what do you guys think. I live in Phoenix . Should I go with 160 or 180 thermostat .2002 zo6

 

Keep it OE. The thermostat will not allow the car to run any cooler (if that is your goal) and the lower thermostat really wont do anything for you.

I live in Texas where it gets pretty hot as well. I have a 190 and according to the DIC my car runs 192-196 in 100+ days. I attribute this to a clean radiator and fresh fluid.

 

Agree. These motors were designed to run hotter than most. If it ain't broke don't fix it. OEM is the way to go unless you have mods, then ....... just add $$$

 

What they said. I am also in a hot place, Florida and with the stock stat I rarely see over 210 and that is when sitting in traffic. The biggest thing to do, make sure the radiator is clean. When I first got my car it overheated at the slightest stop in traffic, after cleaning the bushel basket of leaves, bags, papers, sticks and other various items from the condenser and radiator it has not gotten hot yet.

 

I'll just throw in this, keep in mind the ECM wants to regulate the fuel and timing, If the engine never gets to the required temperature the ECM is confused, and it can, not will, but it can throw off the engines running qualities and for what 10 degrees cooler, stay with what is OEM, your engine will thank you !

 

I lived in Phoenix for a number of years. I had the 160 Stat installed in mine and I also had a custom tune put in the car. If you go with a cooler stat, then make sure you tune the car to run with whatever you install. I rarely saw temps climb about 190-195. You can program the fans to come on sooner then the factory setting with the custom tune.

 

I would just keep the stock thermostat.

 

Back when I first joined the CF, was when I bought my C-5, and the C-5 generation was fairly new. Guys were wanting to run lower coolant temps, and since the LS series of engines used a different design of t'stat, there were questions as to what to do. One of the "tricks" was to install a "shim" on the stem of the plunger, making the stem "longer". This made the unit open sooner, therefore running cooler. I did this, and according to the car's DIC, it runs at 182-184* F.

 

I do/did the same...(Tucson)

 

thanks to all of you guys. I appreciate the help

 

Any Pics? TIA

 

I'm NOT in a hot environement BUT I did grow up and spent my early adult yrs in one.

In Ohio I run a mostly stock engine and a 160 T-Stat w/matching tune from ECS. I really like it except that the fan seem to run too much at low speed and low temps.
If I were in the heat of the south / southwest I'd... upgrade the rad and upgrade the e-fans and run a 180 T-Stat.

 

IMHO, the colder T-stats got their start in the late '80s/early '90s, and helped mainly due to the OEM tunes being so damn lean. A colder stat was installed on a stock tuned car to ever so slightly richen the tune. It fooled the ECM into thinking the engine wasn't yet up to temp, so then got a bit of extra fuel. Basically it was a "poor man's tune," and the early ECMs had "chips," or "proms," so it was more difficult to tune an early ECM. After living with a 160° stat for almost 20 years, I'd advise against it. Why? Because the engine doesn't warm up as fast, but mainly because the engine won't run any cooler. Stats control the lower temperature range, allowing the engine to warm up faster. I have a DeWitts radiator, and a 160° stat. I run between 180°-195° most often.....

 

The radiator is where the party’s goin’ on….

 

Sure.......

 

OK, so my story. I purchased my C5 3 months ago. I live in the Chicago area ( don't laugh and I'm still alive ). When I noticed the temp reaching 199,201,205 when driving that caught my attention. I cleaned out the debris in between the condenser and the radiator ( there wasn't much there ) and that did not make virtually difference. At a stop light it would get into the 210,215,220, and a few times reached the 226 mark when the first factory fan is programmed to turn on. I did not like that. So one of my priorities was to get the temp on the 190's. So I purchased a DeWitts radiator and their fan system. When I installed and drove, the temp's were still in the 201,205,208. I was disappointed I had spent all this $ and not much difference. One thing I did notice was the temp never got above 208, no matter how long I sat there engine idling. Also, I have an auto. so there is extra heat getting into the radiator via the cooling tube in the right side tank. And I also noticed that when I drove in 3rd gear instead of the Drive, the eng ran 2 degrees cooler.
Then I went to a tuner and he reset my fans to turn on: Fan 1 = on at 205, off at 200. Fan 2 = On at 210, off at 205. So far fan 2 has never turned on and fan 1 has turned on a few times. All of this with the stock 190 tstat.
Then I replaced the 190 tstat with a 180 tstat and that got me what I wanted. Now in 82 degree temp, the eng runs at 190-192. At a stop light, the temp raises a bit quicker than before and only a few times has the fan 1 turned on. When Fan 1 does turn on it quickly cools down to 198, then the fan turns off. Most times I'm accelerating from the stop light before the fan turns off. And most times I'm leaving the stop light before the fan turns on.
But definitely when I am cruising in Drive, the temp is in the 190-192 range. a few times I hit 189.
I had read so many places that installing a colder tstat would not reduce eng temp, so I was pessimistic when I installed the 180, I was prepared for it to not work. But it did. Now I wonder what would happen if I installed a 160 tstat.

 

Aftermarket t stats only allow the car to start registering at a lower temp. It doesn't actually do anything by itself to keep engine temps down. You can retune your fans to come on at a lower temp. You can also upgrade your radiator. However, as others have said, you should just stick with the stock tstat unless it fails.

 

True, the t-stat doesn’t remove heat by itself, BUT combined with a radiator having higher than stock heat transfer capability and/or a much higher flow water pump, the temp can be reduced. That said, it’s possible to run the engine too cold for optimum performance.

When it comes down to cooling, I’d much rather be tasked with increasing temp to optimum, that stressing over a minimal cooling capacity.

 

Replacing JUST the tstat is what we were talking about not helping...all that went out the window when you upgraded the radiator. The new radiator is what enabled you to take advantage of a slightly lower tstat

 

Heggsc5, I believe you. The DeWitts radiator I used is used by those who track their car. I will not be tracking my car so I knew it was a bit of an overkill, but I figured it would be better to have too much cooling and then work from there then to not have enough cooling. I know there are a lot of owners that believe the engineers designed the power plant that way, But I've been in the Auto industry all my life and If i spoke with the LS engineers and they told me that is how they designed it, first I would believe them, second I would be surprised. I do not come at this a s a fan, but as a look from behind he scenes. So I look at it more skeptical. We are talking about companies that decide if they should do a recall based on $ as apposed to what is better that the customer. Toyota frowns on dealers that tell their customers about recalls. They are not allowed to send out mailers indicating to call the dealer to see if they are involved in a recall. They think that is bad press. When in fact I, and many others think it is good press. Because it looks as if you are trying to take care of their customer and that will get you repeat business. And Chrysler has more recalls than any other car manufacturer. So the dealers service departments are filled with recall services which squezzes out the maintenance service, and that's how their service departments make their money. When recalls go down for Chrysler, the service departments lose money.
I've been in this game too long, and it is hard for me to accept that the engineers designed the system to run in the low 200's with fans as back up to prevent catastrophic damage. I think it was more an accounting thing, the skinny radiator was used because it carried a lower cost and it barely worked living at the outside of the safe design parameters of no failure. All the stars must align and the moons must be in perfect phase, and then the LS1 can run in the low 200's and probably no harm will be done. And the more I talk about this on the forum, the more I'm inclined to try a 160 tstat just to see what happens.