Ok I'm going to be replacing the intake on my 88 soon and I was wondering of the 180* thermostat actually is better than the 190* one. I've run both in 5.0s (currently running a 180*) and haven't really noticed a performance difference or cooling difference between the two. Am I better off just sticking with the 190* or should I go with a 180* again?
for a DD, use a 190/195. chances of overheating with a 180 or colder is high.
I've run a 180* for about 6 years now without issue. I got tired of sitting in traffic on hot days in July. After swapping to the 180* stat the car felt MUCH better on hot days.
I'd say higher than a 195, but not high. And that's why I run Mr Gasket thermostats.
If you got more than stock cooling and in good shape a 190 would probably be better.A 180 would be better if you don't.
Like v8 says summer makes a difference too.
182 here for many years without any problems.
Well I guess I'll stick with the 180* one then. I just drive the car durring the warmer months (April-Oct.) so I'm not too concerned about winter heat output. As it stands right now I have a stock cooling system excpet for a 5.0 police interceptor fan clutch. When it's 90* outside and the A/C is on it stays at 4 bars on the digi guage, which is where it's at without the A/C on.
I don’t know how true this is but I heard a 180 causing the car to run a little cooler will cause it to run a little richer building more power. Going to a 160 is too cool possibly causing it to run to rich.
Any impute
the 180 will make it harder for the computer to go into open loop
I don't even know what I have. Whatever was there from the factory and it works fine, 4 bars in the summer :hick:
Did you mean closed loop? And it doesn't matter either way as ECU warm-up is strictly timer based. It will go closed loop any time after about 45-90 seconds. It will not use "adaptive learning" below a certain temperature, but that is not a big deal.
I run a 160F thermostat due to the big ol' heat source on top of the lower intake. I never see lower than 170F on a 60 degree or above day. On a 90+ degree day, I may see up to 195F - no different than if I had a 180F thermostat.
I've never had a problem with either the 180* or the 190* thermostat. I've just heard conflicting reports as to if the 180* hurt the performance of the engine or not. I'll just stick with the 180*. After all it's not hard to change the tstat anyways......well for the most part ;)