I finished my KA24DE swap in my '71 510 Estate but I blew the head gasket within about 10 miles. Everything tested fine at idle, even when I let it idle for 30 minutes. I used the VW Jetta radiator and overflow and stock KA exhaust manifold.

Q: What radiator did you guys use?

Q: How did you use the stock exhaust manifold without having the steering hit the exhaust pipe? (I could feel the engine vibrations only when the steering wheel was turned 10 or more degrees in either direction)
Modified by KAestate at 1:09 AM 7/25/2006

I fit a griffen in mine, but I have a turbo so I don't know about the exhaust manifold. Search my other threads and you'll see pictures of my engine.

one thing you need to check is if you have the radiator cap lower than your motor air will get trapped in the cylinder head this will allow the coolant to circulate in the block but not ahead idling to circulating coolant in the block would coolant but under a load ahead gets too hot. I actually had jacked up front end of my car up to the point to the rear fenders were almost touching this allowed the air to purge out of the system also learned a very important lesson make sure your radiator cap is have enough to get all your air out of your system. I know it sounds strange but think about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! air does not dissipate heat good.

I understand what you are saying but that doesn't really help in my situation. I have an old VW radiator with no radiator cap. The pressure valve is actually on the overflow cap. The overflow has a return hose to the engine so I had to modify one of the heater hoses to accomodate it. My problem was that the temperature sensor sends a different signal to my temperature gauge. That is why I blew the head gasket. I set the fans to turn on only when my temp gauge read halfway but after using an infrared thermostat gun I could tell it was around 280 degrees. So I got another motor because it was cheaper and easier than to repair what I had done to the first one. But this time I had the infrared gun ready and my fans need to turn on when the temp gauge reads COLD LINE.