heat

[GTCOOL]

Is there anyplace I can buy a lower temp thermostat for my 03 gt-pt w/S-1. The amount of heat is really starting to worry me!

[98 Neon Driver]

there is probably a 195 in there now, you should be able to go to your local parts store and get a lower one.

AC

[JohnM]

GTCool - What kind of heat are you worried about? The increased boost from S1 will probably increase the heat of the intake charge and the exhaust gas temperature somewhat, but whether those will tranfer to engine coolant temperature in a harmful way is doubtful. Even if you put in a lower temp thermostat, it will only cause the thermostat to open sooner, or the fans to come on sooner. It won't lower the ultimate operating temperature if there is a true overheating problem. I don't know of any reported overheating problems with S1 and I've been following this forum and the SRT4 forum. I think Chrysler has engineered a system that is designed to work together and within the parameters of all of the components including the cooling system.

[Cal Cruzer]

installing a lower temp stat will not lower the running temp unless you can reprogram the PCM to turn the cooling fan on earlier too in 90% of the driving you do around town. (unless you pull out of your driveway onto a freeway). These days most cars are very dependent on the cooling fan to maintain the temp. So, if the stat opens as say 180 but the fan (low fan comes on first) comes on that the preprogramed 195, that is where you will run, unless you are pushing a lot of cold air across the radiator, like freeway in the winter.

[tthrift]

we use the same thermostat as the 2000 neon with the 2.0 engine and if you go to the local parts store you can find a 180 degree thermostat that will work fine in our cars.

thanks tommy

be sure to get an aftermarket o-ring also the factory one wont work

[SteelBlueGT]

I agree with Cal, if you dont change the temp your fan comes on it wont make any difference what temp the thermo opens at as long as it is working correctly!!

[brngrhd]

i agree with tthrift the fan will not run untill it needs it and when the car is moving at 20 mph there is plenty of air moving to keep them cool. buy the t-stat and run it it will be cooler.

[Cal Cruzer]

quote:Originally posted by brngrhd

i agree with tthrift the fan will not run untill it needs it and when the car is moving at 20 mph there is plenty of air moving to keep them cool. buy the t-stat and run it it will be cooler.

Okay, so the PT is different than every other car. My statement was from personal experience with my mustang. Unless you are constantly moving, which does not happen in most metro areas, your car will simply not maintain that temp. There is another post on this board right now with an overheating problem because the fan is not working. When I put the lower temp stat in my mustang some years ago, I had to have the temp parameters programmed into one of my chips to be able to take advantage of it and I had a huge aluminum radiator in it. I just had the high fan come on at 185.

If the car would maintain a constant temp we would not even need a fan. Honestly, it will not work. The fan is constantly cycling on and off as you drive simpley because you cannot keep moving forward constantly. As I said, if all you do is drive on the freeway and never stop, you will be fine, but the moment you stop the temp will skyrocket and it takes a long time to get rid of heat once it builds up. Try pulling the plug on your fan sometime if you think the car will fun cool with just a 185 stat.

[GT Kruzr]

Having just installed my Stage One kit, I was just looking at my thermostat. I used a turkey baster to remove the coolant, instead of draing the radiator. As I put the coolant back in I dicided to manually open the thermostat with a screw drive (by pushing down on it) to insure that there was no air bubble there.

The thermostat has an inverted V on the radiator side that aligns a pin on the disk. Pushing down can cause the pin to "misalign" and not close fully. I was concerned, as the car has been runnig cool for the last two weeks, and took it apart yesterday. YEP,,,,,the stat was not fully closeing for the last two weeks. I had days that temp never reached the first line on the 5 mile trip home from work. Yes, I do sit in traffic too. At no time did the temp go too high, but it did stay significantly lower the majority of the time.

A down side may be that the PCM may see the car as cold and run richer?

George

[brngrhd]

quote:Originally posted by GT Kruzr

Having just installed my Stage One kit, I was just looking at my thermostat. I used a turkey baster to remove the coolant, instead of draing the radiator. As I put the coolant back in I dicided to manually open the thermostat with a screw drive (by pushing down on it) to insure that there was no air bubble there.

The thermostat has an inverted V on the radiator side that aligns a pin on the disk. Pushing down can cause the pin to "misalign" and not close fully. I was concerned, as the car has been runnig cool for the last two weeks, and took it apart yesterday. YEP,,,,,the stat was not fully closeing for the last two weeks. I had days that temp never reached the first line on the 5 mile trip home from work. Yes, I do sit in traffic too. At no time did the temp go too high, but it did stay significantly lower the majority of the time.

A down side may be that the PCM may see the car as cold and run richer?

George

so if that happened then i must be right wow how did that happen. cal this is not a mustang i have worked on car pretty much my entire life and yes if you are sitting in traffic it will get hotter than the 180 stat but it does not take much air to cool them. i run a 864hp big block chevy we don't even run a stat we have a eletric water pump and fan. it still gets hot. why because it is high performance and has 15.2:1 compression that builds alot of heat. enough about that the cruiser will run cooler. i have ran cars in my stall at work it takes longer than you think to build heat the fan turns on about 212 and cools to about 195 it takes pretty long to bring it back up to the 212 again. i have also driven down the road with a drb3 scan tool hooked up watched the fan to see what it is doing it does not come on. end of story.