I tried this as a test and just thought id share. I have a 160 stat in my car with a chip. it is usually 45 degrees outside here in MI. i did not really want to change my stat but the car(when it doesnt stall) warms up to slowly and doesnt really get above 170. the way i got it to reach 180-200 was simply to drain some coolant. I had to drain a fair amount for it to work. Now im not sure that this is a good idea but so far it is working for me. and it usaully goes no lower than 180. i have not taken it on the free way yet and this is only a temporary fix until i get my 170 stat back in.

 

I HOPE YOU'RE JOKING!!!!!!!





if you are, thats not funny. if you arnt....... you have alot to learn about how a cooling system works.


refill your system, and either take out the 2 extremely easy to reach bolts on the very top of the motor and replace the $3 - $6 thermostat or get someone else to do it.



this ranks right up there with filling the engine COMPLETELY with oil as one of the top stupidest things ive ever heard of peopel doing.

 

Great idea! i think ill try it! NOT! WTF are you smoking man?

 

probably not a good idea, you would be better off with a higher temp thermostat in that kind of weather.

 

can someone explain hot spots in an engine to me please? and what some of the causes are?

 

Hot spots are places in the motor that are hotter than others, where heat isnt being transfered away, it can happen on pistons from sharp edges or buildups of carbon, or you can even acomplish hots spots throughout your engine by doing the following:

Seriously, a 160* stat wont ever do you any better than a 180, in fact it could have adverse affects, depending on your car it might keep the computer from going to closed loop. By installing a 160* stat your purposly over cooling your system which also makes you very cold in the winter and also makes it ahrd for your engine to get to oerating temprature. You dont sound like someone who wants to do a lot of work on your car if youd rather dump out $5 in coolant to save yourself from buying a $3.99 t-stat and a $.60 gasket, and risk your engine. For the cars own good, just put in what the factory reccomends( most likely 195*)

Until a month ago I had lived in MI all my 25(26 next month, damn im getting old, and now somehow Im married . lol) and I have never had a problem with t stats, because I ran the same one all year round. My t-stat isnt a performance mod for me, its a necessary piece needed to keep the temp of my car in line, the way its supposed to be. If everyhting is working right you wont need to change stats, they work all year round if you ahve the right one in your car!!

 

Ok, I dont think that I worded that correctly. What I should have explained is that I just did that to get back to my house. I was 40 miles away and not having tools or another stat and it was less than 40 degrees outside. I let the car warm up for 20 minutes and it did not get above 170 and ran poorly, so i drained coolant into a container to see if it would get into closed loop and it did. Obviously its not a good idea to run with 1/2 coolant in the system but it was only to get home. And Yes, i changed the stat the next day - took 10 minutes.

 

you would have been better off running it as is.

you chanced scrapping your motor for no reason.

 

40 miles is plenty of time to do damage. you should do what the big truck guys do and block part of the radiator or something like that. i had to do that once when i was getting my car inspected and it wouldn't get over 185* (nice and cold outside) so i put a piece of cardboard over half the radiator and it magicaly ran at the 220 mark. still didn't pass emissions though.

 

Low temp stats actually put more wear and tear on your motor than a warmer one (to an extent). There was a thread around here about that a long time ago...

 

There's an easier temporary solution that works awesome. Cardboard. Cut a piece of cardboard that you slip up from underneath and place it in front of the radiator. I had to cover about 1/2 of my radiator to keep the coolant warm on a 2hr highway drive. This is because I am experimenting with different size holes in my thermostat and, obviously, I began with holes that are too large (three 3/16" holes in a 180 thermo).

Tim

 

wouldnt a hot spot be something like an airpocket thats stuck somewhere in the engine?

 

It could be, but it can also be when coolant stays in one spot without much movement which does not allow it to do it's job.

 

In a computer controlled fuel injected car the ECM will command a much richer A/F ratio when it sees cooler temperature because it thinks you're still in warm-up. It does this by increasing injector pulse width. The extra fuel will lower your MPG, contaminate your oil with fuel much quicker than normal, and can cause more wear in the engine because it's spraying way too much fuel into the chambers.

A very simple way to solve this problem is with a Tricker Box so you can tell the ECM that it is normal operating temperature even if you're running 160*F or cooler.
This is very useful in cold climates when you are running a low temp thermostat for performance. The tricker box effectively leans out your A/F ratio to normal giving many benefits.