My car has been running a little hot probably due to the weater so i think im going to buy a 160* or 180* thermostat. Ive got a couple questions about them though. Do you have to tune it after you put it in? how hard are they to put in? Should i get 160 or 180?

 

160 will just about kill your heat lol. I never tuned mine... All it does is make the engine run cooler. I'd stick with 180 if you need heat in the winter (even then it's not that good lol). Doesn't really matter I guess

 

you must be thinking about the 160*, 180* is the stock one, which you probably already have

its fairly easy to put it, just remove the air intake elbow, and you will see the top of the water pump neck, just remove that and you will see the t-stat right there, make sure you bleed the system for air, might want to make sure you have some rags handy for excess coolant that may come out

no you dont need a tune for this one, you may also want to get a manual fan switch to stay cooler

 

180 is pretty close to stock (i think its 210?) i used a 160 hypertech (i heard good things about them). its really easy to do, best thing (and fastest) let the car sit over night or for several hours, so that its completely cooled down, get like a pan and put it under the car. take off the inttake elbow, get a little socket wrench and undo the two little bolts on top of the water pump, get a bunch of rags and stuff them all around.. and give it a good tug (it may be pretty stuck on there from suction) and it will come out, now work really really fast, yank out the old thermostat (make sure you get the rubber ring around it otherwise the new tstat wont fit right) and quickly shove your new tstat in and close it up and wipe all the coolant that leaked out up and screw it back in. then youll want to refill your coolant up (just get a jug of coolant and pour some in to compensate for what splashed out). should take all of 10 minutes. then youll want to turn the car on, check for leaks and look at the coolant gauge if its acting weird that means you got an air bubbkle and youll want to do it again. othersie your good and after a few cooling and heating cycles that antifreeze will have worked its way back and you should notice a difference in temp!

 

what temp does yours normally run at with the 160* thermo?

 

it typically sticks to the first like (after 160) but after hard driving and idleing it only will go slightly past thee middle line but quickly drops to atleast the middle line.. i have to be looking at the gauge to tell you the numbers lol (keep in mine i have a 97 so my gauge cluster is the same as the 98+)