thermostats

hey all, the PO of my 67 was running a 195 degree thermostat . I can't help thinking that is running the motor kind of warm. Some guidance please.

Be good for heat in the winter. I run a 185 in my V8 1st gen.

I've said this a hundred times if your trying to run cooler then why wait till it's 180 /190 to try to cool it. thermostats are not accurate and run hot, i'm running a 165, stat, so i'm trying to keep the water cooled down before it gets hot

dix wrote:I've said this a hundred times if your trying to run cooler then why wait till it's 180 /190 to try to cool it. thermostats  are not accurate and run hot, i'm running a 165, stat, so i'm trying to keep the water cooled down before it gets hot

Does it actually run down the road at 165? Just curious.

yes until it gets hotter out, last week we ran to ohio for a van run. got stuck in traffic
then it climbed to 200 degrees once we started moving it came down to 180. on the way back no traffic , it ran at 165 on a 2 hour run with out side temps at 85 degrees,

That's doing pretty darn good ! What that means is your rad and airflow are at optimum then. Mine runs at 185 almost constantly no matter what. Was working on the engine last fall and thought I'd grab a a little cooler stat to spread the gap between my fan and stat but would have had to make a drop to the 160 zone or order something special at the local Parts store. So just stuck with what I have. "If it ain't broke...." And I do get it out in the winter some conditions permitting.

On my vehicles, I eliminate thermostats and fan clutches when they go bad...... My 91 Olds wagon with a 305TBI and 700r4 never runs over 150 degrees and still has it's fan clutch.....
When a thermostat has the coolant flow stopped, the engine puts more heat in half while the radiator pulls more heat out of the other half.... All this stopping and going stresses hoses and water pumps and gaskets.....and retains extra heat.....

dix wrote:yes until it gets hotter out, last week we ran to ohio for a van run. got stuck in traffic
then it climbed to 200 degrees  once we started moving it came down to 180. on the way back no traffic , it ran at 165 on a 2 hour run with out side temps at 85 degrees,

That's not a problem. 190-200 is ideal. 210+ is a problem. Try a 180 or 185 in there and see if it runs at those temps, if it does you don't have problem. And buy the best thermostat you can find. 195 is the oem thermostat. It shouldn't have ran at 165 with a 195 stat though... Unless it was really running that temp w/ the thermostat closed

what ever temp you decide on get this HP high flow thermostat

I run an 180 degree t-stat and drill two 1/8" holes in the flapper. It takes a minute or two longer to warm up but it pretty much eliminates the temp spikes from the t-stat opening and closing.