Jim_Gruber
Yoda
Offline
As many of you know I recently relocated to Tampa with Bugsy IV my '60 BE. Bugsy is equipped with a 180 degree thermostat, new Aluminum Radiator I bought off of E-Bay, Standard Yellow 6-Bladed? Fan, 10" Electric Fan, and a RevoTec in line fan controller set to come on at 190 degrees.
Summer in Tampa is HOT. While many of you are enjoying Fall Temps and some have even seen frost, it's still Summer here with a Sunny High of 94 degrees today. Rainy season every day at 4:00 has come to an end and it's more desert like this time of year. But nice Fall Driving and FL Winter Driving Season is coming. Heater is currently not connected and heater valve has been rerouted so flow coming out of the Heater Valve returns via the little Y pipe coming off of the large hose coming out of bottom of radiator. Lots od Stop and Go down here and with Snowbirds about to descend traffic is going to get worse.
Temps around town are running about 185 indicated, goes up a hair if I push hard on the Expressway in this heat or if sitting in traffic. Temps get to 190 degrees and Electric Fan kicks on and keeps top temps right at 190-192 max. When I pull into garage and shut down, electric fan will kick on and run for a few minutes to cool radiator down. All is running as intended other than adding a manual override switch that I'll position under the dash along with a Relay when I change out wiring harness.
My question is, seeing that temps in the Summer creep up to the 190 degree mark, should I be dropping thermostat down to a 160 degree unit? or is there some technical reason that says engine runs better with a 180 degree thermostat instead of a 160 degree thermostat.
One other point, I ordered a new fan belt for a 1275. The belt on the car which may have been intended for a BE rides real low in the fan pulley groove. I know belt needs to be tightened as I'll get an initial squeal from the fan belt on startup for a few seconds. Goes away as fan belt gets warm and grows in size. I'm thinking the 1275 pulley needs a little bit thicker belt as after all this belt was also turning an Air Pump after 1968.
In short, any drawback in dropping thermostat to 160 degrees. Even in FL Jan or Feb I don't see needing heater core hooked up.
Summer in Tampa is HOT. While many of you are enjoying Fall Temps and some have even seen frost, it's still Summer here with a Sunny High of 94 degrees today. Rainy season every day at 4:00 has come to an end and it's more desert like this time of year. But nice Fall Driving and FL Winter Driving Season is coming. Heater is currently not connected and heater valve has been rerouted so flow coming out of the Heater Valve returns via the little Y pipe coming off of the large hose coming out of bottom of radiator. Lots od Stop and Go down here and with Snowbirds about to descend traffic is going to get worse.
Temps around town are running about 185 indicated, goes up a hair if I push hard on the Expressway in this heat or if sitting in traffic. Temps get to 190 degrees and Electric Fan kicks on and keeps top temps right at 190-192 max. When I pull into garage and shut down, electric fan will kick on and run for a few minutes to cool radiator down. All is running as intended other than adding a manual override switch that I'll position under the dash along with a Relay when I change out wiring harness.
My question is, seeing that temps in the Summer creep up to the 190 degree mark, should I be dropping thermostat down to a 160 degree unit? or is there some technical reason that says engine runs better with a 180 degree thermostat instead of a 160 degree thermostat.
One other point, I ordered a new fan belt for a 1275. The belt on the car which may have been intended for a BE rides real low in the fan pulley groove. I know belt needs to be tightened as I'll get an initial squeal from the fan belt on startup for a few seconds. Goes away as fan belt gets warm and grows in size. I'm thinking the 1275 pulley needs a little bit thicker belt as after all this belt was also turning an Air Pump after 1968.
In short, any drawback in dropping thermostat to 160 degrees. Even in FL Jan or Feb I don't see needing heater core hooked up.