Why I installed a low temp thermostat.

[pothole]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

The stat set the minimum or baseline coolant temperature the car is going to run at and return to when cooling off from a higher temp like when stuck in traffic. Because the stat consistently lowers the baseline temp of the coolant, it also lowers the oil temps as well, which is even more important.

Sorry, I can't see how you are correct.

Let's say you're stuck in traffic crawling for an hour. Essentially no natural airflow over the rads.

The low-temp stat car will start off at a lower temp. I agree on that. But pretty quickly, the coolant temp will rise to that of the full-open temp of the standard stat. That will happen within about five mins of sitting in traffic. From there on in (again, in this stuck-in-traffic scenario), you have a cooling solution that will operate just like the standard car.

Of course, in that five minutes, the standard car will have gotten hotter. And it will be first to trigger the fans. But once the low-temp stat car has triggered its fans, both cars will just cycle their fans on and off.

For the low temp stat to reduce coolant temps in this scenario, you would have to lower the trigger and shut-down temps for the fans. But these are higher than the full-open temps for the standard stat, much less the low temp stat. So, in both cars, you are cycling the fans with the stats full open.

Thus, the oil temp in the low-temp stat car will start a bit lower than the standard car, but it will quickly catch up.