thermastat problem

[tdc_v6]

Well its really not a themastat problem but just a question. What would be a problem with not having a thermastat at all. What would be some downsides to it.

[vtv6firebird]

Well not having a thermostat will cause your car to take longer to heat up, because there will be colant flow when your car is cold taking heat away as the engine tries to warm up.

Secondly, when the thermostat is in the open position it still provides a slightly restricted flow from the size of the orifice through which the coolant flows. Just taking out the thermostat out would cause the engine to actually overheat, becuase without any restriction the colant would flow too quickly through the engine to acutually remove any heat from the block or heads.

Trust me, if you are gonna take it out you at least have to have some kind of partial block of plate with a 1/2" to 3/4" orifice. You would have to experiment to determine which size would give you optimum performance.

Really you are just asking for more trouble, thermostats were invented for a reason, its probably best to just let them do their jobs. Without one your cars temp would most likely be all over the scale depending on outside temperature, and how fast you were going. And performance would most likely be diminshed.

[navyblue2000]

running an open thermostat will allow you to run cooler while you're moving, but you heat up a lot faster while stopped.
it's really not recommended unless you're hardcore into racing

[3.4 slow to go]

yup, and how is the coolant supposed to cool if it is constantly being flowed thru the radiator and not staying in it to cool off?

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>it's really not recommended unless you're hardcore into racing <hr></blockquote>
heed the warning ;)

[67-03 RIP]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>yup, and how is the coolant supposed to cool if it is constantly being flowed thru the radiator and not staying in it to cool off?

quote:
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it's really not recommended unless you're hardcore into racing
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<hr></blockquote>
The coolant doesn't have to stay in the radiator to cool it off. The function of the thermostat is more to get the car up to operating temp than to keep the water in the radiator to cool it off. The problem of no thermostat is more related to the pressure put on the radiator cap than flowing too fast. If you REALLY want to try and run your car without a thermostat, snip the "brackets" that hold the center section in and run the outside shell (what we do on our drag car). This works good because we have an electric water pump and fans, so the water get circulated all the way through for better cooling (while car is off). As others have said though, I definately wouldn't do this on the street or in colder weather as you'd be putting more wear on the motor trying to get it up to operating temp.

As far as the flowing too fast or not in the radiator long enough, think of it this way - Your tranny cooler is flowing CONSTANTLY and it does a great job of cooling the fluid. I'm open to constructive disagreement though...

Ron

[3.4 slow to go]

ok, the tranny fluid is cooled by using the air flow thru the radiator & the collant in the radiator. It could still work, but wont be as effective. And the 700r-4, and newer trannies like to run hot.