I wrote:
> Think of it this way -- does it really make any sense to suppose that
> a thermostat will make the engine run warmer in winter by
> restricting flow and will also make the engine run cooler in summer by
> restricting flow?
Then On Wed, 11 Jun 1997 nicholsj(at)oakwood.org wrote:
> In the Tiger owners manual it says to use a 160F thermostat in the summer
> and a 190F in the winter. The thermostat opens at a lower temp. in the summer
> to allow coolant to flow from hot engine to cool radiator sooner thus keeping
> engine temp lower. A higher temp thermostat in winter allows hot engine coolant
> to reach a higher temp before reaching much cooler radiator thus making the
> engine warmer in winter. In either case, coolant flow is restricted at
> different temperatures to achieve the opposite results cited in your question.
> Or am I totally wrong?
> Jeff
Let me try again. If you put a 160 thermostat in for the summer, it will
restrict flow until temp is 160, then open. A 190 thermostat will do the
same thing except the set temperature is 190. In either case, the point
of the thermostat is to restrict flow until engine temperature reaches
the temp of the thermostat. The idea is to reduce the time the engine is
running cold. Frankly, the idea of changing the thermostat to 160 in the
summer does not intuitively seem all that sensible -- if 190 is the
proper operating temp of the engine, then it would be ok to use a 190
year round.
My point is that the original post said that removing a thermostat would
make an engine run hotter, and gave an explanation that i disagree is
reasonable. The point of what I wrote, quoted at the beginning of this
post, is simply this: a thermostat was included to restrict flow when
the engine is cold, thereby making the engine warm up faster. The
original poster was arguing that removing the thermostat would make the
engine run hotter. So, if he is right, you have a situation where the
manufacturer put in a thermostat to make the engine run hotter, and the
poster is claiming you should leave it in to make the engine run cooler.
The engine was designed to have a thermostat, and the thermostat should be
left in, but not for this reason.
WRG
W. R. Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons(at)northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8629
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