Thermostats

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I pulled the one on the left out of a 1995 Ford Escort with the 1.9L. According to the owner, it had been in less than a year.
The one on the right is the Motorcraft part I installed.
 
You get what you pay for. I found with T-stats as well as PCV valves OEM is best! Ford Motorcraft thermostats are best for Fords, the aftermarket parts for some reason are not as good. My observations from my experiences with them.
 
Thermostats do not need to be OEM. They do need to be a high-quality part. The cheap thermostat for my car is a piece of trash. The one for $2 more is a much nicer part, and is resold by performance companies for much more than AutoZone.
 
Originally Posted By: sciphi
Thermostats do not need to be OEM. They do need to be a high-quality part. The cheap thermostat for my car is a piece of trash. The one for $2 more is a much nicer part, and is resold by performance companies for much more than AutoZone.

Thats true, but it is hard to know what you are getting with other stuff sometimes.


I looked up the picture of the Stant part on Rockauto. It is the same as on the left.
 
I replaced the Denso on our last Civic with a Stant. The Stant had to weigh 1/4 what the Denso did, and appeared lower in quality in every way. Which kinda turned me off to them. But, they make a few grades and I bought the cheapest one.

Then again, the Denso stopped closing below 0 at around 80,000 miles, and the Stant did fix the problem. Also, it's worth noting that when I have no other frame of reference I base quality on weight and metal content, which isn't a real measure.
 
Stant usually has a nicer "superstat" that for me is a good "standard". And I run $1.50 oil filters!
 
NAPA thermostats the 15 dollar ones usually work very well. Actually I do beleive they are made by stant.


but for my pontiac I had to use OEM since the therm went on the radiator cap I had a hard time fitting a NAPA superstat on there. When I replaced it again I got a OEM one and it fit much more smoothly.
 
I put a Stant superstat from NAPA in my 76 chevy truck about 3 years ago while I was replacing the water outlet gasket which was leaking. No problems
 
My grandpa's '93 Toyota Pickup with the ledgendary 22-RE recently had no heat, and the temp gague was peged on cold. So I went to the dealer and picked one up for 10 bucks (I get employee price, because my dad is a tech there, and I used to work their so the parts guys know me.)
The old thermostat was replaced by the previous owner less than a year ago with an aftermarket part from AAP. Not sure on the brand though. Anyway I remove the gooseneck, and find the T-Stat stuck open. It seems to have a metal tab sticking out inside the cage. The t-stat was stuck on this tab, and when pried on it popped free.
The factory T-Stat did not have the tabs sticking out. It also felt much beefier.
 
Originally Posted By: sciphi
Thermostats do not need to be OEM. They do need to be a high-quality part. The cheap thermostat for my car is a piece of trash. The one for $2 more is a much nicer part, and is resold by performance companies for much more than AutoZone.


Been there done that, and its been hit or miss for me since the mid 80's with my Ford Thermostats. I've tried the Stant (top of the line), and a few of the cheaper brands and soon after installing several of them I ended up replacing them with the Ford part. In a 4.9L Ford and a 3.0L Ford engine here is what happened more than once. Install the thermostat, the engine temp climbs into the red, then quickly drops and stays in the normal zone, as if the Thermostat suddenly popped open. This happened everytime you started a stone cold engine, not good. The Ford part climbs to the Normal Zone and stays there, it never goes to red then drops down. Another issue I had with an aftermarket T-Stat was it would pulse up to just under the red zone, and down, then up to near the red zone, and down, constantly. Not worth the $3 savings. As soon as the OEM Ford part went in problem solved.

Now when I need a Thermostat or a PCV valve I go OEM. YMMV, I learned the hard way.
 
Also some OEM have a little jiggle valve in the thermostat base that the aftermarket replacement usually won't have. I forget what it's function is but I think it's to bleed off steam before the T-stat is in the opening phase.
 
I believe that is what it is for. I get quality aftermarket ones. I haven't had any problems, even in the Trans Am and that sees a lot of 1/4 mile passes. What I do get at the dealer are sensors. TPS, IAC, O2 etc.
 
I haven't had a problem with the Stant Superstats or Stants in general even if they don't have the jiggle valve that I can remember. I wouldn't buy an ACDelco at the dealer either. I get them online.
 
The Ford T-stats IIRC had a tiny hole drilled in them, others had a small ball IIRC. Nothing after market had it, even the top of the line. Maybe Ford is a little different when it comes to the Thermostat. Another thing with the Ford T-Stat if you place it in the housing and turn it clockwise slightly it would lock itself into the housing, the aftermarket parts won't do that. It was very easy to install the Ford part, and they never leaked because of that nice feature.

I gambled a few times and lost a few times with the aftermarket parts.
 
Yeah Ford does seem to have very good replacement parts. I'm starting to wonder about GM. They are starting to slip with their replacement parts. They basically have two lines, the ACDELCO which may or may not be as good as the original part and is probably made in China or India and outsourced, and their more expensive GM parts which are outsourced too but sometimes better quality but way more expensive. It didn't use to be that way with ACDelco parts.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinC25
My grandpa's '93 Toyota Pickup with the ledgendary 22-RE recently had no heat, and the temp gague was peged on cold. So I went to the dealer and picked one up for 10 bucks (I get employee price, because my dad is a tech there, and I used to work their so the parts guys know me.)
The old thermostat was replaced by the previous owner less than a year ago with an aftermarket part from AAP. Not sure on the brand though. Anyway I remove the gooseneck, and find the T-Stat stuck open. It seems to have a metal tab sticking out inside the cage. The t-stat was stuck on this tab, and when pried on it popped free.
The factory T-Stat did not have the tabs sticking out. It also felt much beefier.

I believe Ive seen one of those. Its designed that way so it won't fail closed, in theory. I don't know how its supposed to work.
 
I often wondered why front brakes OEM, at least in the older cars I owned (can't speak for 2008 Jeep yet), but front brakes on a new car would last close to 2 times longer than any replacement brakes I bought. I've tried them all too, Bendix, Raybestos, AAP's line, AZ, NAPA, in metallic, ceramic, organic, and any other names for them from all makers. OEM that the car rolled off the line with lasted almost twice as long. Same goes for the rear brakes.
 
It is a called a fail safe thermostat. It is designed to lock in an open postition if an overheating condition occurs.
When I had a couple of Turbo Dodges(Omni GLH and Shelby Lancer) that I ran high boost on I always ran them. I have one in the WS6.
 
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