybe a better distribution to the rear of the block (in the 39-48 blocks). Is letting too much of it out "early" a good thing or not? (Don't know). Obviously I have not done any scientific testing (with various deck/gasket combinations), but I do believe it is a good thing to try to get the cooler water from the front of the engine to the rear. In some big HP race engines, they put water manifolds down at the base of the block (above the pan rails) to deliberately direct water flow to the back of the block. Another method was to put a sort of "water tube" inside the block that was fed up by the water pump - to have a special flow to the rear of the block. So - letting too much of the cool water out the middle of the block MAY actually NOT be a good thing (again, never tested by me and probably nobody else alive that I know - other than maybe Pete!). I am more inclined to expand the water holes at the rear of a 39-48 block - to try to get more water flow from the back of the block . . .