Went to local dealership to have them do oil change and flush radiator. while their I had them install a new hypertech 160 stat that recently bought. Car ran 205 yesterday and it was only 65 degrees outside. :confused: Does this sound right? Could the dealer have screwed something up? The car seemed to run cooler with the stock thermo. Anyone else experience this and is there a remedy?

 

Did you change the fan settings?????

 

That's the first thing that I thought as well, but the tech said that he did not adjust it :confused:

 

You have to adjust the fans. :cheers:

 

:yesnod: :yesnod:

 

Nitro-C5:

The "opening" temperature, be it 160 or 190 does NOT dictate the coolant temperature as you drive your car.

Very simply, the operating coolant temperature is determined by the amount of heat that is being transferred to the coolant from the engine. and the ability of the radiator to remove heat from the coolant. As you drive, the more horsepower you are making from the engine`the greater is the amount of heat being transferred to the coolant and the hotter the coolant temperature will be. On the heat extraction side, the bigger and more efficient the radiator, the cooler the outside air is, and the amount of cooler air flow through the radiator will determine how much heat can be removed from the coolant, which results is the final coolant temperature.

If, at any given heat input to your coolant system, your radiator is incapable of removing enough heat from the coolant (due to poor coolant flow through the radiator, or poor air flow through the radiator, air temperature, or insufficient heat removal capacity of your radiator), and you have a 160 thermostat installed, your operating temperature is going to be somewhere above the 160 temp level, but if the heat extraction system is efficient and can remove all the heat from the coolant, then your operating temperature with a 160 thermo , should be right arount 160 degrees. If you had a 190 thermo, your operating temp should be right around 190, because those are the temperatures that those thermostats would allow proper coolant circulation through your efficient radiator (heat extraction system).

I have run my car very hard at Watking Glen in the summer with air temperatures around 90. With my stock rediator and a 170 thermostat, the coolant temperatures were reading in the 230-240 range immediately after running hot laps for 30 min. After I replaced my stock radiator with an Be-Cool oversized "racing" radiator the coolant temperatures dropped into the 180-190 range with the same thermostat, air and fan settings. On cooler days, my street coolant temperatures are in the 170-180 range when driving around town or on the highway, because my heat extraction system (radiator) is capable of removing all the heat that is being put into the coolant by the engine, down to the the "opening" temp setting of the thermostat.

If your operating temperatures are up from their "normal" levels and there is no logical explaination, then there could be some sort of blockage to the coolant flow through the radiator. It could be the new thermostat is not opening properly or your coolant system was not properly refilled causing a coolant flow problem, At a 65 air temp and non-agressive driving, I would think that your coolant temperature should be in the 160-170 range while the car is moving down the highway and it will heat up to the 230 range if the car is stationary (the temp which the fans are programed to come on). Turning on the AIR will activiate the smaller fan and halp the air flow through the radiator when the car is stationary, which will lower the coolant temperature.

Hope all of this helpes :) :) :)

 

Jim,

Thanks for the VERY detailed reply. MY fan was set down to kick on at 180 degrees when I took it in to the shop. Is there anyway at all that this number could have been reset without the dealer going in a monkeying with it? I really want to know since I'm about 10 minutes away from calling the technician an outright liar.

 

Nitro-C5

You can easily check if the fans are still coming on at 180, before accusing the tech of lieing.

Also, if your temp readings were made while driving your car through 65 degree air, even if the fan was off, your temps should not be over 190 unless you are really poring the coals to it.

If he only installed the thermostat and then refilled the coolant system, then your high temp readings shoud be caused from the new thermostat not opening when it should, some other blockage of the circulating system. or the system has some air in it causing poor circulation.
:cool: