Thermostat

[knightrider2000]

Just wondering if anyone had changed the thermostat on the 1999+ 5.3's?  and how easy it would be to do..

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

[CapnDean]

Simple to do:  Pull the water outlet, out with the old, in with the new...lotsa folks use blue goo instead of the paper gaskets...either way if it doesn't leak......

 

My question for you, are you replacing a 195 factory with a 180?  If so...why?  Are you overheating?  Or does it simply bother you to see 200 degrees on your gage?

 

Dean

[cyrylyn]

paper gasket?  Blue Goo?  My stock thermostat had a rubber o-ring, with no gasket at all, and the 160 Powerstat hasn't leaked a drop.  I do think I'm going to put the stock back in however, my MPG dropped significantly, and the performance gain is NIL. ???

[knightrider2000]

It's Very Simple!!  CapnDean, nope, my old one was opening too soon..  not warming up all the way..  puttin a stock back in it..  hoping the MPG's will come up..  My old and new bout had a single o-ring on the outside of them.

 

Matt

[CapnDean]

Hokay..obviously I haven't changed mine yet.....I looked at it and assumed it was just like any other...sorry guys.

 

When you put a 160 in there what you did was you set yourself up so that your truck (according to your computer) never warmed up.  As a result the computer adjusted the mixture etc and other things to compensate for the cold weather that you were not experiencing.

 

Glad to see you changed it out and got back what you'd lost!

 

Dean

[Black02Silverado]

I was always under the impression that if you go to a lower thermostat then you needed to flash the computer  for the lower thermostat that way it gave you the performance but didn't run rich all the time as if the engine never warmed up. That is the advantage of the power programers.

 

Now this is what I understand about that set up. I was looking into getting the programer. I have read great things about it. Just got to save up the cash. :thumb:

 

[cyrylyn]

in theory, yes, however, I find that even with the 160 stat installed, as long as I DO NOT use the hypertech tuning program, I have better MPG.  The power programmer 3 + the 160 stat has destroyed my fuel economy.  Even the pp3 with the stock stat was better.

[ShelbyGT351]

I agree with cyrylyn. In fact, any "power" programming seems to destroy the performance and MPG. I'll keep the 160 stat in there for now but I might change it to 180. 195 is too hot for Cali weather IMO