SHADY280

being that im going to a very hot place this april, i was wondering what thermostats everyone else runs? my car rarely sees temps higher than 34 deg c. i think i got a 195 in there right now, cause the 185 was flowing too much coolant and it wasnt cooling. so is 195 too much? i got a high flow 3 core rad, with dense fins, 16" electric puller fan, and everything else is in good shape. oh and a 13lb rad cap. i think by raising this it may help the cooling. am i correct?

NismoPick

I'm using a 160 degree thermostat & stock radiator. She still gets super hot if I'm hard on the boost so I'm going to invest in a larger rad someday.


Wha? The 185 flowed too much & couldn't cool???

thxone

What NismoPick? It is true, if you have a thermostat that opens to often or is stuck open or have no thermostat at all then the water (coolant) doesn't stay in the radiator long enough to cool the coolant fully and can cause overheating.

tickwon

I run a JTR radiator and a 160 thermostat. It gets pretty hot here in Texas as well. Hmm, maybe a coolant leak somewhere??

NismoPick

I understand that... but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a cooler thermostat? A cooler thermostat just opens slightly more... it's not like a 10-20 degree diff will make the coolant "rush" through the radiator so fast that it can't cool.

thxone

No, the faster the engine is turning the faster the water pump is turning...the faster the coolant is flowing through the radiator. The thermostat opens at a cooler temp and stays open. At slow speeds the car will run cool...say at near 160*+ with a 160* thermostat but under hard driving the pump is spinning faster and the stat is still open not letting the coolant stay in the radiator long enough to cool, it progressively gets hotter until it overheats and or turns to steam. You would want to run a hi flow pair of electric fans I think to counteract this or just run a 192* Stat....or both.

We use to run a plate instead of a thermostat back in the day with a 3/8" hole I think drilled in it in a couple small block GM engines and we never had a problem. 1987 SS Monte Carlo (Transplanted Centerbolt 350 v8), 1978 Chevy Camaro (305 v8), and one 1992 LX 5.0 Mustang. They ran right around 180* all the time. You can experiment with different hole sizes in the plate for different temps. But that is a whole other thread.

SHADY280

thxone is exactly correct aboot the flow rate thing. that is why i have the 195 in there, but i think it may be a little too much. im thinking stock (185) or 190. i can see peaks where the thermostat is closed and lows when it is open, my temp guage is always moving all over the place while driving and while sitting. start up the a/c and it just stays hot. just want it to be great for msa

thxone

My friend is always worried about his cars running hot when they are not in danger of over heating. Water alone boils at 212*F with a 50-50 blend of coolant the point of boiling is raised drastically above that. We know that on our S130's coolant gauge that 270+ is very far to the right of the gauge and anywhere from the 1/4 mark to half is normal like the pic below.



Causes of overheating:

Improper coolant/water mix
Incorrect Thermostat
Coolant leak
Low Coolant
Air Pocket in cooling system (can cause steam and or other problems)
Broken Fan Clutch
Failing Water pump or slipping belt
Driving the car in first gear at 6,000 rpm for 1 hour!!

Oh yeah...those ready mixed 50/50 water coolant blends are a waste of time...you are paying more for half the coolant...don't be lazy, mix it yourself and save. I hope this clears up some questions and helps out.

SHADY280

you also missed the rad cap lb pressure. for every pound you go up, you increase the boiling point by 10* f. i posted this question at hybridz, just to see. no one, and i mean no one even answered, lots of veiws of the thread, but no replies. so i thank all who posted an opinion, but what thermostat should i run? we have discussed the theroy, but no answer. stock, or 190, or 195?

thxone

I would stick with 190 or very close to it...you have beefed up so to speak, your engine a bit right?...190, yeah, thats what I think I would do.

SHADY280

so i posted a snark comment at hybridz cause the guys wernt answering. this brought out many answers to the thermostat question. most ppl there are running 160 or 180 * thermostats. they all say 195 is far far too high. which is why my car may also be running like crap. the underhood temps have been very warm on my car. they say that if the thermostat is cooler, the engine bay will be too, by a large amount. so nismopick is running the perfect cooling system setup for the application. good thing i asked, didnt want to overheat this thing and crack something

WildmaN

I think I am running a 180, I believe, and have had no problems with overheating. And the temp is where thxzone, has posted the pic. Even in the summer, the hottest it would get was just below half. Plus I live in the desert. And I run 50/50, because I still have a leak. And wouldn't want to have too much water, or coolant in the system. It doesn't matter much anyway, because soon, I will have another running Z. A much better one at that.

260DET

If everything is in good condition then 190 should be good, no matter how hot the weather gets.

NismoPick

So what temp thermo you going to run? And post that hybridz thread!

lifegrddude

I'm using a 180* thermostat from Nissan, not the aftermarket replacements you can get from Autozone, etc. According to some of the guys on hybridz, the factory thermostat flows more coolant than the aftermarket ones do. Anyway, my Z is an a/t and the revs are awfully high at freeway speeds, ~3500-4000 rpm. My Z has never overheated even in the desert, but it has run pretty hot, I'd say about 2/3 of the way up on the gauge. I'm going to swap it out for a 160* unit and see how it holds up this summer, but I think you'll be fine in your Z as long as your water pump and radiator are in good shape!

SHADY280

i think im gonna run a 180/180 ish, nissan unit to prevent thermostat faliure. i have def. noticed sometimes this one sticks closed. it gets hot then opens. here is the hybridz link. the beginning of the thread stayed open for 40+ views, then i posted the secong and got 10 replies right quick, within the day. its not bad, but gets the answers

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=121007

thxone

There is a brand of thermostats that when they fail they fail in the open position...the name brand escapes my brain at the moment.

SHADY280

how handy! lol

Heat Rave R

So what's the stock/original thermostat set at, specifically for a turbo?

lifegrddude

Stock is 180* for almost any Nissan.

jmmorriso

If you buy an aftermarket thermostat, don't get it anywhere but NAPA or someplace that sell Beck/ Arnley. I got one from kragen and on a whim decided to test it against a Beck/ Arnley and a thermometer. The Kragen unit didn't open until 190 degrees and still didn't open all the way! The Beck/ Arnley opened right at 180, all the way. Don't trust a Taiwanese engine part, unless you have a Taiwanese engine

drfrankenstein

would they be called FailSafe brand???

NismoPick

LoL... yeppers. That's what I was running in my Z till I got to Vegas... Had to pull it & found out it popped into the grabbing brackets so it wouldn't close... dunno how long I'd been driving it that way.