Bought A 1960. Have Questions

In my personal experience, this usually leads to overheating. YMMV

 

Overheating? Boiling? Or burping coolant?

After only a few minutes?? A leaky head gasket can cause coolant to spew after pressure builds up in the cooling jacket - especially when under load, such as plowing.

 

Severe overheating, boiling over It Will also do it out on the road as well after a minute or two's worth of driving.

No visible oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. When first started if you pop the radiator cap there's no pressure like you get with a head gasket....anything is possible though.

Worst case scenario, does the 283 share the same bolt pattern as the later SBC's? When it comes to anything GM I'm clueless, all I've ever owned has been AMC era Jeep stuff.

 

What fan setup are you running. Had bad luck with electirc fans and a 283 in a cj3

 

You're fine up until the Vortec. The Vortecs are the ones with the center bolts that hold the valve covers down. Vortecs had a different bolt positioning in the heads for the intake. The two center bolts on both sides of the intake were vertical instead of at an angle like the rest of the bolts. There are some other small differences but nothing of note.

PS: My first Jeep, a '63 Wyllis, had a Chevy 283 in it. Very nice set-up.

 

Have you tried burping and bleeding any/all air bubbles from the cooling system? For instance, the heater core can trap air after an "event."

Air pockets can allow localized overheating in the block, with big boilovers resulting.

 

Have not tried burping it yet.

Was overheating before we pulled the thermostat and after pulling it there was no change, honestly may be worse.

I keep forgetting to ask...On the passenger side of the Jeep behind the hood and ahead of the windshield, there is some sort of lid, what's it's purpose? Almost looks like a flip up vent or something.

 

Is this the original radiator?

Covered-over battery location from the military model M38A1. Just covered over on the earliest model; eventually Jeep smoothed over the cowl there and it was gone.

 

Thank you for clearing that up! After googling M38A1 battery box I'm curious if this can be made into a tool box?

 

Zoro come on over , I've got a ton of parts you need.

 

The bellhousing pattern is the same as the all the other sbc's up until at least 2000. Is this an early 283 (front engine mounts only) or late with both front and side mounts? If it utilizes side mounts, you about double the power steering pump choices which are many.

I have never seen the impeller break in a sbc water pump but don't doubt it may happen. Usually the bearing goes south which in turn takes out the seal and makes them leak. There are quite a few high volume water pumps available and when paired to an aluminum radiator, shroud, and good fan, there should be no cooling problems. Removing the thermostat usually doesn't accomplish anything.

Have you checked the timing? Too much retard will cause it to heat and is also hard on exhaust valves. Off the top of my head, I think something around 8 degrees BTDC initial timing and maybe 30-38 degrees total advance (vacuum+mechanical) with a more or less stock cam. I'm sure there is all kinds of detailed timing data on the web.

While an EFI 305 would make a great Jeep engine, I would certainly spend some time thoroughly checking out what you have. If it does check out, there are numerous bolt on EFI systems available that would work on the 283.