magnamx-5

iTrader: (7)

If you have good breathing mods in place then the richer fuel condition will help you avoid an overly lean condition. cooler is better no matter what you guys say, the only reason i could see in letting a motor hit 190 degrees is to get the oil up to that point in wich it burns off most of the harmfull deposits and reduces the acid build up do to oil decay. but if you change your oil a soon as it starts to give you trouble like me then this is a non issue. RP seems to last abit longer than anything else though i might actualy hit 3000 miles with this stuff. (instead of 500-1000 with mobil synthetic) oh well

sunbrn

iTrader: (2)

what temp is your engine running at?
why not just run without the thermostat? That would be the coolest a motor could run at.

Pop VII

A few more comments. The OEM thermostat on the US and Canada 1.6s is a 192-194 (?) F bi-valve unit. Little awkward to find one locally unless thru a dealership or special order from your local auto parts store. UK and Europe use a different unit that is about 10 F colder. Imagine this is because of the emissions standards. The 180 F unit is close enough to those standards, readily available at most auto parts stores, and probably around $7 (been maybe 5 years since replacing it).

Removing the thermostat completely seems a very bad idea. A seconday function is to restrict coolant flow some to force coolant thru the smaller passages and prevent hot spots. Using a lower temperature thermostat will not prevent engine overheating. All it does is prevent the engine from entering closed loop faster after a cold start. End result is wasting more fuel and reduced optimal performance longer.

BrokeEnthusiast

iTrader: (1)

so in short if you break your thermostat just get a 180 F one from NAPA for like 7 bucks and be done with it right?

Pop VII

That would be my suggestion unless prefer to pay triple that price at the dealership to go with the OEM unit. Aside from the 10 F difference the $7 unit has a larger valve and a jiggle pin for safety rather than having 2 smaller valves as the OEM. May wish to rethink that idea if having strict emission standards in your area.

magnamx-5

iTrader: (7)

becouse the motor need to be at atleast 100 F to be making reliable power at this point everything is being lubed and serviced anything more than 160 on my SBC i see decrease in performance it is still very powerfull but it was better at 100-150 degrees than say at 170-180. My car rarely has the fans turn on except if am sitting and idling for a while or have been in boost for a while. ie 20-30 minutes straight. the gauge never goes over half. one of these dyas i will wire in a real gauge but until then i am happy with the performance of my cooling system the WMI might be helping me to cool the coolant in the intake as it drastically reduces my air charge temps to where the manifold is pretty cool to the touch esp when compared to the crossover or even turbo inlet pipeing. As far as running with out a thermostat as pop said htis would most likely cause uneven coolant flow hotspots and a non presurization of the Rad if th eRad never gets presurized then the boiling point of the water stays the same 212 F vs when presurized it is more like 250 Degrees F.

lazzer408

iTrader: (1)

Napa 141 wasn't listed in the Napa catalog. Here are the correct numbers.

-Napa pt#142 = 180deg
-Napa pt#42 = 160deg
-Napa pt#1068-ST = Gasket

Drill 7/64th air-bleed hole and locate the hole at the top when mounting (94+)

bripab007

Just a reminder, folks, the stock coolant temp gauge is wicked imprecise...11:00-12:00 on the gauge is something like 160-220F.

Just because it doesn't get to 12:30-1:00, doesn't mean your engine's running "cool."

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

My gauge never has yet to budge from 11:00 (about where it always sat) with the 180* and parallel fans. This is at speeds reaching 125mph.

bripab007

Yeah, that's the idea...11:00ish could mean anything from ~160-210F, though. That's why the old coolant temp linearization mod came about years ago...people found how ineffective the stock gauge was.

Pop VII

You are correct. The 141 was my error, sorry about that.

Additional comment. Bripab007 is also correct, The coolant temperature gauge is a little more than a glorified idiot light and is not linear. Going back several years there was a post on the big list where someone took it apart and measured everything. Seem to recall there were only 5 positions, but the damping action made the needle to appear moving over the entire gauge range. Since my recall was not too good on the NAPA part number, let me see if I can find that post.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Here's a link to the page about linearizing the stock gauge:
http://www.gravitydesign.net/saturn/miata/MTGLP.cfm

I did something like this a few weeks ago on my '92. Using Wallyman's research as a baseline, I cobbled together a test setup with three big variable resistors (two for the adjustment, one to simulate the sensor) and calibrated my stock gauge so that it was almost totally linear in the range from 150-250F, with 195 dead center at the 12 o'clock position.

I used the same basic design as the one shown above, but I settled on 18 ohms series, and something around 79-81 ohms parallel. This is just what it worked out to for the exact gauge dynamics that I want. To get these values out of what was on the shelf at Fry's I used a 20 and a 200 together to make 18, and some other two values to get the other.

A few days later I replaced the stock thermostat with a Stant 180 degree unit, and now under normal cruise the needle sits straight upright, and in slow, hot traffic is wanders over into the 2:00 position until I start moving again. Just like a temp gauge should.

I'm in Phoenix at the moment, but what I get home Thursday I can dig up the pictures I took.

lazzer408

iTrader: (1)

-LAZ

lazzer408

iTrader: (1)

My 180 is installed now and I have no warm up trouble at all. The nights are getting cooler now and the heat gets warm by the time I get out of my subdivision. Didn't effect the warm-up time at all. As far as drilling the hole for the air blead? Worked like a champ. I had no air pockets at all since the level is still where it was when I filled it. I was expecting a slight drop as the air worked it's way out but apperently all is well. It even seems to run smooter? Maybe "torqueier"? That a word? Placebo is. =)
-LAZ