180 thermostat FTW!!

Pacman

Registered User
I have been chasing cooling problems for years! replaced my t-stat today with a 180 and now the car sits on N with the A/C on 90 degrees outside! best thing i ever did to it! why didnt i do this before? I used to not b able to run the AC in town!
 
Well, congrats on your find, although me personally, I generally change the stat on my more powerful cars within the first month or so of owning. Bigger question at heart here, why did you wait so long to pop in the 180 stat?
 
Reviving a dead thread.....

Ok, now this is something that I'm thinking about doing since my 195 is stuck open.

I called into work and we have a 160 and 180 and since I should be able to tune, once all the bugs are worked out, I wondering which one would be the better to go with.

I did notice the power change when the car cooled today as I was driving, the gauge dropped like it was nobody's business, so I decided that since I have to replace it I may as well go cooler. Has anyone had any cooling issue's with the 160? I know that it will more that likely kill my economy but I really don't care to much about that. Once I get the QH working I'll be able to set the fans lower to optimize cooling for that temp. I'm just looking for opinions and holes in my thought process on this.
 
I've tried a 160 in the past and it didn't run any cooler than a 180 in the summer and was too cold in the winter...I think the 180 works much better on our car.

David
 
plus the tuning changes to alot of things would have to be changed, not just fans. Stay with the 180 and besides.... the colder the engine runs the less efficient it is.

Fraser
 
the colder the engine runs the less efficient it is.

Fraser

See I know thats the case with a N/A engine, but I figured with the combustion temps these engines see that 160 might be better since that should theoretically keep the combustion temp low enough to prevent detonation. But maybe I'm just looking at it wrong or too much.
 
low temps...

When I put a Mikes38sc rad in my '93, I had to put a restrictor in front of the rad (i already had a 180 t-stat) to keep the temp up. Without the restrictor, the t-stat would open and the temp would nose dive! Drove it to CT from VA and the temp yo-yo'd all the way, and my milage sucked! Hooked the scanner up and monitored it real time and discovered that every time t-stat opened and the temp dropped, the computer would see it and widen the injector p/w to richen the mix and drive the temp up. This is the same thing it does at a cold engine startup. I figure that when/if I put my fmic in I can pull the restrictor.

MikeH
 
I had been running a little warm in my 93 during the summer, so when the water pump went out, I figured I would also drop the thermostat to 180F. Well, it turns out that the old water pump wasn't moving much water, because one new water pump + one 180 deg thermostat = too cool. The car would barely run in the "NORMAL" band after that unless it was hot outside.
 
I run a 195 but i keep fan on low all the time so it hangs right around 180-190.
That's at ambient temps between 40-70 degrees.
80+ I think it would be more like 200 with fan always on.(low)
I ran a 180 in my 89 but that was during summer, I think it would have been too cold for winter.
I don't like water temps much past 200 degrees inb any of my cars, I am hoping to be able to stick with stock 195 for summer until I can tune the car.
 
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I had been running a little warm in my 93 during the summer, so when the water pump went out, I figured I would also drop the thermostat to 180F. Well, it turns out that the old water pump wasn't moving much water, because one new water pump + one 180 deg thermostat = too cool. The car would barely run in the "NORMAL" band after that unless it was hot outside.

That's just how I like it.

My temp needle stays between the Cold mark and the N in NORM. According to my scanner that is 185 degrees. If my temp gauge needle reaches the R it's about 210, and the M is about 216. I don't like anything over 190.

David
 
Mine will run 180 all day in 60-70 degree weather. 70+ OAT it will run 180 on completely level roads. hit a hill and Im 200-220. Once its in that range, theres no bringing it back down, unless I idle for about 3-5min. Im happy with mine sitting around 200. AC on big hill 80 degrees, Ive seen 230-240. Ill let it die:p

Edit: this is with water wetter and a Mr Gasket 180, with fan set to come on 188 I think

Corey
 
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