This may help out if you are thinking of converting your V8 from raw water cooled to Glycol cooled.
After having to replace two cylinder heads and fresh water circulating pump etc I decided to convert the engine to fresh water cooled full system. I will add at this point I didn’t replace manifolds and elbows etc as they were only about 2 years old. I did check them for blockages and water flow and they seemed fine.
At the time I didn’t realise the thermostat that came with the heat exchanger was a 170 degree one. It’s recommended to use a 160 degree for these engines. V8 5.7 MPI.
I did end up with an overheat issue. The manifolds were getting a bit hot and caused a full vaporisation problem with Fuel filter and pumps located near right manifold. It’s raw water cooled and also had a blockage that wasn’t showing up in full raw water system due cooler manifold temperatures.
A long story short have converted engine back to half cooled, new thermostat for right heat range, replaced manifolds and elbows but now they are running on salt water, engine on glycol through heat exchanger. Working well now. It’s easy enough to use a full system heat exchanger and convert to a half system. If engine was new as well as manifolds etc and thermostat was correct would have been a better outcome.
After having to replace two cylinder heads and fresh water circulating pump etc I decided to convert the engine to fresh water cooled full system. I will add at this point I didn’t replace manifolds and elbows etc as they were only about 2 years old. I did check them for blockages and water flow and they seemed fine.
At the time I didn’t realise the thermostat that came with the heat exchanger was a 170 degree one. It’s recommended to use a 160 degree for these engines. V8 5.7 MPI.
I did end up with an overheat issue. The manifolds were getting a bit hot and caused a full vaporisation problem with Fuel filter and pumps located near right manifold. It’s raw water cooled and also had a blockage that wasn’t showing up in full raw water system due cooler manifold temperatures.
A long story short have converted engine back to half cooled, new thermostat for right heat range, replaced manifolds and elbows but now they are running on salt water, engine on glycol through heat exchanger. Working well now. It’s easy enough to use a full system heat exchanger and convert to a half system. If engine was new as well as manifolds etc and thermostat was correct would have been a better outcome.