Thermostat question
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 484
Likes: 5
From: Madison Wisconsin
Thermostat question
I have a 93 that runs right around 200 degrees on the road. Over the weekend I completely flushed the entire system and pulled the radiator. There was a fair amount of leaves, dirt and even a small bird stuck on the radiator. I cleaned it all out. I then checked the thermostat in a pot of water and it does open around 180 to 185 degrees. However when the gauge reads 200 degrees the upper hose is hot and the lower is luke warm at best. I would have thought both hoses would be hot. I'm wondering if my 180 thermostat is really working properly. If the temp reads 200+ should both the upper and lower hose temps be the same?
Thanks,
Jim
Thanks,
Jim
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
Hot coolant goes into the radiator, the radiator gets rid of some of the heat from the coolant, lowering its temperature and cooler coolant comes out of the radiator to go back into the engine to pick up some more heat.......that is why the upper hose is hot and the lower hose is warm.
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,845
Likes: 30
Hot coolant goes into the radiator, the radiator gets rid of some of the heat from the coolant, lowering its temperature and cooler coolant comes out of the radiator to go back into the engine to pick up some more heat.......that is why the upper hose is hot and the lower hose is warm.
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 3,504
Likes: 4
From: Mexico Beach FL
I have a 93 that runs right around 200 degrees on the road. Over the weekend I completely flushed the entire system and pulled the radiator. There was a fair amount of leaves, dirt and even a small bird stuck on the radiator. I cleaned it all out. I then checked the thermostat in a pot of water and it does open around 180 to 185 degrees. However when the gauge reads 200 degrees the upper hose is hot and the lower is luke warm at best. I would have thought both hoses would be hot. I'm wondering if my 180 thermostat is really working properly. If the temp reads 200+ should both the upper and lower hose temps be the same?
Thanks,
Jim
Thanks,
Jim
With a 180 degree thermostat, open road temps for my '92 were about 194.
With a 160 degree thermostat, my open road temps are about 178 - 181.
Don't confuse reverse flow cooling with conventional flow.
Tom Piper
