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180* T-stat

I can see where both sides are right. It all depends on your car just like different people can run smaller pulley sizes than others.

It's half preference, and half mechanical. I don't really see the argument of beating a dead horse here....if you have a tuner then you can take full advantage of either.

FWIW I have a 180 and at highway speeds my temps seldom see 170 let alone 180+

It all just depends on where you're at with what you've got I think.
 


Reptile said:
I can see where both sides are right. It all depends on your car just like different people can run smaller pulley sizes than others.

It's half preference, and half mechanical. I don't really see the argument of beating a dead horse here....if you have a tuner then you can take full advantage of either.

FWIW I have a 180 and at highway speeds my temps seldom see 170 let alone 180+

It all just depends on where you're at with what you've got I think.
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Agreed. That pretty much what the short article I posted said. The more modded the more benefit.:)

I'm amazed your temps are that low. It means your t stat isn't even opening most of the time. My ECT's normally stay right at the fan hi lo settings. When I had the Stage 3 Rad 3 fmhe, during the summer with the AC on it would climb near 200* when hiway traffic would slow during rush hour.
 
IndeedSS said:
Agreed. That pretty much what the short article I posted said. The more modded the more benefit.:)

I'm amazed your temps are that low. It means your t stat isn't even opening most of the time.
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No, it means its opening too soon. If it wasn't opening he'd over heat.
 
Sabrewings said:
No, it means its opening too soon. If it wasn't opening he'd over heat.
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I understand that:p. But knowing Brian, I'm sure he's not running a faulty t-stat. If barely getting to 170 then it's almost acting like a 160 with fans set accordingly.

All of this t-stat talk just reminded me It's time to throw the drilled 180 in.:th_mischievious:
 
The biggest thing I came away with from this is that my cylinders are wearing half as much as an engine with a lower t-stat. :cool:
 
Sabrewings said:
The biggest thing I came away with from this is that my cylinders are wearing half as much as an engine with a lower t-stat. :cool:
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LOL

I'm not sure I came away with that much.

In traffic, it does it's job well....going down the road it's cool as a cucumber. It just NEVER sees anything over 200 degrees. Good or bad, that's how I roll.
 


Sabrewings said:
How do you know its running cold? I used to think halfway on the Impala's gauge was 200, but according to my scanner 200 is a notch or so left of the half mark.
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The number gauges on my GP are 210 and 160. Thus, a mid point is 185. It's almost always at or below that point. It's possible GM set it up so that the mid point is 195, but again, it's usually below that temperature.
 
N3p said:
Zef, so your saying that you'll spend hundreds of dollars modding your GTP but won't risk losing a few tenths off your mpg by going down to a 180* tstat? Weird. Also I'm pretty sure that you do have to change your PCM (or just a setting in it) to benefit from your 180* tstat.
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When I drive my car to work, I don't race there. I drive 100 miles a day. I get in the car, relax and drive. I don't speed. I don't beat on my car, etc. When I do race, I do so at the track. If I am going to the track, I will do a bunch of things to my car to prep it to race. Remove weight, change tune, change t-stat, etc. I mod my car so that I can have fun on the weekends at the track. But I de-mod my car during the week to save fuel.

Make sense?

I don't street race, so why keep a mod that I only use on the weekends?
 
I wish I could run a 3.4 without needing the t stat. I guess a IC would do the trick but for now I will have to stick with t stat, intake and exhaust.
 
AR15 guy said:
I wish I could run a 3.4 without needing the t stat. I guess a IC would do the trick but for now I will have to stick with t stat, intake and exhaust.
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Yes an IC would do the trick, but don't feel bad about your decission to run the 180*. Many with IC's, other mods, and tuners run them. It's fine.:cool:
 
Zef_66 said:
When I drive my car to work, I don't race there. I drive 100 miles a day. I get in the car, relax and drive. I don't speed. I don't beat on my car, etc. When I do race, I do so at the track. If I am going to the track, I will do a bunch of things to my car to prep it to race. Remove weight, change tune, change t-stat, etc. I mod my car so that I can have fun on the weekends at the track. But I de-mod my car during the week to save fuel.

Make sense?

I don't street race, so why keep a mod that I only use on the weekends?
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It has nothing to do with racing, it has to do with keeping your car cool. Colder = less knock & the less knock you have the better. You don't have to be racing to have KR.. When people switch down to a 3.4, at the very least you should be using a COOLER range spark plugs, a COLD air intake, and a 180* t-stat which makes your car run COOLER.
 


N3p said:
It has nothing to do with racing, it has to do with keeping your car cool. Colder = less knock & the less knock you have the better. You don't have to be racing to have KR.. When people switch down to a 3.4, at the very least you should be using a COOLER range spark plugs, a COLD air intake, and a 180* t-stat which makes your car run COOLER.
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I understand what you are saying about keeping your car cool. But why? A cooler car does not run better. In fact it is the complete opposite. A hotter car will run better, faster, more HP, more efficiency, etc under the same conditions.

The only thing a cooler engine will do is reduce knock IF you have knock. If you don't have knock, no reason to run a cooler t-stat. Consider Nascar. They are running engine temps around, or over 250°F. The key is setting your engine up with the appropriate mods to not have knock. Then you don't need to run a cooler t-stat to try and cheat the engine.

Again, if you can't run your car with a 3.4 pulley and a stock t-stat without getting knock, and need to revert to a cooler t-stat just so you can drive, you need more supporting mods.....not a cooler t-stat.
 
i drive my car fairly aggressive, and didn't really plan on getting the 180*tstat, but if i drop my pulley size to a 3.4'' i should deffinatley get the t stat?
 


GTPsex said:
i drive my car fairly aggressive, and didn't really plan on getting the 180*tstat, but if i drop my pulley size to a 3.4'' i should deffinatley get the t stat?
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Again, I disagree here. I am running a 3.4 pulley and don't have any problems with knock because I have the appropriate supporting mods. You should not drop a pulley size until you can safely run it without knock. Throwing in a t-stat as a band aid is not a wise move. Stick with the stock t-stat until you get to the track, even with a 3.4 pulley.
 
IndeedSS said:
Cooler than 180-degree thermostats are not recommended on modern cars. Most domestic automakers’ engine-management systems go into open loop at 168 degrees F, meaning the engine is operating in its warm-up mode with perhaps an overly rich mixture and un-optimized ignition timing. Eventually the computer will consider such long warm-up times abnormal and could trip the Check Engine Light.
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Not true.Not for us anyway. I have never ever seen any .bin file where a car stays in closed loop untill any where NEAR that tempeture.The ECT for closed loop on a stock 2000 GTP is about 50*F, and a stock 98 GTP is about 76.1*F. Even for corvette's ect...The cupple .bin files I have seen for them the Closed Loop ECT is no where near that. I can also promise you that by installing a 160 thermostat will not wash down your cylinders because of excessive fuel or colder block temps.


I would have to agree on the mpg loss. Even though I have not seen any concreate results from myself mostly because I have not been keeping a close eye on it.....
 
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