hello

i will using a electric waterpump.

can i use the standart 190 thermostat with it?

i have also a 160 degree but before with the standart waterpump the 190 was the best!

so can i use a thermostat wit an electric waterpump?

dennis

 

The waterpump doesn't care if you use a thermostat or not. For a street driven vehicle, you need a thermostat. The thermostat restricts coolant flow in a cold engine until it reaches operating temperature. Once the thermostat opens, it can't keep the engine from getting hotter but it will close if the cooling system is too efficient and the temperature drops below the operating temperature.

For a race car which sees very little run time, it's common to remove the thermostat but an open hole provides no restriction for the coolant. If the coolant moves through the engine too quickly, it can't absorb the heat created and the engine will still run too hot. There are simple restrictor plates available in different sizes to provide a restriction and slow the coolant down.

My cooling system goes through a 3/4" restriction for the upper rad hose. Running without a thermostat allows me to circulate the coolant after the engine is shut off between rounds and lower the temperature well below where a thermostat would close.

A colder (160*) engine makes more power but a hot engine (195*) is more consistent and produces less emissions. 180 is an all round temperature. It's good for all seasons. 160 is normally used in the summer and 195 in the winter. With EFI, 195 all the time is most common.

 

hello

thanks for that great answer!

i use my car only in summer for street driven!
i had before a tpi engine its swapt now to the carb version!
so i use before the 190* thermostat and the temprature was good at 85-90 Celsius!

so i can keep that thermostat. right?

dennis

 

Yes. Whatever temperature thermostat you want to run. I prefer 160 in my cars that really only get driven in the warmer months, but you can use whatever you prefer.

I also like to drill three 1/8" holes in the ring around the outside to help bleed off any trapped air, even if the stat is closed, and to assure there is always at least a trickle of coolant going past the thermostat.

 

I have a 195'F high flow thermostat and my car isn't really warming up unless I get into stop and go traffic. Also when I get on the interstate it cools off too much.
In cooler months you need a heavy duty thermostat.

There is always cooling going past the thermostat as long as you have your coolant bypass hooked up.

 

ive never run an electric pump but ive always wanted to and was actually under the impression that with an electric water pump, there is no need for a thermostat at all...
the reason for a thermostat is to turn the waterflow off. but with an electric water pump the waterflow can be turned off at will.
why not use a temp switch in the block to turn the water pump on at 160* and turn the fans on shortly after.
if you want the engine to run warmer, turn the water pump on at 175 and the fans on at 180

if this wont work, then let me know, but it was my plan to eventually run a setup just like this.
the only problem i guess is that you wont get heat right away in the winter.
you have to wait till the engine warms to the water pump on-temp, however this will happen quicker with absolutely zero coolant flow.
even with a closed thermostat, coolant still flows through the heater core, into the radiator, and back through the bottom of the block, and back into the heater core.

 

You always want coolant to be moving throught the cooling system to prevent hot spots forming due to heat build up caused by lack of coolant flow.
The coolant bypass keeps the coolant moving in side the engine untill the engine is all the way hot and starts going through the thermostat to the radiator. You want to warm the block and heads up as evenly possible to keep it from warping and cracking.
The heater core is part of the coolant bypass. Coolant flows through it at all times it flows from the intake manifold near the thermostat through the line to the heater core and then back to inlet of the coolant pump.

The only bad thing about the SBC is they don't come standard with bypass blocking thermostats.

 

An electric water pump does the same thing as a mechanical one, it just does it at a near-constant speed. Everything else still applies, as usual.

At the track lots of guys use a simple restrictor becuase they want to stay cool in the staging lanes and don't want to deal with the "lag" that happens with a thermostat. On the street, taking 10-20 seconds to get a thermostat to open from light throttle (very little coolant flow needed to keep temps down) to WOT (much higher coolant flow needed to keep temps down) is no big deal. But at the strip, the temp can climb rapidly in an 8-11 second dragstrip run and the stat just can't react fast enough to keep things cooled down on the big end. A simple restrictor has no such lag, obviously.

Don't fall into the trap of comparing dragstrip tech with street tech. They're different operating environments. Both are set up a certain way for a reason, it's just that the reasons are different. If the primary purpose of your car is street driving, you should run a thermostat.