OK to remove thermostat?

Will it harm anything if I remove the therrmostat for the duration of the
summer?

My goal is to make the engine run cooler to extend the engine life. This is
in reference to a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica with a 6 cylinder engine with
168,000 miles. The gasket is an o-ring that is part of the thermostat, so I
will make my own gasket to fit around the thermostat housing to prevent
leakage. Thank you.

J wrote:
> Will it harm anything if I remove the therrmostat for the duration of the
> summer?
>
> My goal is to make the engine run cooler to extend the engine life. This is
> in reference to a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica with a 6 cylinder engine with
> 168,000 miles. The gasket is an o-ring that is part of the thermostat, so I
> will make my own gasket to fit around the thermostat housing to prevent
> leakage. Thank you.
>
>

The engine is designed to run at a specific temperature to
achieve the most efficient operation. No thermostat may
make it run too cool and you'll be using a lot more gas,
which in itself is not good for the engine. Although there
are cases where no thermostat will allow the coolant to run
thru the radiator too fast and NOT get cooled sufficiently..
The best thing you can do to extend the engine life is
change the oil/filter every 3K or so

Will run cooler, gas mileage will might/might not drop a few mpg's and
it won't have any heat, but thats all.

J > wrote:
>Will it harm anything if I remove the therrmostat for the duration of the
>summer?

No, but it won't do you any good.

>My goal is to make the engine run cooler to extend the engine life. This is
>in reference to a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica with a 6 cylinder engine with
>168,000 miles. The gasket is an o-ring that is part of the thermostat, so I
>will make my own gasket to fit around the thermostat housing to prevent
>leakage. Thank you.

The engine will run cooler only when it starts up, when you want it to
heat up. It won't run any cooler during long hot drives, when the thermostat
would be open anyway.

This will not extend your engine's life, it will only reduce your gas
mileage because it will take longer for the engine to come up to temperature.

If the engine is running hot, find out what is causing it to run hot and fix
it. If the engine is running hot, taking the thermostat out will not cause
it to run any cooler.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"BobJ" > wrote in message
...
> Although there are cases where no thermostat will allow the coolant to
> run thru the radiator too fast and NOT get cooled sufficiently..


With all due respect, this is a myth. There are, on some designs, reasons
why
removing the thermostat may detract from cooling, but speed of flow through
the
radiator is definitely not valid.

On May 13, 6:32*pm, "J" > wrote:
> Will it harm anything if I remove the therrmostat for the duration of the
> summer?

Yes.

>
> My goal is to make the engine run cooler to extend the engine life.

What you are proposing will likely shorten the life of the engine
because it will never reach proper operating temperature.

> This is
> in reference to a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica with a 6 cylinder engine with
> 168,000 miles. The gasket is an o-ring that is part of the thermostat, so I
> will make my own gasket to fit around the thermostat housing to prevent
> leakage. Thank you.

Is this a solution to an overheating problem? If so you should fix
the cause of the problem.

On May 13, 8:26 pm, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> J > wrote:
> >Will it harm anything if I remove the therrmostat for the duration of the
> >summer?
>
> No, but it won't do you any good.
>
> >My goal is to make the engine run cooler to extend the engine life. This is
> >in reference to a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica with a 6 cylinder engine with
> >168,000 miles. The gasket is an o-ring that is part of the thermostat, so I
> >will make my own gasket to fit around the thermostat housing to prevent
> >leakage. Thank you.
>
> The engine will run cooler only when it starts up, when you want it to
> heat up. It won't run any cooler during long hot drives, when the thermostat
> would be open anyway.
>
> This will not extend your engine's life, it will only reduce your gas
> mileage because it will take longer for the engine to come up to temperature.
>
> If the engine is running hot, find out what is causing it to run hot and fix
> it. If the engine is running hot, taking the thermostat out will not cause
> it to run any cooler.
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Modern thermostats are not bistable like the old ones. It is not just
full open or full closed. Modern cooling systems do a good job of
holding engine temp at a specific value. However, I agree with the
idea of fixing any overheating problem properly. If there is not an
overheating problem, don't monkey with it.

I can give you some information assuming that yours is the same as my 1992 Beretta was. The 195 degF thermostat opening temperature is comparatively high and, considering the tendency to overheat, it might seem like a good idea to make it run cooler. (I blamed the overheating when sitting in traffic on the fact that the cooling fan covered only about 2/3 of the radiator.) The lower temperature thermostats that I was able to find did not have the disk on the bottom of the thermostat that blocks the bypass passage when the thermostat is fully opened, so you would have more overheating problems with the lower temperature thermostat. You could run without a thermostat and block the bypass passage e.g. with an epoxy cement plug. This would result in cooler running but could cause other problems; warm-up time would be much longer and it might not get warm enough for some emission controls e.g. charcoal canister purge to work.

J wrote:
>
> Will it harm anything if I remove the therrmostat for the duration of the
> summer?
>
> My goal is to make the engine run cooler to extend the engine life. This is
> in reference to a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica with a 6 cylinder engine with
> 168,000 miles. The gasket is an o-ring that is part of the thermostat, so I
> will make my own gasket to fit around the thermostat housing to prevent
> leakage. Thank you.

--
Mike Walsh

I'm not sure what fuel delivery system this car uses, but many
injections systems will not enter the "warm" strategies if the temp is
too low, which may make it run open loop.

The gas mileage will drop, quite a bit, meaning like about 1/3 if you
do that.