T'Stat...

[cobracobra]

quick poll....Upon receiving my surge tank I noticed a brass, looks like, freeze plug drilled out to a size of a nickle wedged into the the throat of the tank. I know Bill from SA prefers you run your car like this, but has anybody pulled it out and run a regular 160 or 180 t'stat?

[Master]

I ran bill's set-up this summer and it worked fine but when fall came the car would not reach 150 degrees. I pulled the restrictor and put in 180 degree thermostat. I personally like it better because the car warms up quicker and operating it at those lower temps is not good for the engine. I live in the Cincinnati area but if you are in the south it might work for you.

[K.Wilson]

Other than running an engine without proper lubrication, running an engine with out a thermostat is the single most damaging thing you can do............
When I was a young engineer at Ford, I was shown a Ford Flat Head V8 that had been run with a thermostat in one bank and no thermostat in the other. The thermostat side had normal wear and looked great, the no thermostat side was completely worn out, there must have been at least .020 cyl wear. This drove home the point that engines must run at their design temp if you expect any kind of service life.
Keith

[Unique 289_FIA]

Mine had a "drilled out" tstat when I bought it from the previous owner. I thought he had done that. I replaced it with a 160* tstat. Frankly, the engine temps are much more consistent now.