GPatrick wrote:
Your setup may work in the summer but you will damage your engine when it cools down
How do you figure?? how will an engine running at say 130º instead of the desired 180º damage anything?? not arguing, simply if there is potential harm to the engine I would like to know about it.
I will concede that yes when the weather cools down the heater will not work and the car is going to run on the cooler side. But in MT winter means lots of snow so I will not be driving the car when it gets cold. in other words the heater is not an issue.
Derek wrote:
The purpose of the thermostat in your engine, isn't to let (Hot water out). It's to (Keep hot water in the rad), long enough for it to cool down before being introduced back into the engine.
I have heard this argument many times but I am not buying it. There is a part to this theory that makes sense because it is true that the longer the water is in the radiator the cooler it is going to get. Problem is, during the hold time, while the water is cooling in the radiator the water in the engine is getting hotter. So the hold times are canceling each other out. Also my 27" X 18" aluminum radiator hold about 1 gallon of fluid while it took two and a half gallons to fill both the engine and radiator which means the block holds more water than the radiator. This means during hold time more fluid is getting hot than getting cold which is going to build heat not reduce it.
To me the proof is in the pudding: Car runs hot, especially at idle (enough to cause fuel issues) I swap out the 180º thermostat for a 160º thermostat and the situation improves even on long drives. If your "hold in the radiator" theory was correct the 160º would not have made the situation better but worse because the 160º is open more allowing less hold time in the radiator. Even in this configuration there was still a bit of an issue at idle especially with the fan delay.
Then I remove the thermostat all together and as predicted the car runes even cooler (even when driven a lot) my radiator is highly efficient and you can feel a big difference in temp between the inflow and out flow sides.
Derek wrote:
If taking out the thermostat makes it run cooler it's because the rad isn't doing it's job (Blocked or clogged rad, Too small rad, Not enough air flow).
That doesn't even make sense. Your whole concept is the water needs to be in the radiator as long as possible so it can be cooled as much as possible. If that was true AND my cooling system was not where it should be removing the thermostat would make the issue worse not better. under your theory I would have a sub par cooling system and the fluid would not be in the system long enough to get cool enough so the car should steadily get hotter, not run at a constant temp.
My radiator works really well. After pulling the thermostat I let it sit at idle and watched the gauge. It climbed to just past half and then the fans came on. They were on for a few minutes, the needle dropped to just below half, the fans shut off and the cycle repeated it self. I upped the RPMS from idle speed to about 2500 and the same cycle happened over and over. It took it a little less time to get hot enough to turn the fans on and a little longer before they turned off (compared to idle) BUT it was consistent within the RPM range. In other words the cycle at idle did not change length of time for the fans to turn off and on cycle to cycle and the same was true at the higher RPM cycles. They stayed the same relative to each other. This tells me the cooling components are more than sufficient to cool the system.
Derek wrote:
ALL CARS COME FROM THE FACTORY WITH A THERMOSTAT FOR A REASON. Your cars not running cooler, It's just taking longer to heat up! .....And your losing performance because it's not running at a constant optimum temperature..
You are correct all cars come from the factory with a thermostat for a reason, but it is not to hold fluid in the radiator so it gets extra cooling time. Thermostats are put there by the factory for one reasons to maintain desired hot opporating tempriture. The reason for a desired opporating temp is to maximize fuel economy, keep people warm when its cold outside, and if possible maximize performance in that order of importance.
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I don't know how many different ways I can say it, but basically the rad is a heat exchanger "Right?" . If the water passes through it too fast it can't cool down and will eventually heat soak and overwhelm the whole system. (Allow me to illistrate it if I can). If you were running a 180 thermostat, and it was getting hotter then 180, above 180 the thermostat was wide open and not closeing ,Thus as if you had no thermostat "Right?" and it still wasn't cooling down. As I said before the system was getting overwhelmed ,Just faster with the thermostat..