Re: Overheating...melting hose on driver side of 350 that transfers the water out exh
I'd check the elbows first. I encountered a similar problem on my 1983 Chaparral, overheating and low flow though exhaust on port side, and found a good deal on a set of new elbows so I swapped them out. Cured the problem. In your case, you might be able to pop them off and see restriction in there, or stick a screwdriver or other small rod in there to clear the restriction, if that's where it exists. The next step is to follow the exhaust back to the engine, looking at risers, if you have them, and then the manifolds. One thing that would be good to do is to see if you even have water flow to the manifold and risers on that side. This can be done on muffs, out of the water, by taking the hoses loose that go to the bottom of the manifold and the one for the exhaust elbow. They should flow water freely. The one going to the elbow, I believe comes from the thermostat flow, I you have the system I'm thinking of, and will flow little until the engine heats up and the thermostat opens. However, if you are melting hoses you will need to keep a close eye on that while testing so that you don't cause a fire.
If I were doing it, and felt I could run the engine up to operating temp, at idle, without melting or causing a fire., I'd idle it up the thermostat opening, operating temp, then pull the hoses I mentioned to see if I had water flow, then begin pulling the elbow first, if I had water flow from the hoses. If now water flow, start at the impeller and work your way up through the cooling system.
Chris
