Thermostat question

[daveimme]

For fear of sounding like an idiot....here goes:

When I got my 944 a few weeks ago, it had a new timing belt and water pump (54k miles), and needed a thermostat. I picked it up myself and the stock ts had a temp of 180. I did see they had a 160 and a 195, and I was tempted to buy the 160 (being in the south here), but settled for the 180.

Is there a benefit to ge the 160 over the 180? My car runs up to the 3/4ths bar when in heavy stop and go traffic and settles around the halfway mark in normal driving.....is this the norm? It does not get hot, nor go past the 3/4ths, unless it is shut off after stop and go and then cranked up, but moves right below 3/4ths pretty quick.

A dumb mind wants to know.

[AFJuvat]

You can go with either one, though the car will run a little cooler with the 160 - until you get in stop and go. I went with the low temp thermostat and thermoswitch, but I live in Florida.

Your temp readings sound pretty normal.

AFJuvat

[Lawrence Coppari]

It wouldn't hurt to sit down in front of the car with a light and see if there is any trash in front of your condenser. Also, look at the fins to see if any are bent that would restrict air flow.

If you'd like to see the gauge a little lower, try some Water Wetter. It enhances heat transfer a bit.

I assume your electric fans are working. They ought to cause the temperature gauge to fall after they come on.

Your temperatures don't sound high but mine run lower, and the temperature drops fairly quickly when fans come on.

[daveimme]

Lawrence,

before I got the car a few weeks ago, the condensor wasn't even on the car, and we had a great view of the radiator and it is in great shape. As I mentioned before, this was a car that my mechanic got that was in a front end wreck (no structure damage, just body) and since he had another 944 with a good front, he got the 944 for himself.....but then sold to me when I showed some interest. Hence, the salvage title. So, we know for a fact, that the cooling system is all clean. My interior is in perfect condition except for cracked dashboard and a leather spot on the shifter is worn.

Fans are working the way they are supposed.

Yes, I've heard of Redline's water wetter....I used it in my old BMW, plus I use it in my Honda CR 250 (that's a bike boys...no rice burner! ) because down here in the south it can get real hot, plus 4 of my 5 boys ride dirt bikes and two of them (9 and 11) are slow, and I've overheated my CR a few times riding with them...til I used WW. Great stuff.

But, do you use it with antifreeze? If I recall correctly, I used like 1/3 AF, 2/3 water and a bottle of ww....what is your mixture like?

Do you run the 180 F thermostat?

AJ, there is a lower speed thermoswitch? I figured there was just A thermoswitch, not with different temp settings, but apparetnly there is, huh? Would the 180F stat and a lower temp switch help lower temp?

Or would y'all think I'm borderline paranoid and should leave well enough alone

[Lawrence Coppari]

I think mine is a 180 F thermostat. I use 50/50 pink antifreeze mix. Mine will get up to the 10 o'clock position on the track in hot weather. It does not get to the 3/4 position. Could just be a difference in sender unit, gauge, etc. On the highway in summer it sits right next to but slightly above the first mark.

Are your fans turning in correct direction? Sounds silly but someone on this list had that problem a couple of months ago.

[daveimme]

No, I don't think that is silly....because I once had a waterpump in my ol' Cherokee spinning in the wrong direction! However, I think mine is spinning in the right direction because I remember when we put it in, we were watching it good to be sure that they were working and I think we would have noticed if it was spinning in the wrong direction. I will have my mechanic eye it again when I go by at noon (left my parking card in the acura, which he has for now , so I need to go by there).

Those are low settings....I'm always watching my temp gauges in every car I drive...that and the oil pressure....call me anal, but those two spell disaster if they go nuts! I worry about my wife, cuz all she looks at is the road ! Whenever I tell her to keep an eye on this and that, "yeah...yeah..."

[Lawrence Coppari]

My wife does not watch gauges closely enough for my satisfaction. But she does watch them a little, and I guess that is better than not at all. It is good you wife watches the road; some don't. My wife does not abuse her cars which is good - none of the heavy throttle with cold engine, putting it in drive without stopping. She is a little hard on buttons, however. She turns them on and off too fast. She shut a TV off so fast once that the sound went off but the video portion remained on. The on/off on her old TV (different TV) does not work anymore. The shaft from the key part of the ignition to the electrical portion on her 300E (that she used nearly exclusively) broke one day on me. It would have been better had it broken on her - I could have made a good point. She does not understand metal fatigue. She hits the buttons on the burgler alarm like it is a mechanical typewriter. Good cook though and never mashed a car on me. She's probably on some list somewhere talking about all my finer points!

There is a system bleed. It's right on top of the block. You might give it a try.

Or, your car might just be normal.

[daveimme]

I gotcha! When we first got married (18 yrs ago), my wife had a Plymouth Horizon and I would watch her drive that thing (stick). She would push in the clutch, put it in gear, start it, and then before you can say a word, she is already moving in that direction! Is it a wonder why the head cracked on that thing??

Now, however, she is much more gentler on the vehicles.....but she did once scrape a car in a parking lot with my ol Black pristine BMW on the passenger side.....she asked my son who was in the car with her if she had room on 'that' side..."Yep", says my 7 yr old! scraaaaaaaappppppe! Her first thought was, "Oh man...he's gonna kill me!", but I'm too nice for that! She has a 2000 Dodge 3500 van (15 passengers...we have 6 kids), and the back has a dent in the door from backing into a sign. She says it was my fault, because I was there and talking to her and 'distracted' her.....sure....no problem. I'm waiting on my mechanic to repair a 92 Miata, which will be her 'fun' car. Very nice car, with just 47k miles.....needs a hood and fenders, but has a clean title. She's always wanted an MG, so this is the closest we can do, plus a much better/reliable car. She'll be happy in the fire engine red/black interior peppy lil 5 speed!

Anyway, my mechanic has said it was 'normal' and not to worry about it unless it goes up past the 3/4ths mark....so I'll keep my eye on it....and so far.....so good.

One more thing...every year (the last weekend in October) we go up to the Loretta Lynn ranch for a weekend of dirtbike riding. This is in Hurricane Mills, TN, @ 3 hrs northeast of Memphis and right off I-40. Awesome time is held by the whole family. Tenn has some great dirt bike riding country!! Plus, my best friend is a VW/Porsche/Audi mechanic in Memphis....I'll get the 944 up to him one day for the 'goodies' treatment he used to race his 74 914 in autocross and was a top performer in his time (10+ years ago)

[drew1]

A low temp fan switch will drop the temp in stop & go town driving.

drew1

[todwic]

When I got my '84 '44, the fans would kick on when the needle got I micrometer past the 1/2 mark, and that was fine. When I would cross a mtn. (the "Ridge route&REG, the hill on the 101, etc) or sitting in traffic, she'd get up to the 3/4 mark, and I didn't really like that. So I changed fan switch temp. and that helped, a little. it would come on a little before the 1/2 mark. Then I got a bra (Colgan's&REG). So when I went for very long on the FWY it would start climbing, and after about 30mi. I would have to take the bra off. I would just barely start climbing the Grapevine&REG and It would immediately start overheating. It got to where I would stop and take the bra off whenever I went anywhere 'xept work.
So I got some Water Wetter&REG and that helped. Flushed my system, and that helped a little. Changed temp. probe to make sure gauge was right. it was. I was still having to take my bra off, which pissed me off 'cuz I think it looks sharp as hell (got mirror bras, too) While I was in Arkansas I bought some water pump lubricant. that helped a bunch, but still not what I was looking for.
So I ordered a lower temp. thermostat and put that in (not as easy as it sounds, lemme tell ya, boyo) and that made all the difference in the world. I never take the bra off now. I can go anywhere, and as long as I keep it under 90, she's good to go, never makes it to 3/4 mark except at the very top of the ridgeroute. So there it is Dave, take it or leave it.

[daveimme]

Hmmmmm.....What I will probably do then is go with a 160 degree thermostat......should I also get a lower temp thermoswitch? I'll check pelicans parts list to get an idea what that part is.

[todwic]

What I did and how much it helped, 1-10 scale.

Change temp probe: 0 no help whatsoever
Put in low temp fan switch: 4 helped esp. with city driving and stop and go fwy.
Water Wetter: 3 I'll do it again when I flush system around Nov.
Water pump lubricant: 4 you can bet i'll be looking for it in stores.
Lower Temp thermostat: 9 yeah baby!
Making sure to bleed the system correctly & have enough coolant: 10
Degreasing, pulling the little rocks out of, and spraying with high pressure water the radiator and the tranny cooling thingy in the front: 5
Colgans Bra: -8 ^%&%#*#%^$&#&*!!!! Don't ask me why, it has hole for the radiator air...I can only guess the screen the covers it must create some kind of dead air space.

[daveimme]

Todwic....thanks for 'itemizing' the help list.

I'd like to ask......what ratio did you use with water wetter? I am going to do that myself, and would like to know if I can just drop in a bottle of water wetter into my radiator now (which is now 50/50 coolant/water)?

I appreciate this info...

[todwic]

That's what I did. I think there are directions on the bottle

[jykk04]

my temp gauge only goes up to 1/4 of the way the whole time.. i drove it all day today, including traffic jam, stop and go for about an half hour and still only goes up to 1/4 of line.. it's probably not normal... what could be wrong? oh i live in calgary Alberta, canada, and i have u.s. spec 83 944.. and weather wasn't too hot here but pretty hot ....

[todwic]

Test your gauge! Chalk up another thank you to Mr. Wilk

[daveimme]

Todwic, thanks for posting that page.....this is basically something I want to do anyway, because I'm real anal about temp gauges and oil pressure......is there a similiar test for the oil pressure sending unit?

I hope these sending units are relatively cheap, eh? (Will check the pasts list)

Thanks again...