mississippi rediculous summer heat/160* thermostat?????

[91tizzy]

I read all the posts on this and didnt really get a whole lot of info....My thinking is that since the average temp around where im at now is 94 with the index reachin into the hundreds I felt that a lower degree thermostat might be benificial for my car and being that it is an auto that keepin the underhood/engine temps lower might also in turn keep the auto trans a tad cooler....now if I had done my research before buyin I would have gone with a 180 but being that all I saw were the 160's that is the one I ordered....Think I will have any issues? btw my stock radiator blew the other day, that is why I decided to do all of this(never overheated) and I will soon be running the mishimoto aluminum radiator with gates hoses and the 160 with an oem replacement cap......thoughts, opinions

thanks
Greg

 

[silverbullett]

Sounds like a plan. Same happened to me last summer. I went with the stock radiator though. Who makes the 160 deg thermostat? All I found was Stant 170 deg.

 

[91tizzy]

stm had one with a gasket for 25 bucks shipped....just out of curiosity where did your rad. give out??

 

[91tizzy]

I will post back with my results slash opinions on the setup once I get it installed along with my fp rewire that just came in

 

[silverbullett]

My radiator burst along the bottom end tank. It was the same pothole that got my front bumper and my Greddy FMIC.

 

[1990gsx1781]

My radiator burst along the bottom end tank. It was the same pothole that got my front bumper and my Greddy FMIC.

i heard with the 160 you have to reprogram the ecu if not it will act funny but this is word of mouth so im not sure it its true

 

[91tizzy]

what you probably are talking about is the possibility of the car not wanting to come out of warm up mode due to low temps but I dont think I will run into this problem due to the high ambient air temps the car will be seeing

 

[Defiant]

The thermostat does not cool the engine. It keeps it warm. The radiator cools the engine.
Heat index is relative to animals and how they cool their bodies. It doesn't matter to heat transfer through a metal radiator.

Do not lower your thermostat rating. Stay with factory spec.

 

[dsm-onster]

Amen!

What are your coolant temps?

 

[JrCRXHF]

I went with a new radiator and hoses along with a 180 and it works well i am running a AEM EMS

 

[91tizzy]

Im not sure of the coolant temps but the car never overheated before...but my insulators and hoses are all slowly getting baked due to high underhood temps...I was told that the only time I would really notice it is cruising on the highway...if I had read of the warm up dangers prior to ordering I would have stayed with a stock stat....which I will still put back in if the 160 turns out to be a problem....

to the wisemen, what is the temp level that the engine needs to go into closed loop???

 

[dsm-onster]

+180*F (approximately) for a few minutes, then the ecu switches to the normal maps.

Your turbo and exhaust manifold are the sources of the high underhood temps, not the engine temperature. You'll have to contain the heat from those sources to solve your problem. The 160* thermostat will not help.

 

[91tizzy]

yeah i think the high underhood temperatures are more due to the fact that the car didnt come with the turbo manifold heat shield...but...what about the fact that the ecu is not programmed to kick the fans on till the engine temps reach a certain peak? What im getting at is that the 1ga's dont have alot of exposed surface area of the radiator, so in turn I feel that they rely on the fans to do most of the cooling which would mean in my understanding that although the 160 dgree stat would open earlier it would not necessarily mean that the cooling systme is 100% efficient and keep the engine temps that low.....I like discussing things so thats my theory....I do understand now that I should have stayed with a stock thermostat so thanks all for the input but since I already payed 25 bucks for the 160 Im going to put it in and see how it goes....I will report back

Greg