Thermostat vs. No Thermostat that's the question
Re: Thermostat vs. No Thermostat -- Charlie	Post Reply	Top of thread	Maverick Message Board

Posted by: rickyracer 01/08/2002, 17:02:27

A rad cap has only a few jobs, keep the coolant in, maintain a system pressure, allow water to flow in and out of the rad as the system heats up and cools down. The thermostate regulates the coolant temp. by causing a restriction in the system. The reason a cooling system "normanly" won't cool the engine, without the thermo in, is because the coolant does stay in the radiator long enough to transfer heat. It was said that the size may need to be bigger, 20 yrs in the Navy I worked with 11,000 CID Diesel, with 6000CFM blowers, for generators of 1000KW gen. We had to use a regular/thermo for coolant temp control. And that's using seawater instead of air to cool the coolant. I've seen seawater temps from 45-95 degs and still with the same engines/loads the regulater controled engine temp. and that's with a "No pressure system". Even Nascar cars use a restrictor in the cooling system, along with reducing airflow to control engine temp. For you people up in the colder areas you know how blocking off the radiator helps to maintain proper engine temp. Pressure (radiator cap) increases the boiling temp of the coolant. That's why you use a higher one in newer cars because of the higher cooling temps for "EPA" reasons. Vacuum reduces the temp required to make water boil. That's why water evaporaters work at about 29" of vacuum making water boil at about 180degs. Increasing their capicity to make water with smaller units. My experience with Theory is, "it always works on paper". I went to the "School of Hard Knocks" Engines can't read, and they do what they like and want to do. Smokey Yunick proved that many times.

Post Reply | Alert

Original message Top of thread Return to the MMB