Thermostat installed.



Thanks to Marv, that sent me a couple of Robertshaws, my engine now is running with the Tstat on.

What changed:

At first start in the morning, the engines heats up to 150 F a lot faster, and stays that way (we are in the worse of winter down here, so the temperatures are between 10ºC and 18ºC in average, with some ocasional 5ºC cloudy days). Only when I find some stop and go trafic, the temp goes up to around 160, 165.

The thermostat is correct, opening at 160 F, I think maybe my Summit gauge is a little off, but I tested it out of the car, and it looked to be reading fine, just along with a brand new gauge I have as a spare. The engine is running fine, and pulling like an ox, as always.

I just hope that working between 150 and 165 is not too low, even with the thermostat on.


Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

Marv,



The box says the stats are for pre '67 FE Fords. What you said was the reason of my doubt, as I never dealed with a FE. My friend says they are too big to his 302, so I'm assuming they'll fit the Y.

If so, I gonna tell some friends, so they can have them. Unfortunatelly for me, they are all 180 F.

Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

Tulio:



Some of the FE's take the same thermostat. Some of the later FE's took the smaller stat, so hard to tell unless you know what is the stat number or get him to send you a picture.

Tulio; I tried to reply to your PM however you mailbox is full.

Guys, Marv is sending me a couple of thermostats, so I think this problem is solved. I have one doubt tough. Anyone knows if the Thermostats for our Y-Blocks are the same as the ones for the FE engines (352, 390, 427, etc)? I found a guy with a box full of thermostats for FE Fords. Not Robertshaw, but looks like they can help other Y-Blockers around here.

Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

I found this work of art while looking for a replacement water neck when rebuilding my engine. It's a 160 degree Robertshaw thermostat for a 302 Ford, that someone "adapted" to the outer ring of a 292 thermostat. By it's looks I would say the thing worked for quite some time. If this doesn't proof how difficult it is to find a new 160 stat for a 292 around here, I don't know what would do.

The guy for sure had a lot of imagination.


Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

CASCO has done a bit of work on this and they found that the typical 160 and 180 degree thermostats have an opening of .887 square inches and the 170 has an opening of 1.724 square inches.

Here's a pic of the two.

The have done some other interesting things with cooling also.

Go to here:
http://www.classictbird.com/
and scroll down to:
"Read about our modified water pump"

HTH


Jim
Norfolk, VA

"MABLE"
1956 Thunderbird Green / Brown Interior (ZE-XG)

"MEAN GREEN"
1956 Mainline (FG-BE)

Tulio:



If you pay the shipping I will give you a large 160^o Robershaw stat as I have a spare.

Send me a Pm with your address so I can get you the shipping cost.

marv

CASCO will ship overseas for an additional $5 doc. fee (sales@classictbird.com). Their 170 degree large-opening thermostat (part # 8575C) only brings my temp gauge up 1/3rd in cool weather. If you can't find the right size Mr. Gasket/Robertshaw in 160, I don't think you'll really miss the little bit of extra latitude.

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

The Robertshaw thermostat is the one I have on my 302. I have a spare for these, but it's too small to fit the Y-Block housing. Mopar stats are available here, but only for 318 engines. The ones from Stant, all have the small diameter on the oppening.

Does anybody know any store that sales the high flow stats, with 160 degree, and would ship to Brazil? The ones I found are vague, and by the pictures, they are not the high flow units.

Until I find one, I'll run the engine without the thermostat. The majority of the premature wear would take time to happen, and the engine has a little over 10K miles from a total rebuild. Since the stats are so cheap, and the damage the wrong one can cause is so expensive to fix, I'm willing to weit untill finding a high flow, 160 degree stat.



I'll try Summit again, this time looking for a big block Mopar hygh flow thermostat. Let's see if I have any luck.

Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

The big block Mopar thermostat is 52-54 mm diameter - sizes here are 383/413/426/440 cubic inches. When the guys refer to a "big mouth" thermostat they are talking about the diameter of the moving poppet. Many are manufactured with a 52/54 diameter - but the poppet is only 25/26 mm. The ones with the 38 mm poppet are the ones to find. Mr Gasket brand "high flow" is sold here.

This type is known as a "Robertshaw" type thermostat and they work quite well - have a huge opening. The hole in the poppet support is one of three (about 5 mm dia each) added so that water can pass through when the thermostat is closed. When modified this way  - you can put an orfice in the "bypass" hose (that goes out the front of the intake manifold and directly back to the water pump). When you block or orfice this passage, water can't directly bypass the radiator and reheat. A 3/8 std pipe plug with a 5 mm drilled hole, inserted in the tube will do the job.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona