On Sun, 15 Jun 1997 RobCarpent(at)aol.com wrote:
> W.R. and all you who understand physics:
>
> I have nothing to contribute to the scholarly aspects of the discussion but,
> if memory serves me [and it has been a while] in my youth in Alaska we had
> the opposite problem. In winter we did not have to worry about the engine
> running hot. At -40 degrees farenheit[?] the air temp kept the engine cool.
> Add some wind chill if you are driving fast it was even worse. If memory
> serves me we used a lower temp thermostat to keep warm [not hot] water
> flowing to keep the radiator from freezing solid.
>
> Rob Carpenter [never took physics and now I remember why]
> Seattle
> Series V
>
That makes sense to me. If you put a 180 thermostat in, and the engine
cannot get to 180 because it is being cooled directly through the block,
then the thermostat never opens and the coolant will never circulate
through the radiator. If a lower temperature thermostat does open
occasionally, the radiator will get an occasional charge of warm coolant.
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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