thermostat questions
 

I own a 01 gt vert with auto and 3.73 gears,hypertech performance tuner. The tuner recommended a cooler t-stat so I installed a 180 degree stat. IS there any benefit to running even a cooler stat such as a 165? I don't drive the car during the winter months

no not really a 180 is fine it helps bleed off some heat while not taking ot much off. leave it alone. its all good. case closed.

DO NOT run anything under a 180*. By running a 165, your engine will run far too cool and not up to it's true potential. Horrible gas ileage and poor performance.
I had a 180* in my car but put the stock 190* back in.
Modular motors like the 190. I would not even put in a 180. It has no benefits whatsoever.

180 I think is fine. Not much benefit especially if your fans are still turning on at the same temp.

if you where its hot aka FL its worth it to bleed some heat off. but i agree anything lower than 180* on these motors does little.

I'm running a 165* in my GT with a Diablosport Predator, and have noticed little to no difference in mileage.

I ran my car last summer with no thermostat and it seemed to perform better. I removed it just for a day at the strip and on the way there I noticed it seemed to pull harder and the needle was only 1/4 the way up. I DID run my best ever ET that day, but that could be for a number of other reasons.

I've heard of some people installing a manual fan switch (when switched on, it forces the fan to stay on, when switched off, fan works as normal). This might be useful on the strip between runs or whenever you want to keep your temps down. I dont believe it's that hard to do and everything you need you can probably get from radio shack.

Red line waterwetter also helps. (Works better with a 75/25 water/coolant mixture than 50/50)

Guys, we need to distinguish between two things. To lower the operating temp, you need to change the thermostat AND change the temp setting for turning on the fan to get the full benefit. When you change the setting on your Diablo Pred, for example, you are simply changing the temp at which the fan turns on. It does not do much w/o also changing the thermostat.

Also, running too cool will cause the car to run way too rich. The car uses different fuel curves when cold until the engine warms up. I believe this takes place around 165, but I am not sure.

I think running at 180 is FINE...actually good especially in hot weather. One of the reasons why Ford has the temp so high is for emissions. Higher temps results in more complete combustion of waste gases. This favors emissions, but not hp.

Also, the higher the temp of water, the more corrosive it becomes. This is especially true for steel, but not soo much with Aluminum.

I did not just change temperature settings on the Diablo. I installed a 165* T-Stat.

I also live in CA so I see alot of warm weather driving.

OK. Sorry, I did not know that.