Leaving the Thermostat out ???

oakville said:

The thermostat is very important. It lets your engine run cooler. I know that sounds odd but it is true. I built a Pontiac 455 up to 675 hp and 750 lb ft. The guy putting the car back together said that he left out the thermostat for better cooling. Sounded great to me. The thing boiled over and blew up my 4 core aluminum rad. Went to the ebgine builder and he explained what happened to me this way.

The thermostat cycles keeping the engine temp constant. BUT it allows for more dwell time in the rad thus cooling the fluid to a lower temp. This then cools the engine. Without a thermostat the fluid will cycle so quickly that the radiator dwell time is insufficient to cool the fluid properly and thus will pickup more heat than it can disipate. Since then I have always run a higher temp (195) thermostat and never had overheating problems (did have them with a lower temp, 165 unit).

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