royce wrote:
your post jsut agreed with me and then gave half a story about an experience, if you are running at a higher temp than the thermostat regardless there are other issues
Think about this carefully - all the thermostat does is control the point at which the coolant starts to circulate - once the coolant temperature has risen to the point where that thermostat opens and coolant is circulating the temperature at which the engine operates for any given load is going to determined by the ability of the radiator and the airflow through it to dissipate whatever heat the engine produces.
The only time the thermostat will play a part in regulating the operating temperature of the engine is if the radiator is grossly oversized or the ambient air temperature is extremely low - there is a differential factor between the radiator temperature and the ambient air temperature that affects the radiator's ability to dissipate heat - this may be critical given your climates, but is not a factor in mine - it can be considered a constant for most purposes, and so I will ignore it.
Increase the engine's heat output without improving the ability of the radiator to dissipate the heat and the temperature will rise - note this carefully, because I will come back to it.
Hold the engine load steady and reduce the effiency of the radiator and the temperature will rise, reduce the air flow (and thus the ability of the radiator to dissipate the heat) and again the temperature will rise - block half the radiator core with cardboard thereby reducing both it's efficiency and the air flow, what's the end result - the temperature rises.
Change from the OEM aluminium cored, plastic tanked radiator to any less efficent radiator and the operating temperature WILL rise.
Now - if the thermostat was the only thing that determined the operating temperature, then this thread would not exist - the OP would simply change his thermostat for one with a lower opening temperature - the thread exists because he has turbo charged the engine, thereby increasing both it's power and heat output, to the point where the existing radiator cannot dissiapte the heat, and he must either find a more efficient radiator or one with a larger surface area.
I'm merely stating my experience when switching from the stock aluminium cored radiator to a brass one of the same size and with the same number of cores - the temperature went up because of reduced inefficency, presumably due to the difference in conductivity.