I drove my T/A today, with the new 160 thermo installed, and fan switch. i drive mostly highway to school, the car now runs about 170* instead of 210* which it used too, i was jw if this is normal now or is it to low of a temp, and is it hard on the engine? i havn't used my fan yet thats for like drivivng in the bigger city, my schools in a small town, but yeah im just wondering if thats an ok temp to operate at, race at etc.

 

anyone?

 

I saw a graph showing maximum power and maximum engine life once.
160 was right at maximum power, 180 was maximum engine life. Due to the reverse cooling of the LT1 i'd imagine the graph was shifted a little. The maximum power is prolly at a little higher temp and the maximum engine life was at a little lower temp, ie they prolly intersect at 170.

 

k, i just wanna make sure it wont hut the engine at all.

 

You have to think though that the temp on your gauge may show a little cooler than the the actual temp being read at the water pump. I'd say your temp is just fine.

 

yeah, thanks

 

I have the same thing on my car and it runs at 170 all day long and my car love it. it is not as slow when its hot out side

 

Can you drop a 160°F thermostat in and no fan install? Will that work and make your car run cooler? Just curious if that will work?

 

It won't do you any good, since the fans still won't turn on until the car reaches the 200+ mark. The two go hand-in-hand. The correct way is to reprogram the PCM, but you could install the switch to bypass the PCM.

 

It will on the freeway I would go with the SLP fan switch. you and your car will love it

 

I want to do this. Is the fan switch hard to install? I take it you have to run the switch through the firewall? If so where's the place to do it? Will you have to turn it on alot in traffic or city driving? You don't leave it on do you?
Is the fan switch better than sending the PCM off to have them adjust it?

 

It is not difficult to install. You would certainly want it inside the cockpit, which means running it through the firewall.
It is not worth sending your PCM in for such a simple change. The least expensive PCM solution is to buy a used Hypertech Power Programmer and then sell it when you are ready for a real PCM programmer. Or you could spring for LT1Edit or Tunercat, which are real solutions. But the cheapest solution is the switch, you just have to watch your temperature gauge.

 

170 on the gauge means youre probably actually running around 180 or 185... which is actually a good temp to be running at. youre fine

 

The SLP one that I have as a high- low switch and also has a auto setting. I put it on auto and if I get in traffic and the temp goes up I switch it to high.

 

Temperature gauge gets reading from sensor on engine block, driver side, the other sensor on the water pump its the Coolant temperature, which feeds temperature readings to the PCM, not the gauge.....

 

Actually that sensor is on the head itself. But yeah that's what I meant in so many words. The engine is probably some warmer than what you are seeing at the head/gauge.