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180 vs 195 stat

Chadgervais

Chadgervais

Former GP Owner
From what I have read here, there is no reason for the average stock GP owner to use a thermostat lower than 195, that these cars are designed to get the best performance and MPG just above 200 degrees.

The previous owner of this car put a 180 in it, Im assuming he was uninformed that the reason the car was overheating was the elbows, and thought a colder stat would make things better. Now that I own this car, the elbows have been fixed, the water pump finally gave up the ghost and I replaced it, and the cooling system is now sealed and not losing any coolant, and goes no higher than 218 where the low speed fans kick in.

I am now grappling with the idea of putting a new 195 stat in. I like to follow the philosophy of "if it aint broke dont fix it", but I also wonder how much gas this is costing me. I can do the stat myself, and spend about $12 in parts (stat and seal), but is it worth cracking open the system and hving to bleed it all over again?

Being winter, it would be nice to have just a tad more heat, and the gas mileage is abysmal. How much MPG could I expect to gain by switching over to a 195? Is it worth it to replace a part that really has nothing wrong with it? I am averaging 20MPG right now and unless i idle for a while, I dont see the temp go over 190, sometimes it stays at 182-186 if i have the heat cranked. I assume these temps will go up by 15 degrees with a new stat.
 


If the system is full you shouldn't even need to bleed it, the coolant will be already full in the rad and LIM, the upper hose shouldnt have any coolant in it, just air anyways.

MPG gain, maybe a slight increase but you'd just have to wait and see.
 
Fivefingerdeathpunch said:
If the system is full you shouldn't even need to bleed it, the coolant will be already full in the rad and LIM, the upper hose shouldnt have any coolant in it, just air anyways.

MPG gain, maybe a slight increase but you'd just have to wait and see.
Click to expand...

How be it that the upper hose would'nt have coolant in it? Isnt that what bleeding the system does? gets every last bit of air out?

To replace the stat I would need to remove the upper hose, losing about a pint of coolant, then when I re-attach the hose the space where the coolant was will be air. Are you saying I dont need to bleed it and that amount of air will work itself out?
 
When you take the hose and thermostat housing off, no coolant will come out because the thermostat is closed.

Once you take the thermostat out, you may lose a half a cup as if pushes out over the edge of the hole, the level won't drop and you can just stick the new thermostat in there and bolt it back together.

The engine should be cold when doing this.

If you see the temp gauge acting all funny after changing it, then try bleeding it, but I don't see a need to do it.
 
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