Thermostats

What is the best thermostat to use on a standard car? I am looking to get one of Cliveyboys filler necks and want to put an electric thermossitch in for the fan. Want to put a new thermostat in to complement this and was wondering what temperature to use?
Al Cowan

David Vizard says 72

John :wink:

Hi Al,

I’m running a 74 C one at the moment.

Probably good for most of the year…but it’s been -5 C here the past few days and the car is struggling to make normal running temperature…

I think it’s hard to get anything other than 74 C or 82 C here currentky so faced with the choice…

I seem to remember reading somwhere that 72 C was teh optimum temperature for teh twink. (Tony Thompson I think).

Best of luck,
Peter '73 +2S 130/5

Mr. Thompson’s advertising says: “…70?C water for optimum power & engine protection on a 30?C summer day.”

It’s been a while since the UK had any 30?C summer days :exclamation: :wink:

:arrow_right: Matthew

I took lots of advice on this subject some time ago and came to the conclusion that an 82C thermostat with a 92C fan switch was the best option.
I run the same top filler system as per Cliveyboy and ever since my car seems to run cool - I think this is due to the system always being full of water, or maybe its because I put in ‘Water Wetter’.
I also fitted a new full width radiator without a filler cap as I found it impossible to blank-off the filler cap in the original radiator without brazing it up.

Don’t forget to have the overflow bottle working correctly.

You can get a range of thermostats and fan switches from Burton Power.

Hi guys,
I am guessing that the cold weather here is leading to overcooled lotus’s.
I drove the +2 today (not sure of the thermostat, I just bought it off the shelf from Paul M.) and it refused to get to half way (85oC) on the gauge apart from when I was waiting at the lights.
The Air temp gauge was also not happy, registering <-10oC (also known as “Brass Monkeys”). I am guessing that this was under reading!
Cheers
tim

Or it could be wind chill… :exclamation:

:arrow_right: Matthew

My twink seems to be happiest at the ‘half way between 50 and 85’ mark which is a reading of 67.5 C.

But, the guage is probably not that accurate. (As Sean ‘my Elan Guru’ Murray is at pains to point out!)

As I run a 74 C Thermostat I’m guessing that it’s close enough to that magic 70 C.

Incidently, while moving, the temperature gauge will stay at that afore-mentioned mark.

It’ll rise to just over 85 on the gauge if stopped in traffic, at which point my Radiator Fan cuts in and brings the reading down to just below 85 again.

No (touch wood!) overheating problems yet, and that includes being stuck occasionally in Dublin Traffic (average speed in Dublin is 7km/h!).

Even when my Ambient Temperature guage was reading -5 C (Pretty accurately :open_mouth:) my engine temperature was at that ‘67.5 C’ line.

Rarely gets above 25 C in Ireland, but evenm when it was over 30 C last year the engine behaved… :smiley:

Peter '73 +2S 130/5