best thermostat

[kevinl1058]

I'm running a 200 in my falcon. What temp thermostat are you guys running. My temp guage is only going 1/4 which I feel is a bit cool. Since we are going into spring and summer driving this maybe fine but considering bumping up to 190 thermostat.
Kev

 

[wallaka]

190 would generally be just fine. But don't change your thermostat on the basis of the stock temp gauge. They are notoriously inaccurate, and only a little better than a guess. Mine basically says "Heat? Yeah, got some." Put a real gauge on it or get one of those infrared thermometers to know what's really going on.

 

[Eric Rose]

I got an aftermarket gauge and tested it by submerging the probe into water and seeing what temp it read when the water boiled. It was dead on.

What thermostat you want probably depends on your cooling system, particularly your radiator and fan. I run a 190 with an aluminum radiator and the stock 4 blade fan. It works great... the engine stays pretty constant at 190 even iding in traffic, unless its below freezing outside, then it will dip down to 160 or so.

 

[Williboy]

Mine seemed to want to run around 200* no matter what thermostat I had, 160*, 180*, so I put a 195* and there it stays.