Hi,last year I purchased a 1997 Camaro SS.The previous owner had put a 160 deg thermostat in it.I was wondering,what are the advantages/disadvantages of running a 160 vs 180 thermostat in the engine??It would seem to me that running the engine cooler would be a good thing.It is not driven in the winter.

 

Check your specs GM started running things a little hotter for more efficient fuel burn. The average operating temp on most cars now is around 210 deg's. lowering engine temp on those newer computer controled cars can sometime affect engine management.

 

my camaro on runs on 160's too...it will still go brother

 

Well like anything that runs cooler will have more power. I too have one in my car and I like where the temp stays on hot days. The draw back is how long it takes to warm up in winter for the heat to kick in real good. I don't drive mine in the winter so that don't bother me.

 

It is not so much how hot the engine runs, as long as it is within reason. All things equal, a hot running engine is more efficient (power per amount of fuel used) than a cool running one, but the problem is that the hotter engine tends to heat the incoming air more and making it less dense thus reducing the amount of power it can make. Because the aluminum intake manifold of an LT1 acts as a big heat sink, it does a good job heating up the incoming air which results in a power loss. The ideal thing would be to run a plastic intake that does not store much heat (as used in many newer engines), a cold air intake to bring in a dense air charge, and then leave the engine temp as it was designed to make it more thermally efficient. But in most cases it simpler run cooler, gain a few horses, and accept some loss in efficiency.

 

cold air good...cold block heads...heat expands...cold extracts....when air is hot it has the possibilty to hold more...but air moves faster when it's cold...get what i'm saying...keep the engine temp the same....heat wrap your intake tubes and run them as far from your engine as possible.. i use the slp dual cone filter, with heat wrap...most god awfull looking thing with the heat wrap but...it works