Car runs without fan...

[steven566]

I have hardly ever needed to use the fan on my car. When I did use it, it vibrated the shroud to pieces, but that's a different story. The water temp gauge usually reads 180 and the oil temps is about the same. If I let the car idle, it goes up to about 200, even in the summer, with no fan.

I'm going to check the temperature of the water with an IR thermometer next time I run the car, and make sure the gauges are accurate.

The car has a supercharged 302.

Does this seem right for a high performance engine?

I was under the impression that you wanted to run the engine a little hotter to make it more efficient, not that there's anything efficient about the car.

I don't really know, as I have never build or designed an engine before.

Any thoughts?