hot hot engine

[fireguyfire]

Playing with my rebuilt 383 and making final adjustments, and I notice that the engine gets extremely hot in a hurry; the water pump gets so hot you can barely touch it, but the radiator seems cool; I have a brand new aluminum radiator, new hoses, new thermostat, everything. When running I squeezed both the upper and lower hose and it doesnt feel like there is fluid moving; if so, not much.(the water pump is good too). Could I have a air lock? How can I trouble shoot this overheating problem? Could it be a faulty thermostat?
If I pull the thermostat out should I normally feel coolant moving through both hoses even at idle? I dont want to play with anything else until I fix this problem; don't want to cook anything, but literally in a matter of 5 minutes at idle you can feel the engine getting way too hot.
How can I assure I have proper coolant flow?

[Cooter]

How hot is it?
Raytec later the engine and see how hot it is.

[fireguyfire]

Hot means way too hot like you can feel the radiant heat off the engine. I should also mention that the dash temp gauge register low normal until I kill it because I can tell it is way too hot and then it jumps way up.
Suggestions?

[Cooter]

Again, get you one of those lazer thermometers and hit the block.
the gauges suck for accuracy in these cars.

[XH29N0G]

I would trust your intuition and check the temp where you think it is hot. 

Also, is it moving water into the radiator?  If I put a thermometer (like for checking bbq) in my radiator, I can see the thermostat open. 

[fireguyfire]

I actually saw heat waves coming off the water pump/ engine front area after 10 minutes of idling.
How can I test to make sure coolant is moving through the rad and the engine?

[cudaken]

I am with Cooter, shoot it with a thermal gun! Have you up graded to headers during this rebuild?

Cuda Ken

[XH29N0G]

Thermal gun to check temp.  If water is moving to the rad then the radiator temperature will rise.  It rises quickly as soon as the valve opens.  The T gauge on my dash also drops when it opens.

[Dino]

Remove the thermostat, start the car and remove the radiator cap.  You should see water flowing.  If not then you could either have a plugged passageway or you bought a new water pump that is not doing the job.  Did you flush the system?

[firefighter3931]

It sounds like the thermostat isn't opening. Check for coolant flow by starting the engine with the rad cap off and let it warm up. When the stat opens you will see coolant flowing across the top of the rad. When you increase engine speed the flow should increase as well. 

Ron

[rt green]

you dont have one of those 440 source aluminum water pump housings do you?

[fireguyfire]

Nope; shes a 383 with a stock water pump

[myk]

You've got to verify that coolant is flowing into the radiator; like Dino suggested, take out the t-stat, run the car and see if there's flow, and/or laser the 'rad with an infrared 'thermo to see a 'temp change...