Troponin

I am looking for ways to help with cooling on my truck. I am supercharged, and superchargers are easily robbed of around 50hp or more when the temps shoot up. I am curious if anyone has any experience in going with a 170 degree thermostat and if there will be any advantage in both FI and NA applications.

mechanicboy

I have the 170. My mileage didn't change, heat doesn't seem affected.

Things I did notice: less heat soak when monitoring my intake air temps, the engine seems to cool off much faster after shutting down, less knock activity from light to light, the cylinder head temps don't seems to climb to 230* on long drives like it used to, temperatures even after a 1/4 run never seem to climb more than a hair above 200.

Installation is straight forward. While you're changing it out you should reduce the percentage of ethylene glycol to 30-40% unless you live in an area that sees much below zero temperatures, in which case sticking to the stock thermo is a good idea.

Overall I'd say it's worth it, but only for FI applications due to the higher heat related to them.

Troponin

I was hoping you would reply! Thanks for all that info. I am in Texas, so anything I can do to get both my vehicles running cooler is worth it. I have seen your set up and your runs at the track. You have a bad *** ride!

So how do I go about changing the Ethylene Glycol to a 30-40% mix?

mechanicboy

You're welcome and thanks. If you haven't been through the old threads you should look for Youngerone, he lives in Texas too and we met up and have some fund last January. He had almost the exact same setup as me.

It's been documented that many ford vehicles leave the factory with about 60% EG. EG does not transfer heat as efficiently as water does so running more water pulls more heat away fast. I believe they add extra because they know some of their vehicles will seeing WELL below zero temperatures were higher concentrations are helpful.

To do this, when you pull your thermostat you're going to have to drain your cooling system. When refilling the system you will add more distilled water in place of some of the original coolant. I also added water wetter, but that was before the thermostat (I added it when I installed the blower). The percentage EG will either have to be estimated or you can buy tools that will measure it, I used the guess method. I rarely see below freezing temperatures so 20% EG would be enough to keep me safe.

There is a new coolant that doesn't contain water that I shall research. I want to know how efficient it is compare to EG or water. If I find anything significant I will report it here.

Troponin

Awesome, thanks! Would you have added the water wetter in had you done the thermostat earlier, or do you feel that doesn't add as much benefit with the thermostat?

mechanicboy

I would do it anyway, family of mine that race swear by it. I can't say it works, it's just something I do based on other peoples experience.

Here's the waterless coolant: http://www.evanscoolants.com/evans_w...ants_faqs.html

crazydubc

I'm interested....What are the pros and cons of a low temp thermostat and this type of coolant?

gDMJoe

To compliment the lower temp' thermostat you may also want to consider adjusting the cooling fan(s) to a lower kick-on temp'.
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Troponin

I assume this is through tuning?

mechanicboy

Yes, or you can do what I did and just turn on the a/c while adjusting the temperature to full heat to keep the fans on before a race