She's finally coming home "ROAD WORTHY"

UltimateSVT

UltimateSVT

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After 5 1/2 months sitting at home I finally took my black beauty in to get a new transmission on Thursday. I'm due to pick her up this afternoon. It's been almost 6 months since I've felt the power of my DOHC monster & I can't wait to get back behind the wheel. On Wednesday I installed a 1999 Mustang Cobra water pump & removed the thermostat. The car runs super cold & with the new transmission I know it's going to run strong. I feel like a kid about to go to the fair! I'm beyond excited & I can't wait. It sucks that I had to sell the white '96 but it was a fair sacrifice to get my baby running! I'll update everyone as soon as I make it home.
 
Congrats!

I'm liking the look of the Gen 1's more and more.

Now they just look girly, instead of butt ugly. :p
 
Exactly!!! the coolant isnt spending enough time in the radaitor to expell the heat picked up by the engine, its also flowing at a higher rate and then enters the system again only to heat up yet again there for not cooling enough. With a t-stat the coolant enters a restriction and only a certin amount flows through the radatior at a slower flow rate there for it spends more time in the radaitor and gets cooler.
 
Think about it like this, if you have a 1/2 inch tube going through a block of ice and you pour beer through it it will get alittle cooler but not a whole lot because its just shooting through it, now take and add a 1/4 inch restriction in the middle and what happens??? The beer slows down, there for it stays in the ice longer only to be colder than if there was no restriction at all.

I thought the same way you do about this intill i saw it first hand on a trainer at school a few months ago. On a hot day it can cause the engine to over heat.
 
My car is running MUCH, MUCH cooler! My car always ran right in the middle of the word "NORMAL" Now it runs under the letter A in NORMAL! I understand what you guys have explained but I only have about 40% antifreeze. Antifreeze is VERY warm. I have to use the car a bit more to truly make a determination whether I'll buy another thermostat or leave as is.
 
Ok try this, 99% of engines NEED to reach 180-200 degrees for proper fuel atomization(?) if the 180-200 Degree mark isnt reached fuel milage will drop. We again tryed this on a engine trainer at school and lost between 4-6 mpgs on a V6. Not a big problem for most but i like to squeeze every MPG out of my DD i can seeing that i drive 60+ miles a day. Without a t-stat your causing the fuel to heat up too much also causing lowered MPG's

Also not a big deal but t-stats normally dont reach fully open intill roughly 20 degrees over what there rated for, IE- 160 degree t-stat iisnt fully open intill 180ish and a 180 degree isnt fully open intill 200ish, so if your swapping in a lower temp t-stat your engine runs cooler but you are not allowing the fuel to atomize (?) where it should be and in return you lower your fuel MPG's. Just food for thought.
 
jrherald420 said:
Exactly!!! the coolant isnt spending enough time in the radaitor to expell the heat picked up by the engine, its also flowing at a higher rate and then enters the system again only to heat up yet again there for not cooling enough. With a t-stat the coolant enters a restriction and only a certin amount flows through the radatior at a slower flow rate there for it spends more time in the radaitor and gets cooler.
Click to expand...

So somehow it is going too fast to LOSE heat in the radiator, but it's going fast enough to GAIN heat in the engine?

And the beer analogy only works because there's a single beer... you want a more realistic test, stick a water hose on it and see if the ice melts quicker with or without the restriction.

I'm really not buying it.
 
Thats cool, live in the shadows man!!! LOL Like i said before i didnt belive it either intill i did the test first hand with all the scan tool hooked up to a engine trainer in my engine repair class last semester. Think about it ,the coolant has to travel through the pump, the whole block, the heads, the lower intake manifold and back out. It spends more time in the engine than the radaitor. As for the beer thing i was refering to it using a keg not a single beer.
 
Keep in mind that what you are seeing is the coolant temp, not the engine block temp. Your coolant will eventually evenly heat and pick up the engine block heat but by removing your thermostat you are allowing the coolant to flow by so quickly that it isn't saturating. That is exactly why cars have thermostats to begin with.

Your coolant temps are lower but your block temps are higher. I had this exact argument with my dad once (who is an old school 1960's era mechanic) when I was building my '40 Plymouth. I was proven wrong when we fitted the car with an oil temperature gauge.

By removing the tstat you are reducing the efficiency of the cooling system and that is why it seems cooler. The heat is there, it just isn't getting transferred to your coolant.
 
MediumD said:
Somebody want to explain how that happens? I've heard it a few times and I'm skeptical... almost sounds like the "water is moving too fast through the radiator to cool down" myth...
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Because on the bottom of the thermostat is a washer looking part, that is what forces the water into the radiator.. without it.. the water CAN just recirculate itself thru the motor.. never reaching the radiator.
 
jrherald420 said:
Ok try this, 99% of engines NEED to reach 180-200 degrees for proper fuel atomization(?) if the 180-200 Degree mark isnt reached fuel milage will drop. We again tryed this on a engine trainer at school and lost between 4-6 mpgs on a V6. Not a big problem for most but i like to squeeze every MPG out of my DD i can seeing that i drive 60+ miles a day. Without a t-stat your causing the fuel to heat up too much also causing lowered MPG's

Also not a big deal but t-stats normally dont reach fully open intill roughly 20 degrees over what there rated for, IE- 160 degree t-stat iisnt fully open intill 180ish and a 180 degree isnt fully open intill 200ish, so if your swapping in a lower temp t-stat your engine runs cooler but you are not allowing the fuel to atomize (?) where it should be and in return you lower your fuel MPG's. Just food for thought.
Click to expand...

On a "carb motor" where fuel is carried thru the intake.. YES you want 190-200 degree's to insure proper fuel atomization and that the Air Fuel Mixture remains "vaporized"....

but on a direct port injected motor, where NO FUEL is in the intake manifold, having a 190-200 degree thermostat is just costing you HP..and Economy.

And on the Mark 8's 195 degree thermostat it is FULLY open at 200 degree's.. not 20 degree's higher.
 
Hey im just telling you what the ASE book teaches us. We removed the t-stat on a 2004 Gm 3.4l v6 and it caused reduced MPG's.

Directly from the Engine Repair and the Heating and Air Conditioning Books

Thermostats-
Speeds up engine warm up.
Regulates flow and temperature of engine coolant.
Most are on the outlet side of coolant flow.
Maintains optimum engine operating temperature for best emissions and economy.


Thermostat temperature is the opening temperature
Thermostat should be fully open 20°F above opening temperature
195°F thermostat = fully open at 215°F
180°F thermostat = fully open at 200°F
 
All I know is the stat in my 1995 Yukon GT is too cold and the gas mileage sunk like a stone as well as the heat in the cab. Too cold a stat is just as bad as no stat. It will affect the mileage. As for the heat part it is really just that the coolant is not there long enought to capture or reject heat.

If you don't believe everyone here than try it for yourself but do a bench mark first with a stat in the car. If it didn't need a stat then why did it come with one?
 
LSC HUNTER said:
If you don't believe everyone here than try it for yourself but do a bench mark first with a stat in the car. If it didn't need a stat then why did it come with one?
Click to expand...


If the car didn't need all those intake restrictions and goofy elephant ears, why did it come with that? :)
 
Starting tomorrow I'm installing an ice machine with straight access to the radiator! PROBLEM SOLVED! lol...
Guys, I can see what you mean & fully understand the theory. I'll purchase a thermostat in then next week or so.
 
Alex thats the reason why I blew the headgaskets in my 95 3.8 cougar...the thermostat is needed....at all times. That was in the old engines that you didnt need a t-stat.
 
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