Hey... Sevral buddies of mine that own Camaros say its good to remove your thermostat... I know it will cause the engine to run cooler and have some more HP.. But what are the drawbacks to doing this?
thanks

 

Remove it completly and not put one back in?! I wouldnt do that. I've never heard of anyone doing that. Just replace it with a 160 thermostat. That should run cool enough.

 

I don't think that's a very good idea. Some say the coolant circulates fast enough without a restriction (thermostat) that the liquid doesn't stay in the heads long enough to cool them off. While that makes sense, it also seems like the coolant might circulate through the radiator too fast as well.

I agree with above, a 160* thermostat should be more than adequate.

 

Here's some info on coolant speed.

http://www.stewartcomponents.com/tec...ech_Tips_3.htm

 

several of your buddies should stay the **** away from cars.

 

I ran mine without a thermostat for almost a year. Things worked just fine. It took a little longer to warm up (obviously). Stayed right at 160 as if I had a 160 thermostat in there.

 

Not running a thermostat has it's place.......dependending on your radiator size, system pressure, ect....... you can get away without one on some cars and in some climates.....(in florida weather)my old mustang with a pretty big cube stroker motor, and a pretty big radiator still heated up quick and ran great without one......All trial and error one of the problems with having a car thats very slow to heat up is the build up of sludge, if running regular mineral based oil(non-synthetic)

 

Leave it, all cars have them for a reason i would think. If you just put a 160 stat in, the car will still go up to your normal "factory" temp,195 or so. You need to program your fans to come on to accomadate the new lower thermostat temp. My car NEVER gets past 175-180 with my 160 stat and programming. JMO

 

The reverse flow LT1 system is not like every other engine. Remove the thermostat and you don't direct all the coolant coming from the radiator to the heads. It's just not a good idea.

 

As has been pointed out above, the LT1/LT4 engines with reverse flow are NOT like other engines.

The thermostat in these engines is designed to control the coolant flow through the radiator AND the coolant flow that recirculates through the engine and bypasses the radiator.
When this thermostat is "open" so the coolant flows through the radiator, at the same time, this thermostat "closes" the bypass and forces all the coolant through the radiator.
So, by removing the thermostat, you will have some coolant flow through the radiator and some coolant flow bypassing the radiator -- I don't think that is what you want. For more efficient cooling, you want ALL the coolant to go through the radiator.

This is also the reason you never want to use a "traditional" small-block thermostat in a LT1/LT4 -- the bypass will never be closed.

Tom Piper