temp. range '40 282

[fred deagostino]

I have a 190 deg. thermostat in this engine (recent rebuild) and I just don't have a warm fuzzy feeling about it's running at 190. What's more, the temp. spike after shutoff goes up to 210 or maybe a bit more.

Anyone have some insights on this, or am I worrying about nothing? Thanks in advance!

[Clipper47]

I am wondering why you are using such a high temperature thermostat. Why not try a 160 degree one and see what happens. I also find that in summer when I replace the antifreeze solution with plain "soft" water and add a bottle of Redline WaterWetter the engine runs cooler than with the antifreeze solution.

[fred deagostino]

I'd ordered that thermostat from Kanter, just assuming they knew which one went in there but it's been worrying me since I got the engine running. I like the idea of the 160 deg. better.

I'm pushing my luck but you wouldn't happen to have a brand and part # for that would you? Just though I'd try and save my poor parts guy some trouble. Thanks for the info.

[Clipper47]

Fred, The thermostat in my car is different being that it is the 356 engine. Perhaps someone else will chime in.

[West Peterson]

While I have a '40, I have the 356 as well and it uses the Silphon thermostate to operate the radiator shutters. No engine thermostat. Some people run both, but I don't seem to have a need to do that.

[Joe Block]

plain water and redline are great, but don't forget to drain in the winter, or have a cracked block, ask how I know.

[Joe Block]

West

Curious, you find the silphon tmerastat good enough, i have to check that out. Joe.

[West Peterson]

When I had my front end all torn apart, I flushed the engined extremely thoroughly. I took out the water distribution tube to check, cleaned it, and put it back in as it looked practically new (50,000-mile car).

On cool days (60-70 degrees or so), the shutters hardly even open when I just do some calm in-town driving, and the temp gauge stays right in the middle.

[Clipper47]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: packards42</div><div class="ubbcode-body">plain water and redline are great, but don't forget to drain in the winter, or have a cracked block, ask how I know. </div></div>

I have a good idea what happened so I won't ask! Even with global warming it still gets down below -40 on occasion so I never forget to switch to antifreeze in fact I usually do so in October.

[tbirdman]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: West Peterson</div><div class="ubbcode-body">When I had my front end all torn apart, I flushed the engined extremely thoroughly. I took out the water distribution tube to check, cleaned it, and put it back in as it looked practically new (50,000-mile car).

On cool days (60-70 degrees or so), the shutters hardly even open when I just do some calm in-town driving, and the temp gauge stays right in the middle. </div></div>

West,

What was your flushing technique? I'm planning on doing thatthis winter also.

[West Peterson]

Remove grille and radiator

Remove water pump,

remove water distribution tube.

Hook up a homemade copper extension to the garden hose (the extension should be the length of the block, and should have a bend at the very end so that you can spray around each cylinder. I'll try and post a picture of it if I can find it.).

Turn on hose full blast. (the copper extension, being much smaller, will have quite high pressure if you crimp the end).

I just kept feeding the hose back and forth, up and down, right and left, until the rusty silt stopped coming out, then I did it a little more.

This is also a good time to rebuild a possibly bad water pump and radiator.