I'm following the philosophy of performance over temperature. It's the stock engine in a Mad Force.

It's running at 280 F, but it seems like a nice cloud of smoke from the exhaust.

At what point should I be worried? Any help would be appreciated.

That is far too hot - even though you see smoke, it's still running hot enough to cook the engine. You need to richen it up to lower the temp to around 210-220.

Depends on the temps man. You wont cook that engine at 280 if your blowing smoke like crazy. I would advise bringing the temps down. That Mad Force engine typically ran around 230 for me. First things first! Make sure you are running a cold glow plug. MC9, or i believe its the OS A5 thats cold as well. Either of those will drop temps drastically, and require retuning. Also what fuel are you running? If you run 20%, expect temps to be high in hot weather. My recommendation for summer running is one of the mentioned cold plugs, and some HIGH quality 30% fuel. Odonnels, or Byrons. If the problem is caused by an air leak, or a worn engine, then none of the above advice will help. If i remember correctly, you are the guy coming to Northville for a while soon. If you need help tuning, gimme a pm. Im about 10 minutes from Northville.

I'm running Bryon's 20% and OS A5s.

I should hope it's not wear, cause the engine has just over 1/2 gallon through it. As for an air leak, I wouldn't know how to figure it out.

Unfortunately, the only day I'll be in Northville is early sunday, since we're bouncing straight up to Traverse City since I won't be racing.

As for hot temps...well, it is Tennessee. Hot and high humidity.

How would I find any air leaks. I'd hope that a new engine wouldn't do it, but...

infernal, go pick up some O'donnell from MSH. everything ran cooler after i went to O'donnell 20%. Byrons is oilier than the leak in my t-bird.
also, I've run most of my engines way hotter than 280, and IMO as long as there's smoke, you're good. I abuse the hell out of my engines, and they last anywhere from 5 or 6 to 9 gallons.

btw the way i look for air leaks is the same way i do it on a 1:1 car.
spray some ether onto the cracks while the engine idles.

Don't have any ether, but I have some denatured (spelling?) alcohol for cleaning the truck. Will that work? And I'll grab some of that before going north, and see how it works.

BTW have fun in traverse city.
take a picture of your MF on top of one of the giant screws sitting out
you drivin or flyin?

Driving. Here to Detroit, then to Traverse.

good crap, that's a good 18 hours or so of drivin
just make sure to swing by Silver Lake and play with the MF i had great fun there back in the day with my Stampede.

Yea, tell me about it. We're actually going to an RV resort on Lake Leelanau, where my grandparents have had a spot for the like..20 years. I'll have to look for some places to drive it near by, as I don't want to accidentially cream some small child. :P