vettinator

I just put a new 160 degree thermostat in today and boy does the vette like it. I was running up around 200 most of the time and now she just sits at 155-160. :cheers:

bence13_33

I'm running a 160 thermostat in the big block. The point of the thermostat is to make sure your motor doesn't run cold. The majority of a motor's wear occurs during start up on a cold motor. By putting in a colder thermostat you are running the cold coolant in the radiator through the motor when it's at 160 degrees. Inevitably my motor still gets up to 200 degrees on a hot day. The 160 thermostat just allows me to run a little cooler a little longer than normally.

What size thermostat did you have in it before (195?). I know with my L48 350, switching to a 180 thermostat was sufficient enough.

Vetterodder

Sounds like your cooling system is working great. It also sounds like you probably had a 195º stat before. Like bence, I switched to a 160º and it didn't have any effect on temps once full warmed. It runs the same 180º as it did with the 180 stat but it just takes a little longer to get from 160º to 180º now.

Fevre

What temp stat you run depends on your set up. I ran 160 for a while but found my car likes 180 better. Well at least the old engine did, have not experiment with new eng but the 180 seems to be working fine.

norvalwilhelm

Motors require a certain temperature to utilize the gas efficiently and that temperature is about 180-185. Running an engine at 155-160 is too cool. Like state elsewhere the wear on an engine really goes up as the temperature goes down.
So to prevent wear and vaporize the gas properly at least run a 180 degree thermostat.
Personally I like to see the temperature for normal cruise around 190.

Paul L

I was just going to post but you said it all. Crankcase contaminants such as water are not burned off at the lower temps.

AlwaysWave

:iagree:

vettinator

Thanks for the help guys. I will see if see gets up around 180 in the Houston heat here. A little different from Minnesota :lol: :lol:

wayne_69_427

I use a different veriation, I do not use a thermostat I use a 3/4 inch restrictor plate that way I don't have to worry about the thermostat sticking. The 3/4 plate makes the car run right at 160 degree even in traffic, If its really hot and you stuck in traffic for a long time jusst increase the RPM to 1500-2000 and the temp goes right to 160.

rainman69

Everything I've seen says to not run a restrictor on the street. I've got a 180 t-stat right now, and may kick up to a 195 if the engine takes too long to warm up.

69stingray

I am going to switch to 160, that is what I am hoping for.

norvalwilhelm

wayne_69_427. New motors last so much long because they run hotter and they run leaner then motors years ago. I have seen wear charts on wear vs temperature and at 160 the wear might be 4 times greater then at 190. There is also articles stating that gas will not atamize below 185. So by running an engine at 160 you are not utilizing the gas to its best so the cylinder is getting washed and at the same time your wear is way up. What is the advantage of running a motor under these adverse condtions?
I see nothing wrong with running a restrictor plate and in fact with mutlitple test last summer I came to the conclusion that I was better off without any thermostat at all. I almost changed themostats daily for a few weeks monitoring each head temperature seperately, their heating and cooling after heat soaking. For me it worked best with no thermostat but my engine temperature still ran around 190 were I wanted it to be.

joevette57

One thing to remember in all of this is that in a 160 stat. That is the temp the stat STARTS to open. A 160 stat isn't fully open until about 185. Thus full flow at optimum operation temp.
By the same token, a 180 stat isn't fully open until around 205.

OkeeGuy

:withstupid: :withstupid: :yesnod: :yesnod: :withstupid: :withstupid:

Turbo-Jet

good advice in this post.

heat=energy=power

(just keep it out of the intake charge. the greater the delta T, the more power)