I've never had an engine that ran to "cold" or atleast I think it is running to cold. Here is what I have, a 383 SBC tunnel ram, dual quads, bla bla bla.. I have dyno receipts that show it pulled over 500 rear wheel horse power. Anyway it is in a '24 Tall T that I just traded my bike for. The temp guage did not work when I got it, so I bought a new one and it is installed right into the head (where the old one was). I guess my question is Can the engine run to cold? I drove it around for about an hour, let it sit and idle in my driveway, and it never got above 160 to 170 degrees. I pulled the thermostat out and it was closed, after the motor ran for a bit, I saw the coolant flowing through the radiator. I am going to grab another thermostat tonight (the one that is in there came with the car and I believe that it is a 180 degree ) I guess cooler would be better than overheating but I think I remember seeing a post on here about a motor running to cold. Any thoughts??
An engine that runs too cold tends to sludge up inside due to the natural condensation not being...'steamed' away. Same thing as happens in an engine that is only used for short commutes. You would think a 180 degree thermostat would be fine... Maybe you just need a new one? Bill
The oil needs to get over 210 as soon as possible. That means at least 180 thermostat,190 would be better.
Have you ever been in a dyno room when they run chilled water through a motor. Places that dyno test motors for boats will run chilled water through a motor to simulate river/lake conditions and that cold water makes some serious horsepower! They can make a pull with the standard 180-ish water, then they introduce the chilled water and the motor can pick up more than 40 horsepower (this was on a motor making nearly 380 Horsepower on the dyno). Sure, the motor will burn cleaner at 180-190 range, but when you bring the temperature down they seem to love to make some power.
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