I am new to the third gen scene i got my 89 rs with a 305TBI a mere 4 months ago and already i am in love with this car and plan on keeping it for a bit. However i live in california in the valley and notice it gets fairly hot at times on long trips. On the hood there are some black plastic things that kind of resemble louvers. However i notice these are farce and there is actually no venting from these. My question is would it be a good idea to cut the plastic and hood to make these functional or would i be doing more harm than good and how can i get my engine to run a little cooler i normally stays in the 180-230 range but on long freeway drives can push the 265 mark?

 

It sounds like you might be missing the air dam under the front of your car that helps direct air up and through the radiator at higher speeds. Do you know what that is? A search on this board will show you what it is, what it looks like and how it does its job. Check that out if you can, or if you don't find anything tell us and we can explain further. Cutting the hood will make little or no difference

 

Ok i have been reading and the last time i was under the car i dont remember seeing it there so i will deffinently have to check that and on the hood youre the second person to tell me that it will make little difference if any so i dont think i will bother

 

Why do people say venting the hood makes little or no difference? With positive pressure from motion or fan(s) the hot air under the hood wants to go up. I remove the rubber hood sealing strip when running autocross and I see a big reduction in how hot the engine gets and how much quicker it cools down after a run. When stopped after a run and with the fan on you can feel the hot air pouring out from the back of the hood. Seems efficient to me.

 

Well i dont know it kinda made sense to me when driving it would create a chimney like effect sucking the hot air out of the car but everyone is saying that a missing air dam (which i a missing) is the problem so i will start with that and then i might decide to do the hood anyway i dont know if this would help enough to make the effort worth it

 

I'm right down the road in Bakersfield, so I can easily relate to higher temps. Just put on the air dam and it should make all the difference you need. Having more space at the back of the hood for venting helps a small bit also, but punching holes in the hood itself is nowhere near the same. Hood blisters cost plenty and are not that easy to find. You want to be feeding more air through your radiator, and that's exactly what the air dam does. That will most likely be all you need if the rad is working right

 

It's all about the flow. You need the air dam to help get the air in when you're moving and fans when you're stopped and the easier the air can get out the better. Anything that gets air in/out faster is a step up.

 

Well i got the air damn and the car deffinently runs much cooler but now i have a other question. The origional owner of the car decided to wire the fan to a toggle switch and the the second owner (the person i bought the car from) had it rewired so that i dont have to mess with the toggle but it is always on, it comes on when the key is turned on. now the car runs somewhere around 120-135 which i think is something to do with my thermostat being stuck partway open. The question is will running to cold damage my car or hurt my economy or engine if the oil isnt kept hotter than that or anything.

 

running it too cool for extended times could cause
extra cylinder wear,contaminate the oil,and reduce
economy-standard thermostat is 195*,180*probably
ok too.

 

Ok i was thinking this could be bad i will probably go with the 195 thermo as i run straight 30 oil, 5w-30 puts out blue smoke, mainly considering that i am gonna take a trip from central valley california to east texas almost lousiania, anyone wanna tell me what i am looking at in replacing the thermo i mean is it a simple unscrew and rescrew or am i talking about major work here

 

As long as the thermostat housing bolts are not seized
into the aluminum intake manifold,the job will be a
simple remove and replace operation If the bolts are
seized and one twists off then you have a bother on
your hands I run a 195 thermo in my cars-if i had an
electric fan,i would want it to come on at around 210*

 

ok so now my question is should i have a 195 or a 210 thermo considering my fan is in an always on state

 

195,the thermostat will regulate the temperature-210*
thermo for the fan is so it will not be running all the
time and pulling current off the alternator when the fan
is not needed.

 

alrighty thanks very much for everyones help i guess ill go get the thermo and install it today and go for a drive to see what happens once again thanks for the help