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Changing 160 tstat to 140 tstat

D

dbrahms

Contributing Member
"i believe my 360's have a

"i believe my 360's have a 160 degree tstat and was told by someone that swapping to a 140 would run things a bit cooler. Is this something that people do? Or, am I asking for problems."
 
"If your engines are fresh wat

"If your engines are fresh water cooled, stay with 160* thermostats. If raw water cooled, change to the 140* 'stats.

If you are seeing overheating, thermostats might be the problem but it can also be plugged water passages in the risers, plugged heat exchangers (if fresh water cooled), tired raw water pump impellers or possibly the water temp. gauges/senders are giving you false info."
 
"JimCt is 100% correct, but I&

"JimCt is 100% correct, but I'd like to add:
If your engine is FWC, running at 160 degrees Tstat will give you better fuel economy and probably longer engine life. When most modern V8s are designed, they are intended to run at a cooling system temp of 180 degrees. Raw water cooled engines have 140 degree Tstats to prevent minerals from depositing out inside the engine when running in salt water. That is a trade off, less engine performance vs getting plugged up with deposits. From an engineering stand point, there is no benefit of running an engine at 140 degrees if it can be run at 160 degrees (with a fully functioning cooling system!) Unless its overheating, cooler is not better."
 
"The 140 t-stat are also to pr

"The 140 t-stat are also to prevent destructive boiling of water in the block during idling after a hot run. There's only about 1 psig water pressure at idle--nowhere near enough to prevent boiling, and steam doesn't cool worth a darn. FWC systems run up to 7 or 8 psig most of the time, which raises the boiling point of the coolant so it doesn't boil.

Jeff"
 
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