Urban myth busted (dont need a thermostat)
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Joined: Aug 2011
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Urban myth busted (dont need a thermostat)
Hey, me agian your legendary "urban myth buster". Let me say that taking out your thermostat might be a crazy idea and even I am skeptical when it comes to altering a stock engine setup from what is traditionally thought to be gifts from the car manufacturing gods.
First of all, it is not a good idea to run without a thermo in the winter because it will take ages for your car to heat up and the windows wont defrost. A thermostat brings the engine temps up quickly from a cold start to operating temperature. In other words a thermostat heats an engine up but has no ability to cool it down below its preset temperature.
Then there is the urban myth that says if you take out the thermostat your engine will heat up. Folks, let me say Ive done extensive testing for over 10 years on my own cars and have never seen an engine heat up when I took out the stat.
In fact Ive always noticed the temps drop when I take out the stat. Why it does this is because the automotive cooling system is a "closed system" and the radiator removes heat by the temp difference of the fluid and the ambient air temps. Another factor is the volume of water per time that flows thru the radiator. Increasing either the flow or temp difference will increase the heat that the radiator dissipates per unit time.
Those are scientific facts - not my personal opinion. That is why in the summer time, especially when you are going up mountian hills or towing a load, that the thermostat is actually limiting the efficientcy of the radiator by reducing the flow. It is no wonder why modern car/truck engines have 16lbs rad cap to reduce boil-over only because these guys/gals in engineering departments around the world's car plants could not design anything that even remotely resembles intellligent designs.
So here is my own design - you take that themostat housing and put a valve in it so in the winter you can switch in the thermostat and in the summer you can switch out the thermostat and have unimpeded flow.
First of all, it is not a good idea to run without a thermo in the winter because it will take ages for your car to heat up and the windows wont defrost. A thermostat brings the engine temps up quickly from a cold start to operating temperature. In other words a thermostat heats an engine up but has no ability to cool it down below its preset temperature.
Then there is the urban myth that says if you take out the thermostat your engine will heat up. Folks, let me say Ive done extensive testing for over 10 years on my own cars and have never seen an engine heat up when I took out the stat.
In fact Ive always noticed the temps drop when I take out the stat. Why it does this is because the automotive cooling system is a "closed system" and the radiator removes heat by the temp difference of the fluid and the ambient air temps. Another factor is the volume of water per time that flows thru the radiator. Increasing either the flow or temp difference will increase the heat that the radiator dissipates per unit time.
Those are scientific facts - not my personal opinion. That is why in the summer time, especially when you are going up mountian hills or towing a load, that the thermostat is actually limiting the efficientcy of the radiator by reducing the flow. It is no wonder why modern car/truck engines have 16lbs rad cap to reduce boil-over only because these guys/gals in engineering departments around the world's car plants could not design anything that even remotely resembles intellligent designs.
So here is my own design - you take that themostat housing and put a valve in it so in the winter you can switch in the thermostat and in the summer you can switch out the thermostat and have unimpeded flow.
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Joined: Nov 2011
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good in theory, but you do want your engine to get up to operating temp quick, even in the summer time 
. You engine was designed and machined with specific tolerances. Those aluminum pistons inside of those steel sleeves are going to expand/contract at different rates via temperature. The same engine at 150* 180* and 200* will have different clearances.
The thermostat does a great job at holding the engine at a consistent operating temp.
. You engine was designed and machined with specific tolerances. Those aluminum pistons inside of those steel sleeves are going to expand/contract at different rates via temperature. The same engine at 150* 180* and 200* will have different clearances.The thermostat does a great job at holding the engine at a consistent operating temp
.
