Quote:
Originally Posted by Frodo
So what you're saying is that the cooling system (thermostat open, coolant flowing) has WAAAY more capacity to keep the engine cool than it really needs to. So, in a way, the thermostat is also designed to keep the engine from running TOO cool. Correct?
What I don't understand is how the LTT will (as you say) cause the engine to "actually warm up quicker."
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If cars did not have excess heat transfer capacity in the radiators, life would be rather different: You would daily see cars on the side of the road with their hoods open while the driver's waited for them to cool off. The radiators have more heat transfer capacity than is needed to maintain a given "steady state" operating temperature, other wise you could not get the car to cool back down once it got moving after being stuck in traffic, and yes, the thermostat is a throttling device to limit coolant flow to maintain its rated temperature. A common comment among customers who we have installed a third radiator for is that the car seems to take longer to get hot on the track, and cool down quicker once off the track; because the third radiator has added even more heat transfer capacity.
The quicker warm up is a perception more than a reality created by the stat going to full flow sooner (at a lower temperature); many customers comment they get heat quicker in the winter, this is why they see it as warming up quicker. If you actually tracked and graphed the rate of thermal rise of the engine with the LTT and OEM stats, it would actually remain unchanged until the low temp stat opened, after which the LTT stat engine would actually warm up slower to its steady state temperature due to increased coolant flow. But drivers regularly comment about faster warm ups, which is a dominant perception about the LTT.