Overheating

Hi Gary from sunny AZ I have the 63 skylark 215 aftermarket AC duel electric fans, m. y problem is the car gets warm when I use the AC. By warm I mean up around 200 /210. Is there anything else I can do because I would love to drive this car anytime? any and all help would be appreciated.

What temp is your thermostat? If it is 195* try the 165* to allow flow earlier. Are you using a shroud? If not that may help as well to direct air flow thru your rad.

Yeah I have a 165* thermostat, 2 electric fans that cover the back of the radiator. No room for a shroud, bought an extra hood and cut holes in it to let the heat out. It still wants to get hot when I tur the AC on. I just keep plugging away at it.

What condition is your radiator? Did you take it to a shop and get a flow test? Get it cleaned out?
-New rads are available.

Are you sure your thermostat is opening?
-I use a high flow Robert Shaw thermostat. Same as the high flow Mr Gasket, Stewart engineering.

I had an heating up problem and turned out to be a VERY stubborn Air Pocket in the system.
-Make sure you go through multiple air bleed cycles. If after running coolant is lower the system either isn't fully purged or you have a leak to combustion somewhere.

Have you checked to make sure you don't have a leak from combustion.
-If so I would likely get hotter and hotter and not stabilize, also should see it in rad, or do a CO test of the coolant.

Dual fans but what is your air flow?
-That old fashion 4 blade fan pulls a lot of air, much more than your electric fans probably.

Fans do nothing when the car is being driven at speed. Air movement through the rad is taken care of by movement of the car at about 30mph and up.
-Are you heating up going slow through town or at speed on the road?

How do you know you are heating up to 210?
-Assume you have someone's gauge?
-I had a faulty Stewart Warner sending unit that was 30 degrees off to the high side!
-Get the Ohm reading for your gauge and see if it's in spec.
-Confirmed actual temp with my DVOM with temp probe. Klien about $40.
-Tuck the probe up between the hose and thermostat housing for a good reading out of air flow. Once thermostat opens you will see coolant temp.

Where are you taking the temp from?
-Stock location by replacing the stock probe?
-That's a good spot. The probe MUST be in the FLOW of coolant for an accurate reading.
-I tapped the top of the intake manifold just behind the thermostat and put my gauge probe there. Left the stock probe in place so I have a gauge and orig light.
-Not sure when stock light comes on but I think it's up around 220 or so.

Good luck

A couple things. 1) 200 to 210 is fine wrt overheating as long as your system holds pressure. 15psi on 50% coolant has a boiling point of much higher than that. 2) I advocate for the 195 thermostat as the engine runs better at this than 165 IMO. As long as the engine temp is higher than the thermostat, it should be 'open' anyway and not actually 'causing' the higher temp.

If the flow rate across the radiator is not adequate, it will get hotter than the rating on the thermostat. Clogged tubes is how it reduces flow rate. If it is not a new radiator, it probably has clogged tubes, IMO.

My history with my car (Al 215), I have always used the engine driven fan w/o a clutch and had until recently, the old radiator design, but with 3 rows. I have often seen its temp higher than the thermostat rating when sitting in traffic on my mechanical SW gage, but when moving it always dropped back down to the thermostat rating. I always thought home made shroud would help this but never tried.
When I installed the cross flow 'cutlass style' radiator I got from @62cutlassconvert it was a huge change. Even without a shroud it *always* runs at the thermostat rating. Sitting in traffic in 95 degree heat, no problem, no worries. That is my recommendation. It was not a difficult install.

Glad the rad worked out so well Keith. That is a custom rad made by US Radiator to my specs .
I put an alum rad in from Northern Rad which works very well also. There is a post in here somewhere showing my install

I put aftermarket AC in. so I can't use the old style fan. I have a champion 3 row aluminum rad with 2 Spal fans 11" 1300 cfm puller, and not much room between the fans and the engine. The engine is pretty much covered with fan, no room for a shroud. I put some aluminum pieces in the front too direct the air into the rad. I think I had a air pocket in the system, the other day it sucked in some more Evans coolant. I'm trying Evans to see how it works, so far so good, I've lost no coolant. I just keep plugging away at it. I love the car. Some day I'll figure out how to upload more pics. Stay safe.

is that total 1300CFM? That's not very much. Especially with an AC condenser in front of the radiator. The stock fan was well in excess of 2000 I would think.

That radiator should cool it no problem.

You might try a bleed hole in the thermostat. Helps with air pocket/bleeding the system. Sterwart Eng has the Robert Shaw style with or without bleed holes or you can just drill a hole. You checked your thermostat right?

When I drain the system for some reason I refill by pulling the top connection of the heater core hose, fill the system, then top it off into the heater hose and reconnect.

Any better since it took more coolant?

You sure the alum pieces aren't blocking air flow?

Did you see my post on the problems with Evans and the stock heater valves?