Just saw on Advance's website they have a 160 degree thermostat. Anyone ever ran that cool?

 

Nope! I already get the check engine code for the engine not warming up in time with a 180.

 

I wouldnt go any cooler then a 180T stat, I havent had any problem with codes from mine.

 

I'm suprised...the check engine light won't come on but it will show up if you use a scanner. I always let my truck warm up a few min before taking off. And if it doesn't reach it's preset temp after a period of time it stores that code in the pcm. I'd only use a 160 for racing/off road use.

 

Yeah you will be running in warmup mode all the time, killing your gas mileage, not to mention in the winter you will freeze your butt off.

 

What temp is best then? 195?

 

I use a 180 for summer but I change back to the stock 195 in the winter. I guess it depends where you live. I have crappy things like snow to worry about here...[sm=boosign.gif]

 

the 318/360 motors should have the 180 deg tstat in it... you can drill a very small air bleed hole in the diaphram to aid in refilling the cooling system but it's not necessary (I do it on all of the t-stat's I swap and never have a problem)

why a 180? because the stock heads suck and are prone to cracking between the valve seats. a cooler t-stat will keep the head temp cooler which may prevent or prolong the cracking problem IMO. if you ever yank off the heads for any reason, I'd suggest the Hughes HD heads... they are a great replacement head for the mag motors.

 

I agree. I like my Hughes Engines cyclinder heads. They give you a ton of hp plus your don't have to worry about them cracking between the valve seats.

 

couple of questions for you...

1) were they the only mod at the time of the install?
if so how was the butt dyno's response to the install?

2) did you go with stock valves or the 2.02's?

and most importantly... did you swap the head bolts? if not, plan on a set of ARP's next time you have the heads off. I found out the hard way that the stock head bolts are only good for 1 maybe 2 re-torques. for $75 bux, the arp's are the way to go and cost the same as the stockers...