Randell,
Thanks. You're the only one who has answered the question of why a
thermostat is necessary in terms us knuckle-draggers can understand and
without getting lost in the intricacies of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics,
etc. Heck 99.9% of us just wanted to know why we needed a thermostat.
(Don't mean to insinuate that 99.9% of the listers are knuckle-draggers, only
me and anyone else willing to admit it).
Thanks again.
Andy
//snip//
On 05/15/98 06:11 PM Randell Jesup said...
>
> Sure, if you have more cooling than you need (the normal case) and
>no thermostat, you'll run cool - too cool, in fact. Engines have an
>optimum temp range, normally around 80-90C. The thermostat lets it get
>there as fast as it can, and then holds it there until the overall cooling
>needed is more than can be provided at 80C (so the temp goes up until
>either you get enough cooling (amount of cooling depends on the temp
>differential between radiator (water) and air), or until it boils over
>(because the even at coolant boiling-point there wasn't enough heat
>transfer).
>
> Put a new thermostat back in. If you were boiling over with a
>thermostat and not boiling without one, then the thermostat was bad.
>There are few situations where running without a thermostat is a good
>idea - even in most racing you want one. And it's generally not a good
>idea to use a low-temp thermostat, either. IMHO.
>--
>Randell Jesup, Scala US R&D, Ex-Commodore-Amiga Engineer class of '94
>Randell.Jesup@scala.com
>'70 TR6, '80 Rover 3500S (aka SD1), '66 Midget, '85 Merkur XR4Ti
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