Hi, I was wondering the benefits of a 180 thermostat over a 160. I see them both advertised for the same price and am wondering why anyone would buy the 180.

 

180 * is the stock replacement.

Some people do want to replace stuff with stock equivalents, you know.

TS

 

I thought stock was 195??

 

The stock thermostat in my 2001 Z28 IS 195, to get the full effect of the 180, you would have to reprogram your electric fan on/off times, this is how I have mine 1st fan on/off - 194/185, 2nd fan on/off - 195/186.

Hope this helps you out in some way.

SteveC

 

so would you recommend a 160 or a 180 steve?

 

Oops... I'll stand corrected...

 

this my friend:

"to get the full effect of the 180, you would have to reprogram your electric fan on/off times"

is a bunch of horseshiit!!

this is one of the biggest myths and it pisses me off. the ONLY time that reprogramming your fans has any consequence on your engine temp is when you are:
1- sitting in traffic, and in that case do you care if you have an extra 2 or 4 hp from a cooler engiine?
2- sitting in the staging lanes

when you are driving around or on the highway what the hell does it matter when your fans turn on? your engine will already be operating at a lower temperature due to the lower thermostat no matter what your fans are set at!.

now as for when iin the staging lanes, if you are THAT concerned with keeping your engine cool between rounds, install a fan control switch...that way you don't even have to have the engine running to cool the engine. a $50 fan switch, or a $10 do it yourself switch, is alot cheaper than having your computer reprogramed, or buying a programmer to do it yourself. the only time it would be cost effective would be if you have LS1 edit or something.

please for the love of god stop telling people that a lower stat is useless without fan programming...it is FALSE.

sorry for the pissy attitude, long day and this topic is a pet peeve

 

That being said I have a 160 and Im happy with the engine running cooler. Benefit or not doesnt matter to me

 

Ok now the 160 is for summer time and the 180 is for winter now you would use the 160 in summer due to you car does not need as much to get you car to normal operating temp in the winter time it is a bit colder so you would want a 180 so your car to get to normal temp quicker that is the way it works. I would stick with the 160 and don’t change it at winter you will due fine not much of a difference. Just don’t get on it till the car warms up a bit longer.

 

camaronewbiess ;

I would go with the 180F, and the fan reprogramming. The vast concences (sp) is that the 160 runs the engine too cold, and the PCM reads this and delivers more fuel, causing carbon buildup.

teke184 ; IT IS FAR BETTER TO BE "PISSED OFF" THAN "PISSED ON"

You are certainley entitiled to your own opinion, however, I have a friend at work who swapped his stock thermo out for a 160F, and had "auto-tap" hooked up to his car (palm pilot) while driving on the freeway, his temperature was steady at 205F. He installed the "SLP"manual fan switch, and was able to keep the temperature down at 175-180. The point I am trying to make is, the thermo WILL open at 160F, however without the fans reprogramed, the temperature WILL quickly climb to the higher temperatures.

JMHO

SteveC

 

Don’t be fooled ask the Dealer mechanic or a good auto mechanic The program is set to come on at a temp no matter what the thermo is doing you don’t have to reprogram the fan. If it is not heating up now it will not heat up with the 160 thermo. The 160 means it will open at 160 which it will take longer to heat up than the 180 since it will not open till it gets hotter. But the fan will always kick in at what ever temp it is set at. So if the fan is set at 150 it will always kick in at 150 no matter what thermo you have in it.

 

A very valid point, here is the stock settings which the PCM uses:

Fan 1 on/off - 227F/218F
Fan 2 on/off - 235F/228F

question to be asked:

Why install a 160F/180F thermo, without reprograming fans? The LS1 engine produces ALOT of heat, and with the above fan settings in place the coolant WILL reach into the above stated numbers.

This will be my last answer to this post, I feel I have provided as much information as I can to the original poster.


SteveC

 

What SteveC said

Stock fan settings
Fan 1 on/off - 227F/218F
Fan 2 on/off - 235F/228F

160 Settings
Fan 1 on/off - 184F/175F
Fan 2 on/off - 194F/185F

Doesnt take a rocket scientist to see the engine runs cooler with the fans reset. If you dont reset the fans doesnt mean squat what thermostat you have installled

 

ok maybe I am arguing the wrong point here. I am not saying that the car won’t run cooler with the fan reprogram. The point I am trying to make is that all the thermo replacements is that one brings the car to temp faster than the other. Once the thermo is open the fan does the rest not matter what your settings are. I was just giving the difference of the thermo. If I made any indication that the car will run cooler I was wrong what I mean is with a higher thermo the car comes to temp quicker not that it runs cooler and that you wont hurt the car without reprogramming the fan…… sorry not trying to **** anyone off or anything…..