I wish my car would run cooler.

I believe I'll buy the 160 deg stat - although I've read that it's more or less useless by itself, I guess it requires tuning........

Anyone adept at making it work?
What do I have to do?

Is the thermostat a pretty easy thing to install or does it require any special tools or finesse?

 

its an easy job, u may spill a little coolant, but its a regular joe kind of install... i dont have much more info, sorry, but best of luck..

 

I've heard that the Hypertech programmer can do the tuning neccesary but it's a rather expensive option.........

 

I've got the 160° thermostat and the Hypertech.

Hypertech fan settings are:
172-165
192-185
stock

I find it runs best with the 192 setting. The "power tuning" part of the Hypertech is supposed to be run with the 160° thermostat. Not sure what it really does though. With the 172 setting, your fans will run all the time, and good luck getting any heat. Speaking of heat, I'd set the fans back to stock for the winter if you're hoping for decent heat.

 

What's your car running at? (Or does it run? )

 

heres ur step by step

undo ur elbow
drain about 1.5 litre of coolant
put rags behind the thermo housing
grab ur 8mm socket, undo the housing
re&re ur thermo, make sure to put the rubber gasket on the new thermo the same way u took off the old one
put housing back
fill up coolant
bleed system

for ur deal i would say get a fan switch, cheapest and easiest way to get ur fans running.. unless u wanna do an OBDI swap and tune or if u wanna be REAL cheap, u can jiggy rig a wire in the fan solenoid to make it run constantly when the car is on ... but thats major McGyver work

 

Why drain a litre and a half of coolant?

Speaking of MacGyver, I see he's back on TV again. Spike channel.

 

cuz if u dont and open the thermo housing .. u'll get coolant on ur opti .. try it see what happenes

 

I just put a towel all around the opening before I took it off. Worked fine.

 

Thanks for the pics Gord.

Nice pink towel ya got there.........