best ways to mod thermostat

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

Does anyone know if the dingle dangle doohicky floats?

I've always suspected the bulb is hollow and may make it sit a certain way. Never tested though.

Comments?

Paul

[-Scott-]

And I'll re-iterate, for those who missed it. This is in a vehicle designed to run without the hole, or the dingle-dangle. If your vehicle is running cool, and it didn't come from the factory with a hole or a dingle-dangle, ask yourself if you really need it.

I'm sorry but that just sounds funny.

It's an evolutionary thing. First came the hole, then something was needed to fill it - the dingle-dangle dohickey.

[-Scott-]

Does anyone know if the dingle dangle doohicky floats?

I've always suspected the bulb is hollow and may make it sit a certain way. Never tested though.

Comments?

Paul

A float wouldn't help a thermostat which sits vertically.

[MightyMouse]

As I understand it the "jiggle"pin - if fitted, is there to break up any air bubbles that may block the air bleed hole. It "jiggles" in the hole breaking large bubbles into smaller ones.

[chimpboy]

I've heard of, but not seen, thermostats where the hole has a rubber ball in a cage on one side of it. Suggestive of a one-way valve? Beats me, it sounds fancy schmancy though! I've also heard of some where the jiggle pin has a rubber ball on one end. Same purpose? Cheaper than the cage?

What a mystery

[rockcrawler31]

It's a bit of a red herring but when my 1hz was over heating and i was trying to sort it out (eventually turned out to be a radiator that had re-clogged after already being cleaned and therefore dismissed as the problem) i drilled 3 x 3/16th holes in the body of the thermostat. The end result was that yes it took longer to heat up as expected, but also ran about 5-10 degrees cooler (i.e. at the normal running temp with considering the rad was blocked). So it's reasonable to hypothesize that in a car with an otherwise perfect cooling system, the thermostat still creates a fair bit of restriction of flow. It's also reasonable to assume then that it's designed to run this way, so the old trick of removing the thermostat should only be considered a very temporary fix. If the car runs well after removing the thermostat then your just masking a problem somewhere else.

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

It's a bit of a red herring but when my 1hz was over heating and i was trying to sort it out (eventually turned out to be a radiator that had re-clogged after already being cleaned and therefore dismissed as the problem) i drilled 3 x 3/16th holes in the body of the thermostat. The end result was that yes it took longer to heat up as expected, but also ran about 5-10 degrees cooler (i.e. at the normal running temp with considering the rad was blocked). So it's reasonable to hypothesize that in a car with an otherwise perfect cooling system, the thermostat still creates a fair bit of restriction of flow. It's also reasonable to assume then that it's designed to run this way, so the old trick of removing the thermostat should only be considered a very temporary fix. If the car runs well after removing the thermostat then your just masking a problem somewhere else.

I did see some unsubstantiated stuff that basically said that if you remove the thermostat, the flow rates change significantly. The laymans comments was that the faster flowing coolant couldn't cool properly. This is clearly incorrect. What may be correct however is that the circualtion pattern through the engine changes significantly, and the circualtion becomes very uneven. The natural thermosyphon effect is knocked down and some areas eddy, causing uneven heating.
That does sound quite feasible to me.

I'm sticking with the hole is to bleed air theory. And I like the pin to break up the bubbles, that makes sense to me too.

Paul

[RN]

Had a thermostat that was stuck open and the car took ages to warm up, with the heater not kicking early. Standard thermostat purchased from Nissan and the car now warms up quickly, with the economy improving. The heater kicks in within a kay or so.