New thread, same problem. I may have discovered the reason, I am having these problems. I was just told by one of my customers, that the thermostat is the inlet for the water! not the outlet like every car I have ever worked on. This means that all the water hoses I have blocked off may be the cause.
First, I can't see how the T-stat could possibly work at the inlet end of the system? it gets only cooled water from the rad, so how could it stay open?
I have blocked all the water hoses on my engine, as I would on all the Chevy race cars I have owned; the only functional hoses left are the upper and lower rad hoses and the two hoses that go in and out of the oil cooler (under the oil filter.) Now I am told that since the water pumps the oposite direction than I thought, there is no way for water to get to it when the T-stat is closed and the pump is just cavitating. Is this true??? It looks like, with the T-stat closed, the only source for water to the pump, could come from the "U" shaped hose on the Intake manifold mounting flange, which feeds into the back side of the t-stat housing. If this is true, mine is blocked off and therefor, no water would flow to the pump. This would explain why my rad and lower hose never got warm; the pump could not move any water through the head. So, any water that found it's way into the head when I filled the Rad, just sat there and got hot.

Does the B-16 really pump water backwards FROM the Thermostat, instead of towards it????? What kind of crap is that.

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any confirmation on hose block-off causing the prob? Water flow direction? And how can the stat stay open with cool water coming in on it from the rad?