180 is too cold running? 195 to 210 is hot at iddle? I live in a city with weather temp between 77ºF and 95ºF in the day
I have a 180° thermostat in mine. It has gone to 190° sitting in traffic with the ac on. This should be right around normal. The folks up north might want to run a 195° stat for better heat in the winter, though!
Most American engines have used 195* thermostats since the '60s, saw my first one in a '65 Cyclone with a 289... There's a story why I remember this, was freezing my butt off in '64 Galaxie 500 with a 180* stat, the 195* made a huge improvement... The most efficient running will be around 190-200*, just be sure the radiator, fan clutch(if it has one), is good and shroud is in place so it doesn't overheat... If you're uncomfortable with the 195* a 180* can be used, was the std prior to the switch to hotter stats... If you are in a hot climate where it rarely falls below 80*-85* it'd be OK to use a 160*...
My car have a fan shroud, 180º thermostat, an auxliliary electric fan, and a 7 blades mechanical flexfan, my radiator have 3 row, and I use A/A. Normally my engine run at 180º-190º, but at idle the temp up 195º-210º
I like 180. I have a 160 thermostat, fan kicks on a 185, stays on til it cools to 170, which it seldom does. I seldom get to 190. If I reach the 200s, I start to find a place to pull over and figure out why it is running hot. But I live in SE Texas, where high 90s as a daily temp is the norm. And lots of traffic. But most newer cars run in the low 200s and 210s. So I agree with Krazy dude, don't worry if it is under 225.
Yes scare me, but I dont know why my temp up over 200, I suppose is by the hot weather, and the the air conditioning on, my ignition timing is 6º BTDC and radiator clean! max temp 210 still now...AHHH my radiator cap is 13LBS
One reason that I use the 180° stat is that on the 250 engine the intake is cast into the head right above the exhaust manifold. It runs much hotter ( the intake ) than does the one on the V8. I had problems with the carb getting too hot with a higher temp stat. My car also suffers " heat soak " which boils the fuel in the carb when the engine has been shut off for several minutes. The 180° stat helped with this also! If any of you have this problem, make sure you also have the aluminum heat shield under your carb! @ revatoons, just saw your post. Try your timing at 10° BTC. This will help you run cooler! I don't know what fuel you have there, but try the timing increase, but set it back if it pings.
Here I have 91 and 95 fuel and I will go to try at 10º btc tomorrow ,and tell me how can I install the aluminum heat shield under my carb, I have the same problem "heat soak"..If you have any pics.
you can do two things to keep the carb cooler. First is to find a decent carb spacer made of.. umm.. actually I really don't know what the hell they are made of after all these yaers. lol Kind of a fiberous gasket material that's made thicker with anti-crush pads to reduce heat transfer from the manifold. They are available in several bolt pattern and bore sizes. Then you can further control radiant heat build up with a heat shield. If there are none available for that carb.. you can easily build one. here's a quick link with decent enough pictures to get an idea. You can see the type of gasket that I mentioned above. http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/finally-stopped-my-mc2100-heat-soak-issues-1044655/
My maverick engine never gets to 200 unless something is wrong, and it is on it's way up higher. So, yes, 225 is ok, it isn't going to blow the head gasket, but on MY car, 200 means I better pull over and find my leak or whatever else is causing it to heat up.
