Thermostat Advice - What should I do?

[Mr Hardware]

Hey Gents

So i've moved house. Driving to work from my old house saw me get on the highway only a couple of kays from home, which meant the car got up to operating temperature (bang on 'O' for me) within a few minutes, and it'd stay exactly there for the duration of the 35-min drive. I think from memory when i'd put my cluster into diag mode it registered as 86deg at operating temp.

Now i'm much closer in and my trip to work is about 12 or 14 minutes. Average moving speed wouldn't break much more than 40kmh. As a result, my falcon doesn't even get close to operating temperature by the end of the trip. Like i'm talking it only gets to the 'third' line (the last one before you get into the letters).

From my hazy understanding, this poses three problems
1. Engine will run rich because it's spending so much time cold
2. Less wear occurs at operating temperature, so getting there quicker is better
3. Poor heater performance!

I wouldn't at all be surprised if my thermostat has had the middle cut out of it, it is an ex-cab after all (736k on the clock).

So i suppose i'm looking to replace the thermostat. Can someone please advise me on which temperature one to get? I know there's been some discussion in the past about them and the little bypass thingo and whatnot so can you tell me what the conventional wisdom is on them these days?

Also I bought another AU on the weekend. I'll post pics later.

[Maka]

Here you go Mr Hardware, hope the link has the info your looking for. Looking foward to see the piccies of your new AU!

http://fordforums.com.au/showthread....=au+thermostat

cheers, Maka

[Road Games]

The way i read it .. short trips and heater being of high importance stick with the std 93* stat mate ...

It actually fully opens at 105* :/

I use a 71*stat but my car is highly tuned and heater performance isn't as crutial to my driving enjoyment...

[Stephanauxr6]

What temp should I run a au falcon on gas at ? It sits on the n of the normal but I think it is too cold coz the heater is only ever work ?

[Bushbasher]

same as above, 93*. Just make sure it's a regular thermostat not one with the extra leg that the petrol engine has.

[Evgeni]

Mine is lucky to make it to N for the winter months. It is duel fuel and I drilled a 3mm hole in the thermostat to warm the converter. Been like that for over 300000km's.

Still got very good compression. Up until 200000kms I was only changing the oil every 15000 with GTX3 which would be about every 5 to 6 months.

[Mr Hardware]

Ok, thanks gents, but i'm super confused.

I know there's like three different aspects to a thermostat - whether it is bypass or non-bypass, whether it has a jiggle pin or not and what temperature it opens up at.

My falcon is dual fuel, but it spends like 20 mintues a year on petrol, so for all intents and purposes, it's gas only.

The tridon website tells me that i should use a non-bypass type. With a jiggle pin, and 91 degrees. Is this right?

Also there is an option for a high-flow thermostat. What would this do? Assuming it still opens at the same temperature, how would this help anything? The coolant will still move around, albeit perhaps at a higher speed? This is assuming that the thermostat is the biggest bottleneck of the cooling system. And the same volume of coolant is in the radiator, no matter if it cycles through at x speed rather than (x+30%) speed. Or am I forgetting something?

[Evgeni]

I can tell you that with the jiggle pin in my converter will freeze up after driving for about an hour. I took the jiggle pin out and put an extra hole opposite the hole where the jiggle pin used to be.
Economy remains fine. 400km's on about 55l of lpg.