T stat

[patride71]

so i went ahead and bought a new T stat while buying another speedo cable on line, since T stats are cheap and i might as well replace mine.

i think Swank 60 had posted something about drilling a hole in his????? what is up with that? does it do something special or better to do this????

 

[lovetoski]

Hey,

I don't know about the extra hole (but would love to know more!). However, I do know that it's key that you install both the upper and lower rubber gaskets. The lower is obvious, but it's easy to miss the upper one. You need them both.

Best Regards,

 

[patride71]

thanks doug. i am not sure if the t stat comes with the gaskets or not. i guess we'll see.
i ordered it from jt outfitters online and description of it doesn't say.

 

[swank60]

On the hole thing, I kind of coppied a fail-safe model that I've seen. I drilled a small hole, around 1/8" in the top of the tstat - what this does is allow coolant to continue to pass through if the t stat stops opening. It's not a lot, but it could be enough to keep from overheating when it finally fails.

I feel confident enough in my cooling system to do this. I ran it without a t stat for a while and it never got hot - in fact, it ran too cool. In fact, I think with the hole drilled in mine, it keeps the truck running at about 1/3 on the guage - and in TX, that's not a bad thing.

 

[60wag]

The small hole found in some tstats is an air bleed to help get the bubbles out. Some have just a small hole, some have a small plug that blocks the hole when coolant pressure pushes on it.

 

[swank60]

which is a real benefit to drilling the hole I forgot to mention - you don't have to do the asprin trick to bleed the system.

 

[craigster]

What"s the aspirin trick?

 

[swank60]

You crack open a new t stat and wedge an asprin into it, holding it open. This lets water past the t stat when you're refilling the cooling system and you're not stuck with a giant bubble in their (and all of the subsequent cooling problems that arise from it) When it's filled up, asprin desolves and floats around in the cooling system, where it causes no harm at all...(I think you're supposed to split it in two and put half on either side - can't remember though)

It's a good trick, and have heard others swear by it, though I've never done it myself - I drill a hole