Is 212 degrees in traffic too hot?

[The70RT]

My 72 Rallye 440 concerns me too.  It will run 180 or 190 for the first 10/20 minutes I drive it and then it slowly creeps up to 220ish.  That's too hot for me.  Plus, under throttle the car starts to ping pretty badly over 200 degrees.

wow, i didnt mention it, but when it gets over 210 degrees it starts running rougher and pinging. I was just chalking that up to bad gas, but it may not be. Mine is doing exactly what yours is doing. If you solve your issue, please let me know what the culprit was.

The temperature of the combustion chamber is probably igniting the fuel and not the spark = predetonation pinging

[FLG]

Is there a shroud on that fan??

I had the same issue back last summer. No shroud, hot day, in traffic it always got too hot. I switched over to an electric fan setup and all my problems went away. It goes to 195, the fans kick on and they drop it down to 180 in no time.

[73TXRallye440]

Is there a shroud on that fan??

I had the same issue back last summer. No shroud, hot day, in traffic it always got too hot. I switched over to an electric fan setup and all my problems went away. It goes to 195, the fans kick on and they drop it down to 180 in no time.

no shroud.

[tan top]

   think the prob might be the closed in engine side of the radiator , the air the in coming air has got no where to go & not cooling as it should be 
       

[Paul G]

  think the prob might be the closed in engine side of the radiator , the air the in coming air has got no where to go & not cooling as it should be 
       

I agree. While idling, no load on the engine that restrictive shroud is barely passing enough air to keep the engine cool. On the highway, high load, engine making a lot of heat that has to be dissapated, that shroud is blocking air flow. It's like trying to suck air through a funnel. It's okay while sitting on the couch, cant get enough air when running a marathon.

I read a thread about shrouds like that a while back. Might have been an C-C board? That shroud looks like it may be a major contributer to the problem.