Went to Carlisle for the first time..wow, anyway had AR headers, Xpipe up to my Corsa Pace Car installed. Then went to East Coast Supercharging for a tune. Tune was to include for a 160 degree thermostat I installed when I got home.
Just read another thread on this subject that has me questioning lowering these temps.
It was 98 degees here today, went for a half hour ride to monitor temps. Got Oil up to 205, coolant 176-180. Am I ok with these temps..what about when ambient temps go down to 50+ say...
Would it be a good idea to put the stock stat back in for the limited Spring/Fall driving when temps are lower?
Thanks for any input..Tom

 

You are absolutely fine at those temps. Danger zones are 260 deg on oil and 235 on coolant, you are not even close. You can leave the 160 deg stat in, all it will do is take longer to warm up when ambient temp falls into the 30-40's..

 

My coolant temps here in south FL sit at 220 - 230. I've tried burping the car. The shop that was going to install my t-stat said it was stuck open and they 'clipped the spring' until I get the 160 tstat in there but I know that's not going to help the car once its at operating temps unless the stocker is creating some sort of flow restriction.

I'm thinking about replacing the water pump. I can't figure out what else it can be. I do recall removing the front radiator shroud/air dam(?) when I installed my vararam but I don't think this is the culprit. I've maintained those temps even before I removed that piece.

I've inspected the radiator, it doesn't look like there's anything caught in there to create overheating. Any ideas other than the water pump? Maybe I should get some compressed air and blow through the radiator fins?

 

Thanks,
I was more concerned about running too cool rather than too Hot..I've been reading about too cold oil (160* to 180*) is worse than too hot..

 

Well for what it's worth, you can run a car too cool. Most modern motor oil needs to be above 200 degrees to have it's detergent and other additives package begine to work.

 

Take it from someone who knows.. this person CHJ in Virgina should stick to managing, and leave suggestions as to how to keep your car safe and trouble free in the winter to people who have designed this car... you do not want to run your coolant at 160 when its 30 degrees outside,This is what will happen when temps reach 30 F.and you are runnig a 160 stat. as I said in so many of these blind leading the blind comments like above... As a designer of this car and very instrumental in the development of the OLM, you do Not want to run your car with oil temps lower than 200 F for extended periods of time... you will only successfully take an easy 200,000 mile engine and destroy its longevity.. the main reason is cold temps will cause shear, and cause thermal breakdown of the oil properties, destroying their ability to lubricate properly. Running hotter is much better than running colder. When it comes to the longevity of your engine. A 160 is fine in the summer.. but not in the winter.. when temps hit freezing... the trick is to keep the car in the sweet spot.. 190/200 coolant, 210/220 oil.... Hotter is better than colder.
Tuners will tell you that colder will give you more horse power, and it will but they dont tell you the damgare running an LSX engine at an oil temp of 160/170 will do. We did the testing and we know what happens... AS I always say.. be careful who you listen too here... there are a lot of clueless people here...

 

Interesting.

 

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Thank you..YOUR response to another thread on this subject is what made me question what I have done. I value your input..My car is a Spring to Fall toy for me. If I monitor Oil temps at 200+ how much do you think I am taking off the life of my engine. I am old school on religiously changing oil at 3000 miles. Again not following the Oil life monitor. I understand you would have me reinstall the stock thermostat and have the PCM retuned for the change. This is now a very likely scenario. It seems for what little is gained..a lot is lost
Thanks...Tom