Overheated 604

Just ran a race last night on a hammer down 3/8 mile track. Water temps were hovering around 250 for half of the race (about 10-12laps). The last two or three laps temperature started climbing and started pushing water the last lap. Pulled in and oil temperature gauge was pegged 300+ and water temp 270-280. Car was still running (no chirps or squeaks) and couldn’t find the water in the infield for over a minute. Finally got some water on the radiator and got the temp down but concerned we hurt something given the oil temps. What are things to check? Leak down? Compression check? Send to a certified engine builder for health check of bearings/pistons/ring? Sell it and move on? Lol Never had an overheating problem before tonight. E85. GM 19” fan and shroud. Double bypass radiator. Car was so fast we just couldn’t help ourselves. Started 12th in a 23 car field and finished second against a bunch of super late models. Only guys making to top work. Nose was sealed off so well...likely our issue. Appreciate any help in advance.

"For sale. Good crate. 10 races. Never hot. Don't really need to sell, but sponsor bought us a new one and we already have 3."

not sure what you have going wrong but our normal set up is a 15" 2 blade fan at 30% reduction and a 205 degree t"stat and we still cannot get water temp
oil temp is a different story --that is relevant to car set up--(tight car --high temp) but water is still low temp

Brad
www.race-1.com

Thanks, Brad. I failed to mention in my original post that we were bumping the chip just going into the corner for the last 10 laps or so. Once we cleaned off the top it got faster. Maybe getting ignition cut two or three times before getting into the corner. Driver said he was only lifting 30% at most when he hit some holes but was back to full throttle thereafter. He estimated full throttle 90-95% of the time and car was hooked up. Nose was sealed off all the way around the track. Never really had any issues with overheating until this race. Using a KRC serpentine setup with tensioner so don’t think the fan was slipping. There were about 4 or 5 other crate cars in the race and they all overheated as well. Some worse than us by the not-so-good sounds coming from their engine.

Brad, what do we need to evaluate on the engine? Or is it permanently and irreversibly hurt?

I would do a leak down---not compression test but an actual leak down
remove the rockers and put each piston at TDC (put the car in gear and the piston should stay in position)
Do NOT put a carb hat on the carburetor---cover it with a paper towel
perform the leak down and repeat any cylinders that seem high
evaluate where the leakage is in every cylinder and how much then we can determine the status

also you can send an oil sample to evaluate metal wear---it's really cheap we do it often

Brad
www.race-1.com