I've read a lot of posts lately with people talking about keeping their engine cooler. What is the stock thermostat set at? And why does this make a difference? I thought that it was set for the optimum operating temperature already.

 

180° I think. You wont feel a difference without a chip they change the fuel and spark tables 160° thermostat is to reduce the knocks. Cooler temp = more fuel = more power

 

stock is 195-210º

Replace it with a 180 for cooler running temps. The engine temp really doesn't have much to do with the amount of fuel or air entering it - its more for piece of mind, to me. 210º is entirely too much for me.

A cooler engine will produce more power tho - by cooling the cylinders more, there is a larger difference in the temperature of the burnt gas and the cylinder wall - that difference creates more power, to a point. Too cold, and it'll actually remove power, as the heat will be dissipated.

Run a 180 on a stock chip. 160 is too cold, as the engine won't really be able to kick out of open loop mode until you stop, and the engine temp rises till the fan kicks on.

That's another thing - even with a 180, the stupid fan won't kick on till 222º. I really got to get taht Pep Boys fan switch (by Hayden)

 

I run a 160 in the summer, and go back to 195 for the winter.

 

180 works good all around here in Sunny FL

 

So what you're saying is that for some reason, our engine really wasn't designed well because it wasn't designed to operate at the ideal operating temperature?

 

Usually my car runs at about 170 on the freeway as long i'm moving, but today the weather was really freakin' hot and my car ran closer to 200. I think I'm gonna go with a 160 for the summer just because it's supposed to be really hot everyday this year. I'll hold onto the one that's in there right now so I can go back to it in the winter.

 

Our motors were designed to be emissions and fuel efficient, not power monsters(who would of thought that :sillylol: )

 

Ditto what 2.8 Boy said.

You aren't seriously going to argue over the design of our cars, are you?

Can you honestly say the exhaust was engineered well? No.

Can you say the 3.1s intake was designed well? No.

Did they use a cam profile of maximum efficiency? No.

Are you going to say that the heads are already aluminum, fast burn chambered, and running roller rockers? No.

Your arguement is seriously lacking man. GM never engineered these V6s for max power, or fuel efficiency, or anything like that. They made them start, and run. That's it. It's up to us to 'tweak' them to run better.

 

Who's arguing? A simple yes or no would have been fine.

I apologize for not thinking of the fact that they set the temp for efficiency and not power.

 

It's all good.

 

Sorry man... must have taken this post a bit misconstrued - seemed like you were telling me I knew more than the engineers did (in a rather sarcastic way)

No harm done.

 

Now that we've covered the why, how about the what.

I live a little more north than Florida, (temp varies from 32°F to 95°F throughout the year). So do you guys think from experience that a 180°F thermostat would be good all year?

 

The only real problems are these -

If you have a thermo that is too low for your area's temps, then your heater will suck the big one.

If you have a thermo that is too high for your area's temps, then your car will be more prone to overheating.

I'd advise 180 as a good all around thermo. Hence why I got one.

 

Thanks for the vote!