Also. Add 2 degrees more timing for every 1k in elevation!
Changing thermostat 2x a year?
- Thread starter Escape08
- Start date
I don't remember tube type tires ever being used other than on bicycles and farm equipment.
The first radial tires I ever saw were in about 1968 or 69. A friend's father put them on his Olds 88. He tried putting them on only one end but nearly crashed on a curve, so he quickly learned you needed to have only radials. I expect Michelin had been making them for decades but we didn't see them on "normal cars".
Wheel discs were the premium wheel appearance even in the mid 60's. The normal wheels on a '66 Ford 7-Liter or a Chevrolet Impala SS would have been a set of very nice wheel discs. I suppose there were a few "mag" wheels around, but only on race cars and customs. Baby moons, trim rings and blacked out steel wheels were also popular in the mid to late 1960s.
Your "mechanic" is insinuating that a non-160 degree thermostat is responsible for blown head gaskets simply due to its temperature rating. Head gaskets don't blow at 180 or 200 degrees. The temperature they do blow at is reached after the thermostat, regardless of its temperature rating, fails, or some other component fails. You could blow a head gasket with a 140 degree thermostat under the same conditions.
Further, a vehicle that doesn't heat up to its expected temperature may run too rich, develop excess carbon deposits, foul plugs, clog up catalytic converters, get poor mpg, etc.
Further, a vehicle that doesn't heat up to its expected temperature may run too rich, develop excess carbon deposits, foul plugs, clog up catalytic converters, get poor mpg, etc.
If you are doing it in a carbureted vehicle, then no problem (but may not be helpful either).
If you are doing it in a computer controlled EFI vehicle you are causing issues. As mentioned by others, the computer looks for a certain operating parameters, including (and primarily) temperature before making it's adjustments, if it never reaches that temp, then the vehicle will run in open loop mode using basic parameters, not ones based on what is happening in the engine currently. Usually results in running rich and poor fuel economy.
If you are doing it in a computer controlled EFI vehicle you are causing issues. As mentioned by others, the computer looks for a certain operating parameters, including (and primarily) temperature before making it's adjustments, if it never reaches that temp, then the vehicle will run in open loop mode using basic parameters, not ones based on what is happening in the engine currently. Usually results in running rich and poor fuel economy.
Low temp 'stats are hard on EVERYTHING in a modern EFI engine-excessive fuel consumption, moisture buildup in the oil-both causing excessive wear. Not to mention decreased power, even less/no heat in winter. Change the coolant regularly & keep cooling fan & clutch working, that kills more head gaskets than anything.
Don't think it's necessary.
Insanity. Your mechanic should be replaced with someone competent.This might sound silly but are there anyone of you BITOGers change your vehicle's thermostat from 160 deg on summer & change it to 190 deg on winter? And also I a mechanic once told me, running your car with a 160 deg thermostat prevents your vehicle ever for having blown head gasket, he said for as long as you own your car...guaranteed. I wonder if this is true.
I changed the clutch for the fan on my 1985 Olds 88 coupe twice a year. I had a regular clutch for the cool seasons, and a heavy duty clutch for the hot seasons. I could change it without loosening the belts. But there was little room to access the nuts on the studs, and little room to turn the wrench, and sometimes the studs came out. I used red Loctite on the studs, and Blue Loctite on the nuts. But I left the thermostat on it alone.
With my 2016 Honda CR-V that has DI and two temperature sensors for the computer to monitor the coolant temperature, and a temperature sensor for the ambient air, there is no way I would try to run a cooler thermostat on it. Besides it has two fans that the computer controls and is smart enough to decide if no fan, one fan, or both fans should be on.
With my 2016 Honda CR-V that has DI and two temperature sensors for the computer to monitor the coolant temperature, and a temperature sensor for the ambient air, there is no way I would try to run a cooler thermostat on it. Besides it has two fans that the computer controls and is smart enough to decide if no fan, one fan, or both fans should be on.
Last edited:
Your body temperature is always the same regardless of summer or winter, despite you feeling hot or cold, and your body regulates it unless you are sick.
Your car's thermostat does the same thing, it regulates the engine coolant temperature to what the computer wants to run it at. Unless you have some cooling system problem (plugged radiator, broken fan, head gasket), just leave it alone and let it runs at the same temperature year round.
Your mechanic should retire if he recommend running at 160F. When was the last time he worked on a modern car?
Your car's thermostat does the same thing, it regulates the engine coolant temperature to what the computer wants to run it at. Unless you have some cooling system problem (plugged radiator, broken fan, head gasket), just leave it alone and let it runs at the same temperature year round.
Your mechanic should retire if he recommend running at 160F. When was the last time he worked on a modern car?
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2024
No even with the modified cars I run the stock thermostat.
Used to when I was younger and ran my older, usually British cars later into the year and earlier in the Spring. Some had marginal cooling and needed the cooler Summer t'stat. Now I am older, don't appreciate top down in the cold as much and my old cars are nicer and don't see salt at all...
The solution is a bigger radiator and a bigger water pump, not a hotter or colder thermostat.
The manufacturers thought otherwise......
If you've never had the pleasure of owning one, many if not most old British cars required, or at least recommended seasonal thermostat changes. Probably having something to do with their native mild climate and not really caring enough about their largest market
The manufacturers thought otherwise......
If you've never had the pleasure of owning one, many if not most old British cars required, or at least recommended seasonal thermostat changes. Probably having something to do with their native mild climate and not really caring enough about their largest market
I would probably prefer something more reasonable these days, like a Lotus or a Tesla instead of old and British. Come to think of it maybe that's why nobody buys them anymore if they need to change T stat twice a year. People are doing coolant like what, every 5 years now instead? and T stat is lifetime.
If something this ridiculous is needed they should have a relocation kit that move the T stat out to an easy to access area (or into a computer controlled water pump), but there goes its classic status and old school "charm", so probably a no go.
most of those thermostats can be swapped in about 2 minutes. multiple thermostat temp specs for different climates wasn’t particularly uncommon either.
if those cars still have original brass radiators they’re long past their prime
Last edited:
I think I value our local old school radiator guy greater than my Doctor!
LOL, no. The thermostat does not determine the cooling power of the system. The T-stat only determines the temperature at which the coolant begins to circulate through the engine. Once the T-stat is open, the rest of the system determines how hot the engine will get. So I always run a standard temperature thermostat and keep the system healthy, no problems.
It's not supposed to be that hard.
It's not supposed to be that hard.
It does!
Similar threads
