I decided to go out cruising since it was nice and warm out, went and did a quick rinse at the car wash and was on my way...

about a mile down the road I hit a light and I looked to check my fuel gauge and noticed something peculiar

My temp gauge was sitting on 210. No biggy I thought, thermostat is still closed it'll open any second. Light went green and I went, but kept my eye on the gauge...and it kept going and going...so finally when it got half way between 210 and pegged I just pulled off.

Let it cool, check the radiator for leaks and made sure it was full...whacked the water neck with a ball pean hammer and started it up, got to 210 and then fell back to around 180.

Scared the hell outta me though. I know 882 heads don't like the warm. Gonna pull the water neck while I'm home next week (if it doesnt become a problem before then) and prolly go ahead and replace the thermo

Well, I've had my 882s up to 210 quite a few times and they seem to be fine. Nothing funny in the oil. But you do want to be careful as they do seem to have a reputation for cracking easily.

According to my 66 Service Manual 245º is the max for a SB. 210 isn't a problem. But you are right, lightweight 882's are prone to cracking. Heavy 882's are much stronger.

It wasn't the 210 that scared me so much as it kept climbing after that...it nearly always goes to 210 before opening

try a 160 stat it shouldnt be getting that hot before it opens unless its a 195 stat

We're gonna put a 160 in I think, we had bought the 195 because it was taking too long to get warm. That ended up being due to previous owner running a gutted thermo.

I don't know if my 882s are the heavy or light castings, maybe I'm just paranoid, but I can't afford another rebuild right now.

Quick way to tell if you've got light or heavy castings:

Look at the edge of the head where the last row of bolts are, near the headers. On heavy casting heads, they will only have one or two "scallops" on the edge. Look at where the dipstick tube is, all heads ( i think) have a "scallop" there. So now you know what a "scallop" looks like. If your heads have several of these, you've got light castings. If they've only got one or two, you've got heavy ones.

I have light ones and mine has been up to 230. Talk about being paranoid!!! I was constantly glancing at the temp guage and pulling the dipstick for like three weeks after that!

Yeah, during the last rebuild the 882s that came with the motor that was in the car both had some hairline cracks, so we didn't bother rebuilding that set. I just like to keep an eye on things