Tomorrow morning I pick up my new radiator hoses at O'Reilly.

While I'm there, I'm gonna get a new thermostat and gasket.

What temp do I get? 1968 - base small block - nothing special at all.

Thanks!!

-W

 

I'm running 180's in my 70 and 72 cars Clams.. And I always put two aspirin between the valve and housing holding it open... so I don't air lock when filling.

 

Thanks!
About what should it take to refill it? A gallon of anti-freeze and how much water?

Thanks again? -W

 

wilcox says it best, I use a Mr. gasket 180 t-stat, its a robert shaw in Mr gasket wrapping, get the premix and just poor it in

 

What I do. One gallon of AF, then refill the jug with one gallon of water and pour that in. Then 1/2 gallon AF and 1/2 gallon water from the first jug until you get it filled. Warm up engine with radiator cap off and fill with 50/50 mix till about 2 inches below cap neck with warm water flowing. Replace cap and fill recovery tank to proper level. This is for radiators with the caps on the radiator and recovery tanks. Your '68 may be different of course. I run the 180 degree Mr Gasket thermostat also. They are suppose to fail in the open position. mike...

I use distilled water with the aluminum radiator. Forgot to mention that.

 

Another vote for the 180* Robertshaw®.

 

Ya, that'll avoid a lot of headaches.

 

But... I can not emphasize enough.... Use Distilled water and not tap water..

 

Even with a non-aluminum radiator?

-W

 

yup

 

My dad also did the aspirin thing, i have been drilling two small holes 180 apart.

 

OK 180 and distilled water it is. Got a pic of the aspirin trick?
This lets you fill it with the car off - right?

-W

 

or you could fill it, start the engine, wait till the t-stat opens, pull the cap and finish filling it, with itrunning. with a 180 it wont boil out as your filling, when it tops off the 2nd time, fill your overflow half way(if you have one) and you're good to go.
btw, if you use premix, you dont have to hunt down the distilled, its already in it.

 

On the '78 I also find it useful to jack up the passenger side to get the filler cap at or above the t-stat/outlet hose level. The above recommended t-stat should also be the fail-open type.

 

All thermostats I've seen in the last 10 years or so have an air bleed hole both for filling and more accurate opening. Some of the newer ones even have a little poppet valve.
Common is to drill a jole as shown anywhere from 1/16" to 1/8" to speed up the process.

It helps a lot to raise the front of the car a bit, but the biggest reason is that people don't wait long enough for the air to escape thru the tiny hole when filling.

Always check the level after a heat/cool cycle or two.

 

Please don't drill any extra holes in the thermostat. That will dramatically increase the warmup time on a cold morning, and increase cylinder and ring wear rates.
Many years ago, Chevrolet figured out that something like 90% of engine wear takes place in the first 10 seconds of operation, before any oil gets pumped anywhere. And the rest of the wear takes place between those first 10 seconds and when the engine gets fully warm. After the engine gets fully warm, assuming it's running well, wear drops to almost zero. That's one reason why taxis and limos get so many miles out of an engine- they are always warm and running. For the same reason, don't run a 160 degree 'stat. Use a 180 or 195.
If you fill the radiator slowly, you won't get too many air bubbles. I mix my coolant 50/50 before I add it. Just fill an empty coolant jug half full with coolant, and top it off with water. Start it and run it with the heater on full hot. You will have to check the coolant level for the first few days, after each heat up/cool down cycle, as the air bubbles out of solution.

 

I'm sorry.. no pics.. you just wedge a couple under the expansion valve gate... Pill, assemble and then fill...

Willcox

 

drilling holes wont dramatically increase warm up time. since 1972 every car i have owned i ran a 160 thermostat and never a problem . several went over 300,000 miles. that's propaganda about high temperature thermostats reducing wear

 

And call me in the morning.

 

Easy way to remember is "what temp is a turkey done cooking?" 180