What if you were traveling at 70mph. You don't think there would be enough air passing thru the rad. Anyway what I'm saying, is I did what was recommened to me by NPG. And what I say is what they recommended didn't help any, but it also didn't hinder anything.

 

also, I have a double pass radiator. This should help things if I ever try without a thermo right? It's like going through a twice as long radiator

 

70, 80, 120mph... still wont cool it trust me man ive over heated too many times w/o that thing in there

atleast w/ my experiance without a thermostat and a car thats on for more than an hour and a half... u better turn it off for a few hours

and even when u turn it off it takes forever to cool down...

 

I don't know if they still have them, but years ago, people used to use a disc in place of the thermostat that had a certain size opening in it. I'm guessing it was people that only raced their cars and didn't need a quick warm up to defrost the windshield.

It appears the use of the disc was to control the temp by metering the water flow to the radiator. The discs were available with different size holes in them to allow you to "tune" for your setup. Now, it seems to reason that if the radiator had adequate heat dissipation, that your engine could stay too cool with no restriction at all (why people say don't run without the thermostat). You need the right balance of heat in the engine to make good power, anyway.

Not everyone's situation or car usage is exactly the same, so advice for one will not be advice for all. You can't cover this topic with a blanket statement. IMO, for the person that wants the coolest operation, the 160º thermostat should be perfectly adequate.

 

I have a CSI Water pump. My thermo stuck on me one day so i took it out. I drove about 4 miles before my needle was above 220. It climbed almost to the red line before I made it home. i had both fans running from the time I left with no thermo and I was driving at 75-80 on the interstate.
I put a 160 one in and no problems since.
You have to realize the coolant has to remain in the engine to properly soak the heat from the block. If coolant is moving too fast to properly remove the heat from the engine, it will not cool in the radiator. If you think, without it soaking the heat from the engine, the coolant will also give a false reading compared to the actual temp of the metals since thats what your sensors read, the coolant temp.

The coolant restrictor plates are a very good idea and work very well. You just need to test with different size holes to find the correct one.
You could also have a water neck added to the "out" portion if the 2 main block coolant holes and insert the thermo there.

-Shannon

 

Perhaps because I was using NPG my car reacted differently than those who have said their's overheated. Here's a link to their site for those who don't know about it. Good stuff, but expensive.

http://www.evanscooling.com/index2.html

 

Oh my yes ! I wouldn't even think of comparing that to regular antifreeze. That stuff is aweseome bar none !

-Shannon

 

I have a CSI waterpump, and its a mod I've regretted. Yea the car runs ALOT cooler now..........way too cool!!! It would never warm up and in this PA winter it meant no heat. So I put a 180 deg 'stat in there and its a little better, but the heat still only blows lukewarm. I never thought I'd say this.......but my LT1 never even gets very warm even in summer. So the CSI works......WAY too well.

 

That's what i've been told when i asked a buddy of mine who owns a shop this question.