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Swapping 2018 GT Thermostat

Black Dog

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Did this on my 2016 GT but am not finding a thermostat for the 2018 GT not an option?
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growler

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yeah I did a 160 on my 18..didnt do much,but they are out there got mine through beefcake
 
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Black Dog

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yeah I did a 160 on my 18..didnt do much,but they are out there got mine through beefcake
Thanks. I did the 170 on my 2016 GT want to do the same on my 2018 GT. The 160 has issues. Nobody bought them when I had the 2016 GT everybody was using the 170 thermostat.
 

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I swapped the one from my 15 over to my 18. They are the same design.
 

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Unless you have boost that's vastly increasing engine temperature or you are adjusting fan speeds accordingly, there is no reason for a 160 stat. The vehicle was designed around a 180 stat. A 170 stat is more than enough for even most supercharged cars and certainly for my NA 93 tune car which is tracked in Georgia heat. Coolant should be about 25 degrees below oil temp more or less. Ideal oil temp is 212* average there'bouts. Subtract 25 from that and you get 187. Hmm, weird how that works. 170 is as cold as most anyone should go, especially if the car is daily driven under light loads most often. If you use the car in a high-load situation, what you really want is more radiator so the coolant stays in it longer and thus gets cooler by the time it comes out. I have a 170 and I will be putting my 180 back in, actually.
 

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My 170 T-stat dropped my coolant temps almost 20 degrees on average.
 

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I like my 170 thermostat, was a very surprisingly good mod. Cooler engines last longer and make more power generally. Only reason Ford and other OEM's run a higher degree thermostat is emissions. Cold engines make more emissions, warmer engines do not. With my Lund tune adjusted for the 170 and the PP larger cooling system, the 170 works very well. Coolant temps/CHT are much more stable now.
 

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It definitely helps to keep the cylinder head temps down some which is good for power and reliability. The 170 is just when the thermostat opens, not the max temp it will get to. Our engines will still reach 180*+ on a hot day especially in traffic. I agree a 160 is probably overkill and may even cause the vehicle to run too cold on a cold day, or take too long to warm up fully.
 

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yeah... no point in opening the t-stat earlier unless you have heat-building mods.

Even then, the t-stat won't make the system run any cooler, that's what more radiator is for.

In fact, without mods to make it necessary, a t-stat with a lower opening temp will make you run out of the optimum zone longer which means more wear and less efficiency... but if you want to pay money to pay more money... that's your call.
 

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+1 to what Texas said. No need for the thermostat in most scenarios. Invest in a bigger radiator or an oil cooler if you want more cooling.
 

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Also just adding in that a 170 thermostat doesnt mean that your coolant will always run at exactly 170F. It just means the thermostat starts opening at 170F.

With my 170 my coolant temps run between 175-205 depending on what kind of driving, etc. Usually its between 180-185.
 

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So 15+ degree cooler CHT and over all lower system temps on my 15GT with Lund tune with fan settings for the 170* were imaginary?
 

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So 15+ degree cooler CHT and over all lower system temps on my 15GT with Lund tune with fan settings for the 170* were imaginary?
Stock thermostat

3rd gear pull, 75F ambient
195 start of pull (cruising temp) 204F at end of pull 7200rpm

Reische 170

4th gear pull, 88F ambient
186 start of pull (cruising temp) 196F end of pull 7500rpm

Those are ECT straight from data logs. CHT on the stock thermostat was normally 10-15 degrees higher than ECT. On the 170 thermostat I normally see them within 5-10 degrees, sometimes even closer.

:shrug:
 

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Road course your car. The 170 stat makes little difference in an actual extreme situation. Drag racing's most extreme heat generating situation is... waiting your turn, unless you can somehow get back to back runs.



A 170 stat is allowing coolant to flow through the radiator starting 10* sooner. The engine, tuning, and coolant system was designed around 180* thermostat, which is also intended to be applicable from Canada to Arizona. A 170* stat in the south, okay -- I get that. I've tried it, I see somewhat lower temps in daily driving, but that's pointless. A 160* stat is totally unnecessary anywhere unless you have heat-generating/soaking engine modifications which is typically associated with forced induction, which already runs the engine hotter (potentially), especially with a positive displacement supercharger AND you are not just daily driving and going to a random test and tune at the drag strip. And I would expect you are also enhancing your cooling system, too in this case, not just band-aiding a stat in there.


Also keep in mind, if you keep your coolant cooler, you also affect oil temp, especially if you have the factory oil cooler in PP cars which runs oil through part of the radiator shared with coolant (and thus acts as an oil warmer until the coolant is to temp). If you drop your stat temp, you need to let the car warm up longer (or rather, your oil will not heat up as quickly in an over-cooled engine). You also may find your oil temps are not exceeding 180 degrees in normal driving when you want them to be about 212* or somewhere within a close margin around that.


Not to mention, these engines (and their tunes, even aftermarket) are designed to operate around a certain head temp. You will not make as much power and will not be as efficient if you overcool the engine. It may cause additional wear, too.



Your cars do not need a lower temp stat unless they are legitimately under heavy load as their normal course of duty and/or you add forced induction. And even then, a better investment is a quality radiator with a larger capacity (that does not overtax your water pump -- don't just get some massive 3-core radiator and expect a stock water pump to keep up).
 
 




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