Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Roberts
NO argument 
Show me. Show me the test case, test scenario. I have 4-5 years of AIM and Motec data logs showing ZERO decrease in water temp. My logs are 25-30min logs and multiple 3-4 hr logs. With and without 3rd radiator, with and without BoxsterS water lines. With and without standard coolant (with/without water wetter)
I *know* you know better than to read the gauge for this. Show me 
We are racing. I have steady state consistent lap times in all sorts of different weather. I'm suspecting what your seeing only pertains to certain circumstances. |
For someone that says "No argument", you definitely come across as someone spoiling for one.
That said, I would fully expect that a 160F stat is not going to do much for a car being flogged on a track. First of all, racing is never "steady state"; on the track, everything is changing all the time (air temp, RPM range the engine is seeing, the number of cars holding you up at any given moment, load on the engine etc.), which only adds to the confusion when trying to reproduce results; and the thermal load conditions that car is seeing is totally different than that of a what street car sees. And as my comments are directed at street use, which is where the low temp stat was designed for, they do not apply to a car used in track applications.
On several customer's 986 (we done this with both base and S cars, Tips and manuals), fully instrumented (read not using the factory displays) when equipped with the OEM stat and running at a steady prolonged speed (target speed of 40-50MPH) with an ambient temperature in the 68-72F range, we have tracked coolant and oil temps over extended driving periods. Nominal coolant temps tended to be in the 210-215F range under these conditions, with the oil running 20-30 degrees or so warmer. With no other modifications, the same cars produced steady state coolant temps of 175-180F by switching to the 160F stat, with a concomitant drop in the oil temps as well.
Will the street driven car heat up and turn the fans on if it gets stuck in traffic? Yes it will, but it will take it longer to do so, and will cool back down to the lower observed steady state temperatures once air flow over the radiators comes back and the car returns to cruising speeds.
So does using a 160F thermostat result in lower coolant (and oil) temps on a 986 driven on the street? Most definitely. We have also tracked UOA's on some street cars, before and after they were switched to the 160 stat, and observed slower oil degradation over time, which is probably attributable to the oil seeing consistently lower temperatures as well.