thermostate question

[qpt]

Will a car run cooler without a theromstat?

Lee

[wolfdogs]

Will a car run cooler without a theromstat?

Lee

yes, but in the old days..we got away with it all time no prob... many of us ran with one. but that was before computer controlled cars. i dont recall anyone running thermostatless with pcms'.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

If you take the thermostat out in a fuel injected car, it may not warm up enough to go into closed loop mode. Performance and efficiency will suffer.

[DeWynter]

A problem you may run into with no thermostat is it my over heat the car, yes I know it sounds weird but, If the water in the radiator does not stay in long enough it gets recycled into the engine hot. Alot of gm cars require the themostat to at least slow down the water flow enough to cool. As any of us can see the thermostat hole is half the size of the actual opening it sits in. This can especialy be a problem with High flow water pumps.

[stingant0]

what about drilling holes in the thermostat?

[TraceZ]

what about drilling holes in the thermostat?

What problem are you experiencing that prompts these questions? If you ask your question differently, you may get better answers. Why would you want to remove or drill holes in you t-stat?

[stingant0]

I had a friend that drilled holes into his thermostat (he had a 89 Shelby Daytona). He said it ran cooler. Just wondering if it would help. I don't experience any overheating problems. I always kick the A/C on in traffic.

[DeWynter]

I have been told by a couple of motor heads here in town that If you drill two 3/32 holes in the themostats outer ring that it will prevent air bubbles from collecting in the engine. apperently the hot spots in the engine can create a kind of vapor barrier between the water and the block, there by reducing effectiveness of the water coolant. By putting the holes in the thermostat it will asure that there is always a bit of flow in the engine to prevent this. Or you could just buy some water wet, reduces temps by 10-20 deg C.

[Injuneer]

If you have a healthy cooling system, you have properly filled and vented the system, and your t'stat is the correct one for the reverse cooled application, you do NOT need holes, omitted t'stats, restrictors, etc. Just use the correct 'stat, the way it was designed. The LT1 'stat incoprorates some unique features, that are essential to the proper operation of the cooling system. There's a complete "cross-over tube" system to eliminate air and vapor bubbles from the heads. I push 800HP out of a system that is not that far from stock... stock water pump, HPP 160deg 'stat and a Griffen radiator, and it runs 195deg (what we foiund to provide the best HP) 24/7.

Do not believe urban legends about water moving through the radiator too fast to cool, and do not use ancient gear-head tricks that could backfire on a reverse-cooled system like the LT1.

[N20LT4Bird]

Do not believe urban legends about water moving through the radiator too fast to cool,

This was actually a question on the last ASE (engine repair) certification exam I took....

[Joe 1320]

The correct answer is: not by itself. A thermostat controls the temperature that the plunger opens, allowing water to circulate. Not only that, the LT-1 thermostat is a dual stage. The fan turn on and off points are what regulate the temperature above the thermostat opening point. If your fans don't kick on sooner than stock, than don't expect the temperatures to be any lower. The exception is when moving. At adequate road speeds, the fans don't come into play and the car will run cooler. As soon as you stop, expect the temps to rise. The correct solution is to change the thermostat and use either a lower temp fan switch or a reprogram of the PCM to change coolant fan tuen on and off points. This can be done with either a custom program or a handheld tuner like the Hypertech HPPIII.