04 Thermostat Mod Question
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 279
Likes: 1
From: RI
04 Thermostat Mod Question
So I just received my pcm back from ECU today. I forgot I told them I was putting in a 175 stat with the tune. I planned on modding my stat with a shim, but I screwed myself waiting until the last minute just to realize you cannot shime the 04 stat. My only option right now is to buy a 180, hope the 5 degree difference does not matter (calling ECU tomorrow) and wait another week to receive it. I do not want to wait another week without driving my car, my wife is already on my case everyday for not having a car. After reading numerous post about cutting the spring to mod it I cannot figure out if this can be done on an 04? I am thinking I can still probably cut the spring, and hopefully get close to 175, but I want to verify before I take it out tomorrow. Any info on this would be great.
Thanks
Thanks
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 279
Likes: 1
From: RI
I ended up buying a 02 thermostat with housing today at pep boys for 33 bucks. I am going to try to shim that and test it in water first. The only thing is the housing has 3 bolt holes, I know my 04 has two. The extra hole seems really out of place, so I think I will be fine with just my two holes. Hopefully it works out, if not Ill just put the stock back in and order a new one. I did not realize I could run the 192 or whatever with the tune.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 279
Likes: 1
From: RI
So this turned out to be a lot worse than I expected. I could not find a decent size spacer, nobody at home depo had any idea what I was talking about even though I brought in my housing. I ended up getting brass screws that I cut. I had a feeler gauge, but it is not a good one and could not get a decent measurement. I ended up just putting the smallest piece in, then the middle, then the BB. I ended up going with the middle piece which seems to be opening my thermostat at 178. Then again its kind of hard to tell when it first begins to open. It is not fully open until 198 though.
I am going to go cruise around today with the current thermo/tune and see what my temps are. Does anyone know what the driving temp of a 180ish thermostat should be?
EDIT: Big surprise, the 02 housing did not fit. I exchanged it for another 04 OEM stat. I am going to attempt to cut the springs while I wait for a good one and see what happens. It was only 12 bucks, so I am just curious at this point.
I am going to go cruise around today with the current thermo/tune and see what my temps are. Does anyone know what the driving temp of a 180ish thermostat should be?
EDIT: Big surprise, the 02 housing did not fit. I exchanged it for another 04 OEM stat. I am going to attempt to cut the springs while I wait for a good one and see what happens. It was only 12 bucks, so I am just curious at this point.
Last edited by socci; Jun 2, 2011 at 08:36 PM.
