Quote:
Originally Posted by thstone
Ok, I'll bite.
I'm not sure that it works as described. When driving down the interstate at 75mph and then jumping on the throttle, the coolent continues to flow at the full rate. The closed thermostat does not slow or hinder coolent flow, it only redirects it (to the first order of operation).
Thus, the theoretical instantaneous spike in coolent temp that happens when the throttle opens isn't real because relatively cool coolent is circulating continuously at full flow at all times and is maintained at a constant temp as the thermostat incrementally opens to divert the some of the now warmer coolent to the radiators to maintain it.
If (and that is a big IF) there is a local hot spot within the engine, then that is a result of poor flow design and is unlikely to be fully mitigated by using a lower temp thermostat (will help under some conditions but not help under other conditions).
The fact that the temp sensor is on the "cold" side of the cooling system is a red herring (meaning irrelevant) because the thermostat operates entirely independent of the gauge reading, i.e., the stock thermostat starts to open at 180F regardless of what the coolent temp gauge reads. Moving the gauge to anywhere else in the coolent system will not change the cooling system performance.
With all of that being said, I definitely agree that heat is the enemy of an engine and better engine heat management is always a good thing! 
Shouldn't we also be talking about the benefits of adding the center radiator to the non-S cars that don't have it? |
I'm certainly not saying that the temp sensor has anything to do with regulating the thermostat opening. I was mentioning it to illustrate that the temp sensor doesn't show the temp of the coolant around the cylinders and heads, which is critical, it only shows the temperature of the coolant at its coolest temp, after the coolant returns from the radiators. So you look at the temp guage and say to yourself that the coolant is not hot, but what you see is the temp of the coolest coolant in the engine, and not the temp of the hot coolant around the cylinders and heads.
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If I understand you correctly, are you saying when the thermostat is closed, that cool coolant is still getting to the cylinders and heads? How can that be since there will be a lag time before the hot coolant makes its way through the radiators to open the thermostat and allow cool coolant into motor?