Re: 1950 Packard 288 Auto overheating HELP

Posted by gone1951 On 2010/2/1 23:04:29
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There may be a bit of confusion about what a thermostat does. A thermostat controls the minimum temperature of the coolant, not the maximum temperature. You will not prevent overheating by changing to a different thermostat temperature.


I completely agree with this.

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If the coolant runs at a lower minimum temperature it will cost fuel economy and power because more energy is wasted to the coolant.


Not for very long. The engine will warm up past the 160 degree mark to the 180 degree mark somewhat slower but we are not talking about a lot of time here.

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I think the reason they used to recommend changing to a higher temperature thermostat in the winter was to make the heater work better.


This is what it does. You get heat out of the warm air heater faster and probably more as well.

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However the system has to be sealed and pressurized to prevent coolant loss.


This is another way of saying the boiling point of the water is raised above 212 degrees allowing higher operating temperatures without loosing coolant.

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