http://www.hypertech.com/powerstat.html

Has anyone ever gone with a 160 Degree Stat?
I see Hypertech has one available on their site.

I just put a new 5.2L in my truck with a 192 Stat.
It does get cold here and the 180 just wasnt pushing out the heat.
My concern is in the summer when it hits 30C and I am pulling my 5th wheel for the weekend.

 

I had a 160 t-stat in my 5.2 Grand Cherokee and it threw a code. wouldnt heat up fast enough and the pcm thought the t-stat was stuck open. the bottom line that I found out was that the pcm needs to see 170 deg and up to go into closed loop mode. go with the 180 t-stat instead. I'd also find a way to effectively block part of the radiator cooling in the winter to help with the lack of heat problem. Some others were talking about that a while back, do a search for blocking radiator and see what you find.

 

I agree, stay with 180 or higher.

This is what I have been thinking about getting for winter use. They are made by Lund.
[IMG]local://upfiles/9095/035D2434036D4A2386298B710397DD11.jpg[/IMG]

They also have ones that are made of plastic, and are solid black, which is what I would probably get instead of these stainless. I could only find a picture of a Ford grill with one of the black plastic type, but you get the idea.
[IMG]local://upfiles/9095/1C2495EA4ECE4E3A8DE6CD4C53933C2B.jpg[/IMG]

They are called Lund Plastic Cold Front and Lund Stainless Cold Front.

 

Forgot to mention that what is holding me back from doing this is that it would also make my transmission cooler less effective by blocking air to it too. Not sure that I want that if the only gain is slightly faster interior warmups.

 

i got this for my truck and just half to put it in its made by air halk

i got them from work for 40 bucks because there susposadley damaged i dare you to find it thow lol its not easy to see juat a little scratch on the corner of one of the pieces

[IMG]local://upfiles/27664/0EB1BD8EE5504891BBA2ACDDF6E3FC63.jpg[/IMG]

 

i ended using a peice of cardboard on the rad to help warm up... thatll change when my 180 goes in .. along with the 180 and puting elec fans in too..hopefullly ill just have to put a kill switch on the fans to let it warm up then kick them on .. or adjust the fan thermo so itll warm up good-n-tight and then start coolling... i shoulda got 2 fan thermos and relayed them together so i can pick what degree i can start up the fans with... mmmmm idea

anyway...a peiece of cardboard DIRECTLY on the rad not blocking your tranny cooller will work and alot cheaper them then lund peices posted above... all i used was a chunk of cardboard covering about 60% of the rad and used a peice of ducktape to hold it on... cant even see it either... duct tape fell off so i used flashing tape or blade tape... pretty much metal tape.. tape thats wicked thin sheet metal..cool stuff.

anywho hope this helps!

 

At HomeDepot and Lowes
in the construction materials section
they have foam board with aluminum foil on one side.

It is relatively easy to cut 'winter front' pieces out of this type material.

You could paint the foam side to match
or put the shiny aluminum side forward.

On the thermostat issue I have used 205, 195, and 180 thermostats and also run for awhile at 130-140 degrees with the factory original 195 'Standard Grade Robertshaw thermostat partially cracked up (brass arm underneath steel rim broke)

I have not found any real difference between 205, 195 and 180 in either power, mpg or pinging.
At the 130-140 coolant temperature the engine did stop pinging on 87 octane at full throttle but like is said in the posts above it would set the CEL on every engine start, and would keep setting the CEL even when I reset it using an Actron OBD-I ScanTool.

 

The 180 vs 195 t-stat made a difference on my setup... I tried the 195 back in november just for the heck of it and noticed right away some of the low end umph was gone... switched it back to the 180 and it was back. Maybe it might have to do with how much air your moving thru the cylinder head and how long it has time to heat up while in the intake...