Choice of thermostats?

[Kelly Padfield]

So I know Unleashed wants you to use their 170 thermostat and LMS wants you to use the 160. But since they have been out a little while now what do people recommend? Wouldn't 160 be better for cooling since it opens sooner? Is Unleased willing to tune for either or?

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[sholxgt]

I would just recommend researching the options. Reische makes the 170 and it's used in many of the fastest Fords. LMS used to use the Reische, but then developed their own.

I would not pick a thermostat based on the lowest number. If lowest was best, then no thermostat at all would be best.

Both Reische and LMS have great track records.

 

[yo tony]

I would stick with your tuner recommendations.

 

[Livernois Motorsports]

170° is only a delta of 8° from stock. This means that there is next to no difference in your coolant temps, because you fan temps have top stay relatively close to stock as well. The difference with 170°VS178° is that the 170° tstat will cycle almost constantly thus more wear on that component.

 

[2012korn]

I beg to differ.....170 makes a nice difference. Since I scan my water temps all the time. Stock. They ran 186 to 193. With temps over 200 on wot pulls.
The 170 keeps temps around 173 to 176. With wot around 185.
Imo 160 is way too cold anyway.

 

[Kelly Padfield]

Just curious. Why would you say it's too cold. What negative impact could 160 cause?

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[Livernois Motorsports]

People often think that the tstat has an impact on their HVAC system. However, on the EcoBoost vehicles these are 2 completely separate systems.

 

[2012korn]

^another wonderful assumption on lms. That is so totally wrong.
I'm aware that the 160 they have does fine in colder months.
But this isn't the 70s where running significantly colder or no tstat at all helps you out.

 

[Livernois Motorsports]

The comment was not directed at you, nor your prior post. It was meant as a reply to the post directly above my last post.

 

[sholxgt]

People often think that the tstat has an impact on their HVAC system. However, on the EcoBoost vehicles these are 2 completely separate systems.

Does the same coolant not circulate through both the motor and the heater core? Not meant to be a jab....I'm really curious if it works in some other way?

 

[2012korn]

Then I retract my assumption post. Lol.
Personally I feel 170 is a perfect temp range and am happy with what I see as far as recorded temps.
Now if lms has some more insight on why they went to 160. I'd like to hear it.

 

[Kelly Padfield]

Yeah I was just thinking the same thing. Far as I can see and understand how things work the heater core uses the engine coolant system to obtain heat for heating the cab so this would make it one system. So from what I understand the only negative impact a cooler thermostat would have is on cold winter days it might affect the heating capacity of the cab. But performance wise the cooler thermostat would have benifits on hot summer days. Or am I just thinking about this all wrong?

 

[sholxgt]

http://reischeperformance.com/WhyLowTemp.html#anchor

 

[SHOdded]

Haven't heard of any issues with cabin heat even with 160F TStat (when tuned). As far as why the 160F, you can search the forum for LME's response. I believe they said that when Ford developed the EB engine, it ran most efficiently (power purposes) at/near 140F. An increased TStat temp is used in production, however, for emissions control reasons. When an engine is tuned for significantly more power than factory, keeping it cool (along with engine oil) is all the more critical. Per their internal data, they feel 160F is optimal, at least for the 3.5EB.

For the 2010-12 SHO and the 2013+ nonPP SHO, there may be additional benefit for the transmission fluid, as the cooling lines run through the radiator.

 

[Kelly Padfield]

So reading what Sholxgt posted and reading Shodded's post I got a question directed at LMS. During your testing of the 160 thermostat did you find the vehicle left warm up mode naturally or did you have to tune so that it left warm up mode at a cooler temp?

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[sholxgt]

I know your question was directed at LMS, but the one thing I would say is that any thermostat change should include the appropriate tune to account for the fan on/off settings if nothing else.

IMHO, the best advice was from tony above. Use the thermostat that your tuner recommends. If you don't have a tuner, don't buy a thermostat.

 

[Livernois Motorsports]

The stock unit is 178°, but Ford does all of their power testing at 140° coolant temp. So, we are also using the 160°tstat to get you as close to that temp range as we can without you any type of adverse affects. The tstat and tuning have the fans come on sooner and stay on longer. Which reduces wear on the fans along with keeping the entire system cooler.

 

[mrhighcaliber]

I beg to differ.....170 makes a nice difference. Since I scan my water temps all the time. Stock. They ran 186 to 193. With temps over 200 on wot pulls.
The 170 keeps temps around 173 to 176. With wot around 185.
Imo 160 is way too cold anyway.

I'm trunning lms 160 and my temps range from 176 to 200. That's with ambient temps from 40ish to 90ish with wot pulls, etc. Normal drivibg, temps are 182 to 188

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[2012korn]

So the 170* tstat actually runs COLDER then lms's 160*......interesting.

 

[SHOdded]

Extended WOT pulls will further increase topend temps. Nature of the beast. Not plugging for Amsoil, but their products do help keep temps down also, for engine and transmission.