160 thermostat question...

[jesse977]

My 94 v6 Firebird overheats a little. Some people have told me to get a 160 thermostat. Im a newbie and dont know what to do. What exactly is the difference between thermostats?? 160, 180,?? What do you guys recommend I do??

[BLLDOGG]

the thermo will let coolant run once you hit 160 or 180 instead of stock.. its not a difficult install. as far as i understand it,it will not control you final temp, your fans do that. if your running too hot after new coolant. get a manual fan switch or tune your comp to have your fans come on sooner. but then again, you havent said what your car is getting up to, so we still need to know that to tell you if your actually over heating. if your around 210 or below your not over heating.

[jesse977]

The temp goes all the way to half and a bit over.

[skorpion317]

The 160* thermo won't do anything...your fans will still act as though the stock thermo is on there. just get a manual fan switch, and you can cool the car down whenever you want.

[j_downey50]

k, i'm confused... i thought the 160* thermo turned the fans on when the temp hits 160? if it doesn't do that, what does it do and why is it pointless?

[BLLDOGG]

i explained everything guys. all it does is has the coolant start to flow once you hit 160* instead of stock temp. it just probably slows down the heat up but i will still get to the temp it wants.

[skorpion317]

the problem with the 160* thermo is that the PCM goes into "closed loop" mode with a thermo that's too low. it just continues to run as it normally does, as if the stock thermo were installed. don't bother wasting your money on the 160* thermo, buy a manual fan switch instead.

[Coriya71]

Jesse, I wouldn't even sweat it. If LA is about as hot as Fresno and if your stcuk in some traffic then thats why your going to half. As long as it doesn't go much above that. Make sure that once it reaches a little over half, that the temp stablizes and/or goes down. This should be around the point your fans kick on.

[viper98885]

The 160 degree thermo will make the car perform better while the car is at that temperature. The only time that it will go over that temp is when the car is not moving and the AC is not on. The fans do not kick on until about 220 degrees as a emergency precaution or if the AC is on. You can get a manual fan switch to handle this problem.

The 160 thermo is a good investment...they are inexpensive and are easy to install. Being in LA, you will not have to worry about it not being hot enough in the winter time. The engine will still warm up as fast, it will simply stay at 160 while driving instead of at the stock 195 degrees. You don't have to worry about the computer side effects on the 3.4L V6 engine like you do on the 3.8L V6 engines as well.

Point is, go for it. It won't hurt anything. It is a good way to begin your engine mods.