Ecotec thermostat removal / bypass?

[Terry Kennedy]

I'm going to be installing my Sector111/HyTech exhaust once it warms up a bit more, and I was thinking - would there be any downside to disabling or removing the thermostat? It would seem that doing this would make the cooling system a lot easier to burp - instead of waiting for the car to warm up enough to open the thermostat, there would be flow all of the time.

Comments?

[Heywood-Yablowme]

The thermostat is critical to maintaining a constant temperature to the engine.Without it,your motor will run cooler than it should most of the time,accelerating wear,lowering horsepower,and consuming more fuel.Too cold is just as bad as too hot. Keep the thermostat.

[wisp]

The thermostat maintains a constant temperature to the engine by not only by opening to allow cooler water into the engine but closing again once the engine temperature has dropped. The later causes the flow of the hot water (from the engine) to slow down, through the radiator. The longer the hot water takes to pass through the radiator, when it is being cooled by air, the cooler the water becomes. Well that's my theory anyway.

[positron]

^ All of the above.. you can however drill a small(est) hole in the thermostat itself to allow it to normalize both sides. Also I've found that if you fill the block before you put the TS in, it's not to bad to bleed.

You also don't want to cancel the heater hose bypass as this is the signal for the TS to open, it's a dead end otherwise.. replacing the foil shroud rubber hose with something more heat resistant is a good idea though.