Ideal temperture thermostat for SBC?

well bobbysocks, you may be right up to a point. but i dont run the same oil in my cars as my wife runs in hers. mine are the old ones.i have to chase down the oil i use today its not stocked at your local station hel,l its not stocked in most auto parts store here. theres a lot of threadfs about oil on here.anyway ive torn down engines that ive had over 250,000 of mostly hard runnin on them and ive never seen any problems with sludge or any kinda of oil problems.but i have torn down some of these newer sbc that were really full of sludge.and some of it hard as rocks.and it wasnt because they were runnin cooler therm.in them

 

If your stat never closes it can happen. But 160 is plenty warm. Our daily driver Jaguar had so much sludge build up it closed up the oil filler tube with a whitish creamy paste. I hadn't driven the car for 3-4 months and the first time I got into it, the heat didn't work hardly. The T-stat didn't come off the coldest line. Also what didn't help is that the whole engine including the filler tube is aluminum. I have had 160 stats in all my older vehicles which total 11 and have never had 1 iota of sludge build up on the exception of the Jag which is newer and was a failure of a T stat which actually has the stock stat in it. Don't tell me it will happen? Maybe it happened with your witnessed car because your stat was stuck open. Theres no reason for me to lie and make up some bull with my 240,000 mile engine with no sludge. What benefit would it be to lie and tell people to do something that potentually would kill thier engines.
I like getting every bit of power out of all my cars and racing cars is a blast. I read back in the 80s about running a 160 stat and that when I swapped. At the track, with track temps close to 100 degrees my temp would climb but with the electric fans, I could control launch temp. 160 seemed to be the magic number for quickest times. I think any sludge build up is caused by faulty T stats period!! Especially on newer cars with aluminum which have a tendency to condensate more with temp fluxuations. Oils today have a ton of detergents compared to yesteryear. My old Desoto Hemi had 1/2 inch of black pasty sludge and if you got it on your skin it was like dye, you couldn't get it off. The sludge on my Jag was a creamy white, yellow tan paste. I guess theres two different sludge types, one gcreated by moisture and one that was caused by carbon?

 

back in the late 60's early 70's there was an exhaustive study done on the extreme longevity of the engines in the Checker Marathons used by cab companies with fleet maint---common thread was thermostats around 200 ---seems to be born out with hi mileage we get out late model sbc in our trucks and suv 's--my last two burbs went over 300,000---i like my race cars around 160----as for sludge it is rarely found in engines with high operating temps and it all comes out in the hot tank anyway

 

I run a hi flo 190* in my sbc's, I don't have any issues as I did with the 160*

 

Heres a video of one of my cars with a 160 stat in 45 degree weather. Never a problem "Ever"! Street driven 400 stock heads, non ported 44 year old valves. 0-60mph in 3.8 second, 1/4 in 12.5s with a 1.60sec 0-60 ft. 3810 lbs. Fires right up with no choke, hammer on it and fry tires. Built in 1991 and still kicking ass!!! In 90 degree traffic it may get as hot as 175 but once moving its a steady 160. This is a movie my car was in. Not one bit of sludge in 22 years. It has never hit 180 degrees. As I said earlier, if you run a 160 stat, you need to adjust for it , just as you'd adjust running a 180 stat, or a 200 degree stat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dTfMAH9UL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dTfMAH9UL8

 

This was not your off the shelf oil either it was oil with the Zinc content for a solid lifter motor, it was a hot rod but was not driven on a daily basis. When the pan was removed there was a lot of sludge build up in the bottom and the engine shop stated that the car needed to run warmer than it currently was that is what caused the sludge to build up in the pan and he went on to explain that the engine temp. needs to get warm enough to keep moisture from building up in the engine. I am not trying to disagree with anyone just pointing out what happened and the explanation. Since this the engine temp was adjusted to run a little warmer and there is no sludge buildup using the same oil. just saying that is all.

 

Well, looks like you could listen to people who have done it "all their lives", or listen to the folk who put their name on the vehicles the build by the millions.

FWIW, every new car comes with a hot thermostat.

No vehicle EVER came with a cold thermostat.

ALL of the engineers for these companies went to college. And their employers get pissed if the cars don't pass rigid testing for all kinds of things, including life expectancy and fuel economy.

ME?? I figure backyard 'engineering' vs college education isn't even a fight. I use a 195 in every car. The run better and more efficiently.

Cosmo

P.S. If 160º was/is better, do you not think that some factory somewhere might have twigged to this??

 

I was running 180 and switched to 195. Its probably my imagination but I thought I saw an increase in performance with the hotter thermostat.

 

If any ONE temp tstat is best, why are other temp ones available?

I always ask qs like this.

 

Motor will last longer, if the oil gets above 210.

Can't do that with a 160.
Can't do it regularly with a 180.

 

Because some people refuse to learn.

 

My 60 shop manual lists 185* for low temp and 195* for high temps..

So either of the two would be what i run.. ive been running 195* high flow sleeve style thermo stats and not the common poppet style you find at most auto part stores.

Nathan

 

I have had really good results using a 195 Deg Robertshaw High Flow thermostat, with a 3/16" hole drilled in it to allow flow past the element, and to release trapped air. Engine stays cleaner, runs smoother, and gets better mileage. This is the combo I'm running in all my vehicles, and have been much happier than with the 165, or 180.