my father recently replaced the thermostat for me with a 160 degree one so my carwould run cooler which i wanted as the fan seems to come on alot when im in stop and go traffic. The problem is when i give it a good amount of gas my engine light seems to come on. i did not have this problem before so i believe it is the thermostat. any comments on this would be appreciated. doubt it makes a difference but it is a 85 305 tpi transam. if this is in wrong place plz forgive me.
i would also like to know if anyone else has trouble giving the car wide open throttle, it seems like i almost have to put car through the floor to get full throttle. i noticed the full throttle issue when i was adjusting the tv cable. i was following the directions listed all over this site, and slowly pushed the pettle down, the first time i did it i got almost to the floor then heard the click. when it clicked though the throttle was not wide open and my father had to open the throttle manually. when we tested the car going on to the highway it shifted from first to second at about 4500 which was an improvement from the 4000 it used to. my father had a good friend with the exact car when it was knew and he said it would shift at 5800. so i would like to know what if it is ok for the car to be shifting at 4500 out of first and if i need to adjust the throttle cable. if i need to adjust throttle cable could you point me in the direction of how i would go about doing that. sorry its so long but thank you for your replies.

 

160 is too cold.

If the thermostat is actually keeping the engine coolant temp at or below 160, you will never go into "closed loop", i.e., your O2 sensor will not be used to properly adjust the air-fuel ratio. The ECU wants to see 170 degrees before going into closed loop. You are probably running too rich now and the ECU is trying to tell you there is a problem with the SES light.

The factory 90-91 speed density camaros ran a 195 degree thermostat.

 

i figured the thermostat is too cold, but if the car is heating up to just over the 105C mark isnt that too hot. i have replaced thermostat, water pump, radiator, had it flushed twice, and yet it still goes way over 160. 105 degrees celsius is 221 degress fahrenheit which it passes so way over the 160. With the 160 thermostat should it not stay lower?

 

105C may not be too hot.
You’ll need to search to find out the proper running temperature of your engine. It’s normally up there close to 200F. I don’t have a stock BIN handy at the moment, but if I remember correctly the cooling fan is set to come on at something like 98C or 106C. So the fans are set to come on at pretty close to 212F.

The stock Camaro thermostat is set to start opening at 195F. That’s not fully open, just starting to crack open.

A 160F thermostat will not keep an engine at 160F. It just starts to open at 160F. If the radiator, water pump, or other engine malady is adding heat that the system can’t get rid of, a 160F thermostat won’t change that.

It seems a 160F thermostat should bring down the coolant temp if everything was working properly, but something is adding heat.

Do you have the proper fan shroud? Isn’t there also a plastic air deflector under the front of the car to direct air up into the radiator? Some 3rd gener’s have noted overheating if that deflector was removed or was damaged.

Maybe a bad coolant temperature sensor?
Improper engine timing?
Running too lean?

Do you have a blown head gasket? Unexplained loss of coolant? White or chocolate pudding looking mushy goo at the top of the radiator or oil fill cap? Lots of moisture coming from the exhaust?

 

well i have an air deflector but it is not for a trans am its for a firebird so its not as big, but when running on highway the car stays at a good temperature(i believe its just past second mark), but its in traffic that the thing gets close to the white mark with the red on the other side, then fan kicks on and it goes back down to 105. The fan seems to be working fine, but do you have a picture of what the shroud should look like. the guy who had the car before me was a real dumbass and did everything wrong. i have an autometer temp guage that im going to mount into car soon so i know im getting accurate temperature. i dont think the car is running to lean as my father believes it might be running to rich due to the 160 degree thermostat and thats flooding the o2 sensor. well i did have a brown coating of wahtever all over the overflow bottle, and rad cap, but the coolant looks better now. When i bought the car i was told the rad just needed a new cap, so my dad forced the pressure in and well blew off half the rad. After that the water pump was also changed with the rad so i wouldnt have any trouble. Since then the car has been flushed twice and had coolant replaced atleast 4 times. The car was also leaking coolant whenbought it, transmission fluid, which was just an o-ring, coolant from the back corner of the manifold(now fixed, i hope), and is now leaking oil from the valve cover. The coolant began to leak all over so just did the gaskets over the weekend. still leaking oil as i havent finished prepping my new valve covers. As for the exhaust, the pipe that joins the cat to the muffler is rotted near the muffler quite bad and so there is a large hole, but as far as i can tell theres not lots of moisture. any advice you can give would be helpful, thank you in advance

 

I have a 160 in mine, I also have it where 1 fan stays on as soon as I turn the key.
Then the other kicks on when the temp gets to hot......but it never usually gets there.
My car runs great. I just had it to the track last saturday in 80 degree weather. It never went past 220. And 1 time I even hot lapped.
My check engine light never comes on.
btw, mines an 87 305 tpi.

 

I have a 160* in mine also. My fan is also programmed to come on earlier.
Even in the summer when it's really hot out the engine never heats up. It never goes past the 1st long line on the stock gauge about 1/4th of the way over. I don't know what that equates to in temp though.
I never get a ses light either.
Car is a 86 305 TPI.

 

You need to put a lower temperature fan switch in the passenger side cylinder head, that's where your problem is. The factory fan switch is set to kick on around 220 degrees F. It doesn't matter how cold the thermostat is. When you're sitting at a light, or driving slowly in traffic, your motor will still heat up to about 220, and then the fan will finally kick on. I run a 180 stat in the summer months, and it stays nice and cool going down the road, but still gets up over 200 when you're sitting still. Put either a 170 or 180 stat in, and get an aftermarket fan switch that kicks on around 185-195 degrees, and you should be set. Btw, the stock fan switch for the 87 Buick Grand National has a lower turn-on setting, and is a lot cheaper than the aftermarket ones.