hi

supose we take off a thermostat in a, say Ford Pinto engine. what are the benefits and the losses in this action? or there are any benefits?

cheers
Amadeu

No, you should never remove a thermostat completely. The most you should ever do is take the centre out of it for a track / race car only. It might give a bit more flow / cooling but tbh the cons would still outweigh the pros.

+1

removal shouldn't be necessary

if it was supposed to run without, ford would have spent millions in design, and installing them. if ford could save £1 on each car by not installing un-necessary components, they would do it! over the course of the model, it would save millions!
engine will take longer to warm up, cooling through the radiator will be constant, and therefore the engine possibly could not actually reach optimum temperature.

pro's well, it might help if the engine's over heating, but it won't actually cure the problem*, so better cure the problem correctly, better radiator, better air flow through the radiator, engine plumbed in wrong, air lock etc
*unless the problem is a faulty thermostat, but then you should replace it with a new one

why do you want to remove it? you must have some reason for asking

[Edited on 2/8/12 by blakep82]

I'm just asking to know.
almost all old Fords with Pintos instaled I saw, had marks in the bonnet because overheating. so I thought in theory what happens if we take of the thermostat.
thanks for answering and clearifying me.
Amadeu

when we bought our pinto westfield it didnt have a stat it never warmed up properly it would vary from 80c down to less than 40c on runs it was impossable to keep the carbs in tune due to such a temperature range one minute the car would be shaking the next the carbs where spitting fitted a burton 80c stat and all the problems went away only thing i had to do was fit a bleed pipe from the stat housing back to the header tank as withought it would pressurise the header tank

quote:

---

Originally posted by xico_ze54
I'm just asking to know.
almost all old Fords with Pintos instaled I saw, had marks in the bonnet because overheating. so I thought in theory what happens if we take of the thermostat.
thanks for answering and clearifying me.
Amadeu

---

You need a thermostat and a a by-pass flow (that is some coolant continuously flowing through the heater circuit pipes) or you will get problems.

You can however drill the thermostat, that is drill no more than 3 holes of 2 to 3 mm in the valve plate of the the thermostat this will slightly slow warm up but give a more constant running temperature when warmed up.

quote:

---

Originally posted by britishtrident
You can however drill the thermostat, that is drill no more than 3 holes of 2 to 3 mm in the valve plate of the the thermostat this will slightly slow warm up but give a more constant running temperature when warmed up.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nickp
No, you should never remove a thermostat completely. The most you should ever do is take the centre out of it for a track / race car only. It might give a bit more flow / cooling but tbh the cons would still outweigh the pros.

---

of course... If you live in Portugal, it will probably stay open most of the time

I too had a pinto with a knackered stat. Change it for a new one as a matter of course.

Tiger Racing advised me to throw away the thermosat in my 2l pinto so I did. I've not used the car on the road yet only warmed the engine every couple of months on the drive.

Based on the above I'll put a new one in back in.

Just throwing this in as some people seem to advise removal which is confusing.

Ian

There may be some very specific circumstances running without a thermostat might have an advantage (e.g. drag racing where engine suddenly experiences very high sustained load), but you have to ensure that the flow of coolant is not disrupted by this which can cause local overheating.

On a road going car it's rarely if ever a good idea to run without a thermostat.

i run my race engines without a thermostat but there not runnnig for long periods and didnt have any trouble althoug it maybe worth fitting one for road use that opens at a lower temperature most cars are set up to run at 90 degrees but optimum power is at 70 degrees

this is a very good discussion I'm not waiting for.
is amazing to see very different opinions and the experience of those who already made this and that. only with this type of discussions we (those who don't know and want to know the "why's" ) can learn something.
many thanks to all until now.
regards
Amadeu

[Edited on 3/8/12 by xico_ze54]

quote:

---

Originally posted by britishtrident
You need a thermostat and a a by-pass flow (that is some coolant continuously flowing through the heater circuit pipes) or you will get problems.

You can however drill the thermostat, that is drill no more than 3 holes of 2 to 3 mm in the valve plate of the the thermostat this will slightly slow warm up but give a more constant running temperature when warmed up.

---