Tstat question
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Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2009
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From: China Grove N.C.
Tstat question
Plan on getting a tune at a local shop soon what tstat should I put in my car ,the shop recommends a 160 is that to low ? Or should I go with a 180 im open to suggestions!
Team Owner
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From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Does it get below freezing in N.C. ? Do you drive your car in freezing weather? If you have a 160 stat in the car, and its 30 F. your coolant will be at 160 and your oil wont be much higher than that..running your oil at 160/180 for long periods of time will excessively reduce engine life.. this engine is designed to run at 190/200 coolant and 210/220 oil ( the sweet spot ). hotter is much better than colder for engine life. Tunners will tell you that you get more performance out of a colder operating temp, but they never mention what cold temps do to oil especially in the top end... they consider it,, job security.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2008
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From: Dallas, TX
Does it get below freezing in N.C. ? Do you drive your car in freezing weather? If you have a 160 stat in the car, and its 30 F. your coolant will be at 160 and your oil wont be much higher than that..running your oil at 160/180 for long periods of time will excessively reduce engine life.. this engine is designed to run at 190/200 coolant and 210/220 oil ( the sweet spot ). hotter is much better than colder for engine life. Tunners will tell you that you get more performance out of a colder operating temp, but they never mention what cold temps do to oil especially in the top end... they consider it,, job security.
I run the 160 in mine but it's hot here all the time.
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I agree with Evil Twin, I have read a bunch of literature that supports not running too cool with these LS motors.
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Burning Brakes
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From: Dallas, TX
Does it get below freezing in N.C. ? Do you drive your car in freezing weather? If you have a 160 stat in the car, and its 30 F. your coolant will be at 160 and your oil wont be much higher than that..running your oil at 160/180 for long periods of time will excessively reduce engine life.. this engine is designed to run at 190/200 coolant and 210/220 oil ( the sweet spot ). hotter is much better than colder for engine life. Tunners will tell you that you get more performance out of a colder operating temp, but they never mention what cold temps do to oil especially in the top end... they consider it,, job security.
Now I'm curious, I'll check to see my temps this winter. Changing the t-stat isn't too hard, don't want to run it too cold for sure.
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From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
I am sure your right on the wear and tear part but then it would stand to reason that even the 180 is too low. If the temps will be at 160 during the winter, won't they be at 180 with a 180? Not really an issue with me since we get about 3 days at 30 degrees per year...
Now I'm curious, I'll check to see my temps this winter. Changing the t-stat isn't too hard, don't want to run it too cold for sure.
Now I'm curious, I'll check to see my temps this winter. Changing the t-stat isn't too hard, don't want to run it too cold for sure.
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2010
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From: San Angelo TX
Really it depends on the tempatures in your area and what temps you want to see.
I know people that run 160 all year round. some swap out the 160 for a 180 in the colder months.
arguements can be made on both sides about performance vs longivity.
I know people that run 160 all year round. some swap out the 160 for a 180 in the colder months.
arguements can be made on both sides about performance vs longivity.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2008
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From: Rochester Hills MI
depends on how you drive if you ask me. if you do a LOT of spirited driving, you will never have a problem with the 160 t-stat. as long as the oil temp gets above 200 every now and then you should be fine. i drive mine spring to fall, and i get the oil temps above 200 at least once every few days when its cold (around 35F). Normal operating temps for me in that weather are around 172 coolant and 195 oil.
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We saw all this test data back when we were writting the algorithims for the Oil life monitor and we saw what the effects of cold oil does to the life of the oil... forcing cold oil though tight clearances causes shear.. this causes thermal breakdown of the oil properties.. its the reason we added cold starts and cold oil signals in the algorithims.. This LSX engine was the first american designed car to use 200,000 miles as a bench mark for engine life. When we did this in the mid ninties.. everyone was using 100,000 miles. I have a dozen or so members who contact me via Private message that have over 300,000 miles and the engine has never been opened. They follow the OLM... in fact we made it so tight, that in 2000 we uped the base line from 10,000 miles to 15,000 miles, after 3 years of field data. This is were the OLM starts to do a countdown.. It resets the baseline when you hit the rest, to 10,000 miles . it counts down from there. 2000 and up resets to 15,000 miles. THIS does NOT mean you can drive your car for 15,000 miles between oil changes...The OLM subtracts miles with the conditions and drive style the engine actually sees. The OLM works.. GM spent a lot of money developing it. So use it.
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We saw all this test data back when we were writting the algorithims for the Oil life monitor and we saw what the effects of cold oil does to the life of the oil... forcing cold oil though tight clearances causes shear.. this causes thermal breakdown of the oil properties.. its the reason we added cold starts and cold oil signals in the algorithims.. This LSX engine was the first american designed car to use 200,000 miles as a bench mark for engine life. When we did this in the mid ninties.. everyone was using 100,000 miles. I have a dozen or so members who contact me via Private message that have over 300,000 miles and the engine has never been opened. They follow the OLM... in fact we made it so tight, that in 2000 we uped the base line from 10,000 miles to 15,000 miles, after 3 years of field data. This is were the OLM starts to do a countdown.. It resets the baseline when you hit the rest, to 10,000 miles . it counts down from there. 2000 and up resets to 15,000 miles. THIS does NOT mean you can drive your car for 15,000 miles between oil changes...The OLM subtracts miles with the conditions and drive style the engine actually sees. The OLM works.. GM spent a lot of money developing it. So use it.
