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Looking for a 160 thermostat replacement. I’ve read a few old threads about aftermarket t-stats failing. Is there a new go to design now, or what brand should I go with?
Katech is the brand to go with now. Their design mimics the OEM O-ring to avoid the common failure of the other brands. I would go for a 174 degree version for a street car.
You don’t necessarily want to use a 160 degree thermostat. It lets the coolant run through the radiator too fast. A 174 or 180 is better and will give the coolant time to cool in the radiator.
just what I have read up on. If your getting too hot check other things.
You don’t necessarily want to use a 160 degree thermostat. It lets the coolant run through the radiator too fast. A 174 or 180 is better and will give the coolant time to cool in the radiator.
just what I have read up on. If your getting too hot check other things.
Coolant wont move any faster with different thermostat when they are open. It just changes how early they are open.
Nah. "Time to cool in the radiator". He meant fluid velocity.
160 tstat is a cheap easy wait to give the engine some more timing without changing the tuning since we know colder coolant = more timing on these cars. Its good for drag racing, street racing, but for road racing it's about useless unless you're plenty cooled (then you can use the tstat to move your desired setpoint around). Remember a tstat Is the opening temp, not full open temp..that's usually 15-20 degrees after.
Last edited by BrunoTheMellow; Jul 26, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
The coolant advance changes aren't as large as some may think based on the graph on the left. The multiplier on the right hows that between 175-212 degree F, the ECU only adds or subtracts up to .3 degrees.
Last edited by Internets_Ninja; Jul 26, 2020 at 01:12 PM.
The coolant advance changes aren't as large as some may think based on the graph on the left. The multiplier on the right hows that between 175-212 degree F, the ECU only adds or subtracts up to .3 degrees.
I've never quite understood the graph on the right and tend not to believe it as real life scenario has shown my friend losing a lot more power than it states.
For example. From 212 to 248 it only shows 3 degrees of timing loss on the left. Is that equal 6-7 mph on the 1/2 mile? But if you include the graph on the right. It's less than half a point of timing. No way! His car basically lost the 75-100 hp advantange it had to mine once his coolant got above 240.
If 1 degree of timing is only a handful horsepower, he must have lost a lot more...
Last edited by BrunoTheMellow; Jul 26, 2020 at 02:23 PM.
You don’t necessarily want to use a 160 degree thermostat. It lets the coolant run through the radiator too fast. A 174 or 180 is better and will give the coolant time to cool in the radiator.
just what I have read up on. If your getting too hot check other things.
I added cam and heads, and the past few days temp has been in the 104F in Texas. In traffic my temp begins to creep up into the 238F. Thought the 160 t-stat would help.
I added cam and heads, and the past few days temp has been in the 104F in Texas. In traffic my temp begins to creep up into the 238F. Thought the 160 t-stat would help.
You just need a stock replacement thermostat or your fan isn't working. Or you have air in the cooling lines.
Last edited by BrunoTheMellow; Jul 26, 2020 at 06:16 PM.
I've never quite understood the graph on the right and tend not to believe it as real life scenario has shown my friend losing a lot more power than it states.
For example. From 212 to 248 it only shows 3 degrees of timing loss on the left. Is that equal 6-7 mph on the 1/2 mile? But if you include the graph on the right. It's less than half a point of timing. No way! His car basically lost the 75-100 hp advantange it had to mine once his coolant got above 240.
If 1 degree of timing is only a handful horsepower, he must have lost a lot more...
Without datalogs its a guess. But can absolutely tell you that the table on the right is a multiplier table and it applies that to the value on the left. For example, if your coolant temp is 194 degrees the left table shows -1, but the right table shows 0. This means -1 x 0 = 0 so no timing is added or pulled.
Go to 212 degrees. The table on the left shows -3 degrees, but the multiplier table on the right shows anywhere from about 0.3 to 0.13. So at lower rpm you will see .3 x 3 = 1 degree pulled, then as you get higher up in the RPM's you see -3 x .13 = .33 so you get -.3 degrees.
Anyway this isn't the only spark modifier table that is referenced. But I can guarantee you that you won't see a lot of timing added or removed from coolant temps. It's very minimal. If your buddy is losing 75-100HP and 7 MPH in the 1/4 mile, its not from the coolant temp spark modifier.
Last edited by Internets_Ninja; Jul 26, 2020 at 06:19 PM.
Without datalogs its a guess. But can absolutely tell you that the table on the right is a multiplier table and it applies that to the value on the left. For example, if your coolant temp is 194 degrees the left table shows -1, but the right table shows 0. This means -1 x 0 = 0 so no timing is added or pulled.
Go to 212 degrees. The table on the left shows -3 degrees, but the multiplier table on the right shows anywhere from about 0.3 to 0.13. So at lower rpm you will see .3 x 3 = 1 degree pulled, then as you get higher up in the RPM's you see -3 x .13 = .33 so you get -.3 degrees.
Anyway this isn't the only spark modifier table that is referenced. But I can guarantee you that you won't see a lot of timing added or removed from coolant temps. It's very minimal. If your buddy is losing 75-100HP and 7 MPH in the 1/4 mile, its not from the coolant temp spark modifier.
Half mile distance. Race track. He was losing speed each lap as his coolant increased. His IATs are good.
Only thing I could tell by PDR at least. And I can absolutely say that my old car (procharged c7 z51 which IATs were great) was an absolute dog on the track once coolant temps rose. Maybe it looks at oil temp too since that rises linearly with coolant on these cars
Last edited by BrunoTheMellow; Jul 26, 2020 at 08:59 PM.
You just need a stock replacement thermostat or your fan isn't working. Or you have air in the cooling lines.
Fan seems to be working fine. It might be air in cooling system since it was drained when I did the cam swap. What method do you all use to bleed the Coolant system? Remove the cap and turn the car on to “burp” any trapped air?
Fan seems to be working fine. It might be air in cooling system since it was drained when I did the cam swap. What method do you all use to bleed the Coolant system? Remove the cap and turn the car on to “burp” any trapped air?
Yeah. And find a ramp of some kind. Drive up it forward and backwards. That did the trick for mine. I couldn't get the system to cooperate on jack stands until I did that. Then a lot of air came out.
160 Thermostat
