Well I've considered running with one of these. However, my dad taught me all I know about cars, and he tells me that I would be hurting the car. Yes, in the old days, a cooler engine mean't more condensed air and more power. However, he taught me that modern engines are made to run at a certain temperature. It seems that most of you guys swear by the 180 degree thermostats. So I was wandering, how do you guys repsond to what I was taught? My dad was a mechanic in the '80's, so I was wandering about how these 3.8 engines run on 180 thermostats.

 

the only reason i'm putting the 180 in my car is because i'm changing to a smaller supercharger pulley, thats the only reason i think you would need to change to the cooler one, other than that i dont think there would be any benifit to it

 

As a mechanic for the past 30 years, I agree with your dad.
Engines are made to run at their peck at a certain temp
Most car manuf. have spent many hours and dollars into designing engines
to get the best performance out to them. OK I know everyone who does
mod's ect will tell me I am wrong and that is ok, I have never been into doing mods

 

the correct Tstat is all subject to what mods you are runing and how your car is runing. if your car is stock and all is in good runing order then stick with the factory temp tstat. if you have mods, depending on what your mods are you might need or benifit from a colder stat.

if yoru making more power you will be making more heat as well.

one reason a lot of people switch to colder stats is to counter increased amounts of KR. Knock Retard is when the computer detects engine detonation and pulls timing to protect the motor. These stats correct this in two ways. by pulling more heat out of the motor, you can lower combustion temps; this limits one requriement for detonation. the other way the Tstat corrects KR is that with the computer detecting cooler operating temps, the computer compensates for this by making the air fuel ratio richer. a richer AF ratio will also lower combustion temps and counter detonation from occuring.

also with the use of a tuning device, one can readjust the air fuel and spark timing to benifit from the cooler operating temps.

 

alright.. thanks a lot. since i'm not running a supercharged engine i don't think i need to worry about the thermostat then. i'm only planning on a catback system, possibly a cold air intake, retune the computer, and MAYBE a larger throttle body. i think i'l just stick with what i got.

thanks a lot for your advice.

 

The standard T-stats in the 3800 Series II engine are 180 degrees...

 

Actually they are 195*. They are stamped on the bottom so you can verify.

 

It must be a Firebird thing then, their 3800 series have 180 t-stats.

 

hmmm. the past few weeks my monte has been running like crap. farting and belching, rough idle, sputtering, lousy acceleration, and really low temperature.

its like it is not able to warm up in 20 degree (f) temperatures.

so today it got up to like 50 and finally the temp guage got to around 170 or 180 and it started to idle and run right.

think my thermostat is stuck open?

auto zone stuck it on their handheld thing and i got:

C1236
C1245
P0126
P0300
P0303

its a 2004 3800 n/a with 50,000 miles on it.

doesnt each code = $1000.00 to fix?

 

This thread is nearly 8 years old, i suggest you start a new one. To answer your question, perhaps your thermostat is stuck open, but the car should still be able to run fine with cold engine temps.