Freepop

This is a great site. Thought I'd share

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cooling-system.htm

427V8

Yea, we've debated at what temp that extra wear actually occurs and at what temp you get the best performance...

Lots of opinions!

gdh

I agree many debates about ideal temp, this is why I posted last week my concern that even though I have a 180 degree thermostat, I am continually running @ 150 F since I replaced my hood with an original 68 L-88 hood. The temp dropped significantly and I can really feel the change in the compartment as well. My cooling system is virtually new as all was replaced last year when I rebuilt the engine. I found that adding a shroud to the radiator helped as well (remember mine is a ZR-1, smaller lighter rad than LT-1)

7T9Shark

gdh,

How can you be running 150 F. with a 180 F. thermostat? There is something amiss, here. If your thermostat is doing it's job, it won't open until your coolant is at 180 degrees. Your guage must be off by 30 degrees. Mine runs around 200, after its thoroughly warmed up, no matter whether I run a 160, or 195.

OHSIXX

I tried 180 degree thermostat and my car ran at 155 degrees. My understanding of this situation is the thermostat did not even open.

So, I put in a 195 degree thermostat and my car runs at 180 degrees.

Go figure! :rolleyes:


[Modified by OHSIXX, 8:06 PM 8/30/2003]

Red73

Sorry, still not convienced that I need a thermostat or need a pressurized cooling system. http://www.evanscooling.com/main7.htm
Read the technical info at the above site. To each his or her own.
:hurray:


[Modified by Red73, 10:45 PM 8/30/2003]

Pauld

Mine runs at around 200 when it is warmed up, is this normal??

Twin_Turbo

The thermostat is just a blockage in flow, it does not control the pressure. the radiator cap does. Without pressure your system will boil in no time. It's like a pressure cooker, under pressure the boiling point of fluids rises.


[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 12:47 PM 8/31/2003]

Red73

and I don't use water and the boiling point of my Coolant is 370°F, in a non-pressurized system.

aharte

Water has a much higher capacity to absorb heat than almost anything else. That's why its used in cooling systems.

Also, the relatively low boiling point of the standard pressurized water/antifreeze mixture is a safety feature. When that system boils, it can absorb a huge amount of heat without increasing the temperature. So its really hard to increase the temp much above the boiling temperature. Gaskets are designed to blow somewhat above that point. Then things start melting soon after that...

If you have a coolant with a very high boiling point, any problems that come up and aren't immediately noticed could seize the engine without much warning. I'm also skeptical that the normal coolant temperature could be kept low enough for the gaskets to be happy without using water (unless you go all out with the fan and radiator).

A thermostat is there to help the car warm up faster. Why would you want to get rid of it?

Twin_Turbo

:iagree:

absolutely correct!

Red73

My normal engine temp is between 190 and 205 F depending on my driving style and weather conditions. I guess you didn't read the technical info from my first post. It's been this way for 4 years and I've yet to have a cooling system failure. We're the first to change cams, intakes or carbs when the lastest and greatest comes along, but that cooling system, can't change that water/anti-freeze mind set. :party:

Rockn-Roll

The site at Howstuffworks makes a lot of statements but doesn't offer much in the way of testing. Most of the statements are just popular opinions. There's also some blatant falacies. For example it says, The coolant temperature has nothing at all to do with the amount of heat it is removing from the combustion chamber. The coolant simply needs to be below the temp of the combustion chamber. I'm sure we all know already that the combustion chamber is well above 200 degrees...more like about 1000! Also, the combustion temperature will remain steady due to the chemistry of the reaction of burning fuel known as enthalpy and/or heat of combustion.

I must also point out that the web site is there for the most common system. Today that system is port fuel injection. The fuel in our Stingrays is atomized and evaporated sufficiently well with carburation. The combustion chamber can be like freezing and not effect the combustion of the fuel.

And finally, for those who believe that running with a thermostat won't hurt then I must offer my experience. Recently a heater hose busted on me, and all my coolant was pumped out. I drove probably a mile before I could stop. The temp gauge was pegged! I thought I had destroyed my engine. But, nope. Thankfully, I do not use a thermostat and thus when the coolant began to boil in the block it was able to find a way out through the upper radiator hose. Thermostats will not open unless it is surrounded by coolant. Steam tends to condense on thermostats and cools them off and closes them under a boil over condition. I am sure that if I had been running with a thermostat I would be looking at thousands of dollars in damage, plus the lose of the numbers matching engine. There is no way anyone can convince me that a thermostat is desireable much less necessary when I've been driving around with a nearly 30 year old engine with 50,000 miles on it and drive it like I stole it with no side effects from it.

UKPaul

Hi paul,
That's what mine ran at when I 1st got it. I fitted a 180* stat which dropped the coolant temp a bit. I fitted ceramic coated headers, 200-4r & a tranny cooler & the coolant now rapidly climbs up to the mark between 100* & 200* on the guage & sits there. I was told that the mark is 180*, not 150* as I'd expect. I suspect that the tranny cooler is probably responsible for running with a lower coolant temp.
:cheers:

jerryp58

"How can you be running 150 F. with a 180 F. thermostat?"

I've wondered what the lowest temperature is that a cooling system could maintain. If a cooling system could maintain 150 degrees, then any thermostat rated higher than that would never open and you'd always read 150. But, given that the cooling system, which is pretty much the radiator, would not even be used if the thermostat was closed, I doubt that could ever happen.

Now, OHSIXX's case sounds exactly like a sensor or gauge reading X degrees off, since the observed temp changed in the same direction as the thermostat rating.

As far as the "minimum operating temp required to avoid damage" debate. Heck, if someone wants to smoke his tires for fun (definite damage), why not run cooler for more power too. They're only parts. My $0.02