Thermostats and Engine Temperature

Are you using a coolant mixture? You should have a mixture and pressure cap appropriate to your climate. That said, removing the thermostat does generally run your engine cooler. The question is, do you stay too cool?

I use a coolant & the correct radiator cap. And yes...I do stay as cool as possible

No, I meant your engine. It's not good for an engine to run too cool too long.

What's "too cool"?

If you have a reasonably modern fuel injected car, it has a computer that thinks some temperature (I don't know what - check the manual) is too cool and runs rich to compensate.

There is no logical reason to remove a properly functioning thermostat in the summer assuming all other components of the cooling system are functioning properly. Modern cooling systems have a significant reserve cooling capacity, the capacity to properly cool the engine even under extreme conditions, e.g. climbing a hill in the summer with a fully loaded car. Removing the thermostat will prevent the engine from reaching normal operating temperature and that will shorten engine life and decrease fuel economy.

Question: Why do you want to remove the thermostat? Is there any evidence the engine is overheating? If there is no evidence of overheating I recommend you leave the thermostat in place.

One action you can take is to replace the 50/50 coolant mixture with pure water but that has both beneficial and detrimental effects. Water has a much higher specific heat that ethylene glycol i.e. it takes much more heat to raise the temperature of the water than the coolant mixture so pure water is a better coolant. However, the coolant mixture has a higher boiling point.

"Somebody" who gave you this advice may be thinking about post WWII British sports cars that notoriously over heated, probably because the British engineers who designed the cooling system assumed summer time temperatures were only 60 F while they are much higher in the US.

Dennis Waller

If the vehicle is of 1994 or later manufacture removing the thermostat may allow a cooler engine temp but will reduce operating efficiency because sensors configured to optimize performance will not be engaged when engine temp is below the set threshold for each vehicle respectively.

Removing your cars thermostat will allow the coolant to flow without the restricting thermostat getting in the way, but come winter, if you need the heater, the coolant will not warm up quick enough to do you much good.

Growing up in Phoenix, Arizona this was a common practice and it always worked fine for us.

JL Mealer
Mealer Companies LLC
http://mealercompanies.com

Quite simply put, the engine is most efficient when it runs at its hottest permissible temperature & when the air intake is cold.

Running an engine "cooler' will therefore reduce its efficiency. Controlling the temperature of the intake air is another matter.

The long term affects of removing the thermostat are expensive. If the motor is not old, removing the thermostat will not allow the engine to fully expand & will cause extra wear as a result. If, at a later date (some years later), you replace the thermostat, you may find lots of blue smoke coming from your exhaust or an increase in oil usage.

Don't do it.

I am assuming the discussion for removing the thermostat is for a White topped Torquiose 1974 Ford LTD... I'm wearing bell bottoms, white shoes and my mom has a scarf on her head.

Any car with less than 75K miles, you shouldn't have issues with needed to drop the thermostat and doing so works best with the older (say... pre-1995) vehicles.

JL Mealer
http://mealercompanies.com

Yeper correct just hang a canvass water bag in front of the radiator