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Thermostat

apierce1289

apierce1289

New member
Ok just bought a 180 degree drilled thermostat from zzp for my n/a gp. Since i chose the drilled option i wont have any bad side effects from it being drilled right, and it will just run cooler?

Right now my mods are- Cone filter on TB, and DynoMax mufflers.
 


drilled means that it will still flow, even if it fails closed (which 95% of the time they don't). it is a good thing, and a bad thing. your heat will work less effectively until the car is actually warm.

other than that, the thermostat was kind of a waste of money, especially buying it from zzp. they mark up things that you can buy at your local parts store, which a drilled 180* thermostat is one of them. also, it will do you no good unless your fan turn on temperatures are set correctly. if not, the car will still run as hot as it was before.
 
So my car will be fine but i wont see any difference until i get the PCM tuned and stuff? I'm just trying to do the basic mods and the drilled T-stat said it was higher flowing. BTW lowest temp T-stat i could find at the auto parts store was stock.
 


Why a 180? The lower temp will decrease the efficiency of your engine and drop mpgs. There will be no advantage to having the 180 in a fairly stock NA car, only disadvantages.

Most of the SC'd guys who go 180 is to keep the heat spike down when they get into boost. Because the added compression and heat from the Gen 3 tend to flash cylinder temps quickly.
 
All you're doing is hurting your gas mileage.
I have the stock 195 stat in and my coolant temp is at 185 due to the fan settings being changed with my tune.
 
I disagree. a 180 t stat even on an untuned car will help to some degree. around the 180 mark the tables in the PCM are richer and still keep the commanded spark. Another benifit often forgotten is that when the tstat is closed there is a restriction to flow at the water pump. by having the tstat open earler, it can flow and let the water pump turn more freely.

My personal experience... a 180 on a stock car you will still see ECT's in the 194 range. so the add from being in a lower PCM table due to temp is not likely. the gain is from the lowered water pump restriction. I had a 160 Tstat from a GTP i had and tested it in my 3.4L DOHC that had heat issues with the trany. (trany would slip when hot) my engine temps got to about 174.

Where your engine temp falls is mainly from where you have your stock fan turn on temps set at in the Tune. a 180 is great to have. just when you get tuned make sure to have the fans adjusted to make the most out of it.
 
Yea same here.I have had no disadvantages so far with my 180.When i was stock my temp needle would always be above the second shade mark.just under the 210 mark.Now with the 180 it mostly stays below the second bold mark occasionally creeping past and the car seems to run better with the temp being lower.And my mpgs have not changed either.
 
dmahlikGT said:
Yea same here.I have had no disadvantages so far with my 180.When i was stock my temp needle would always be above the second shade mark.just under the 210 mark.Now with the 180 it mostly stays below the second bold mark occasionally creeping past and the car seems to run better with the temp being lower.And my mpgs have not changed either.
Click to expand...

x2 for me.... just seems to run cooler and with these cars in Oklahoma heat, cooler is better... not really sure about the mpgs as I changed the thermo right after I bought the car. Didnt change any in my Bonnie SSEi so I didn't figure itd change anything in the GTP
 


Thanks guys glad to see a small mod is worth it. ZZP says for n/a cars 180 is the lowest you should go because then it gets to rich.
 
No mater the 180 or 160 without tuning you won't go below 190 if you do t adjust thefan turn on times with a 160 it will just take a bit longer to warm up... But if u are in a location that see a cold winter your car just might not warm up with a 160. Here in fl a 160 is fine cause we never get very cold and with the right fan temps still have it about 176* and have better flow sooner.

Bottom line a 180 is great
 
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