Reds2kracer

I need help in changing the thermostat, anyone know if this is a easy DIY? I just got a Spoon low temp thermostat and would love to get it installed but was wondering if anyone have any tips in doing it. Anything will help, thanks...

reds2

Look in the hints section at the top. You need to flush the coolant. You will get a coolant shower and one of the 2 bolts on the thermostat housing is a real PITA if you do not approach it correctly. 2 hours if you're good. 4-5 if you don't know what you're doing. 9 hours if you're like me and lose bolts to the monster in the garage and have to go buy new ones.

Reds2kracer

Thanks for the hit reds2

revhi

Do some research before you put it on. I have one to, but heard that it might not allow the car to warm up all the way if your climate is to cold, so I never installed it.

Bane

I wouldn't be suprised if you lost a little power with a cooler thermostat.

You also increase wear on internal engine parts and shorten the life of the motor (sorry don't have any quantitative figures). So... the question is, why would you want to do this?

AusS2000

Do these thermostats just open earlier? What is the point in that?

If it opens at 85 degrees C rather than 98 doesn't it just mean the car takes a bit longer to get from 85 to 98 and is running at a lower than optimum temperature?

Everyone seems to think that if we have a cooling system then the lower the better. This is simply not true. There is a specific temperature at which an engine is meant to run and that is 98C. Lower is no good. Higher is no good. And a thermostat won't save you if your engine starts to get too hot.

Reds2kracer

Well to be honest, I don't really know much as I'm not a tech. I'm just one of those who wanna go fast and keep the engine under somewhat of control, meaning over heat and such. Again, I'm not a tech so I just thought this thing might help out on it's own part.

Bane

Bingo. Honda designed the motor to run at a certain temperature, and thus all the clearances were calculated around that temperature.

Cold engine internals have looser clearances then one running at it's designated temperature. When it's run hard like this, it causes accelerated wear on these parts. The thermostat regulates the temperature inside the motor all while you are driving it, it can open and close multiple times (especially in cooler weather) to maintain the optimal coolant temperature the engine was designed around.

You can also experience poor fuel atomization when it's too cold inside the motor amongst plenty of other problems... once again I strongly suggest against using a colder thermostat unless your car is so heavily modified it doesn't apply to what Honda originally had designed.

Reds2kracer

Well, that answered my question about installing this Spoon thermostat.

Chiung

The engine cannot be "run hard" unless the coolant has reached a certain temperature, thermostat or no thermostat. Vtec does not operate unless coolant temp is high enough.

I've had no problems with the Mugen t'stat, but it is less "cool" than the spoon part.

reds2kracer, do you live in a warm climate? To answer your original post, the t'stat is a messy and awkward install by itself. Consider a Hondata gasket and if you like what you read about it, install them both together since the gasket install makes the t'stat easy to get to.