i flushed the system 195* thermostat. bottle of water wetter and filled the system up w/all water(better heat disper.) removed the a/c condensor and have the fan on a switch..i've found the trick is to not let it got that hot to begin with. so for the most part,unless its 60*in the morning the fan is on all the time. mine never reaches 170 now.
but 220 is when the fan's are set to turn on. so i'd say 220 is a edge of normal temp to run. i wouldnt want to run that temp for long periods of time,but thats just me.
All water?
You just lowered your boiling point temperature way down. Antifreeze is not just to protect your coolant from freezing. It actually helps to prevent boiling and raises that point when under pressure, which is 16 psi for our cars.
Also, your car will stay in startup fuel strategy for along time because your temp doesn't go up over 180, unless you have a chip or tuner that will allow you to lower that temp..... hows the gas mileage these days?
Anyways....
For those that just drop a 180 tstat in and do nothing else..... our rads are too small for continuous flow so we need to hold coolant in there for a short time to allow transfer of heat. Running a 180 tstat without changing how the fans run can actually cause your car to run hotter because it doesn't linger long enough in the rad to transfer enough heat, so the temp just keeps rising.
Dave Dalke has an excellent article on here explaining the best operating temps for our cars which seems to be around the 200 mark if I recall. The stock fan on temps are way too high. I also see a prob with running the low speed fan all the time like alot of folks do because that sucker draws alot of current even on low speed, which makes your alternator work alot more which is robbing HP from your motor, which will generate more heat and so on.
I can drive the heck out of my car in 100 degree weather and my running temp hovers around 200. I have the stock rad, stock tstat, stock fan setup, stock air dam, 50-50 mix, and water wetter. If I'm running the a/c the car actually runs a bit cooler.
The things I make sure of is changing my coolant every year. I pull out the rad and and back flush the a/c condensor using a garden hose to allow air flow.... (you'd be surprised how much crap gets stuff'd in there) which actually allows your a/c to run more efficiently. I have also setup my EEC Tuner to turn on the low speed fan at 200 and kick over to the high speed fan at 210.
Now keep in mind, my car is still stock for the most part. Dave Neibert's car is very built, and I can understand needing that rad he has as the stock radiator is too small for him for the amount of power he has
, after all, more power more heat.