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(This post was last modified: 09-29-2022, 04:52 AM by AloofMaalouf.)
I'm going to try and keep this short but I ramble, 2.3 Turbo from an 86 Thunderbird in a 74 Pinto Wagon, I have always had an overcooling problem since I put this engine in, didn't really care because the car was hacked and cobbled together by yours truly but now I'm starting to care about the little things and fix them up. I know that it is not running anywhere close to peak efficiency at the temperature it runs at. Another reason why this has become more important to me is that I recently graduated from college (which was a long freeway commute) and got an office job (which is a 15 minute drive). I don't even get to 160 by the time I'm in the structure, which means I don't get to romp on it day to day as I am so accustomed to.
I know what most of you are thinking, at least one of two things, the first being exactly what my dad and other car guy friends have told me, "just be glad it's not overheating."
The second response I foresaw would be obviously thermostat, this is my 5th thermostat that I just installed tonight, first I tried the stock 86 Tbird thermostat, discovered that the design was shitty from the factory to accommodate a stupid mistake that they made (they were supposed to run the heater core hose between the engine and the thermostat but they mistakenly designed it to be on the thermostat housing, where all it will get is cold coolant until the car fully warms up so they designed this special thermostat that doesn't seal properly due to it's shitty design to bypass that mistake, funny little piece of Ford history). After that didn't work twice, I tried an external thermostat on the upper rad hose, stupid idea, don't know why they even make and sell **** like that but I guess I'm stupid enough to buy and try it.
This was a whole other mess, long story short thermostat wasn't opening because it just wasn't getting a constant stream of coolant so the coolant would expand a lot mimicking a head gasket leak, thought this was my issue since I push as much boost as I can from what I have, around 20 psi. Changed the head gasket, dumbest waste of time ever, head gasket that I pulled looked perfect (at least I upgraded to ARP head studs so there's that). Anyway, then I tried two different generic thermostats that fit in the housing, as I found that other people have said that this works if you don't care about your heater a terrible amount, which I don't since I don't have a heater core anyway, I guess another important thing to note about my motor is that I have blocked off all hoses other than rads, so the stock turbo cooling system, the stock oil cooling system, the one that goes from the intake for whatever reason that is. I should mention that all the thermostats I've tried are 192 or 195 thermostats and I know how to bleed the cooling system, interestingly enough it seems to swallow up all the coolant around 150 on the gauge, but why? Always the same with all these thermostats. Also I use a new thermostat gasket each time with The Right Stuff gasket sealer on both sides and a little around the thermostat's sealing point, I'm very careful not to get any sealer anywhere near the functioning part of the stat.
Either way both those thermostats didn't warm the car up to my utter shock because literally what else could it be... I'm at a total loss at this point, I've spent pretty much every day after work trying different **** to get the thing to work correctly. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated but honestly at this point I think I need a break from looking at thermostats and getting coolant on my hands, not really, I just want a plan for what to try when I recover from this trauma lol. Thanks guys.

I know what most of you are thinking, at least one of two things, the first being exactly what my dad and other car guy friends have told me, "just be glad it's not overheating."

This was a whole other mess, long story short thermostat wasn't opening because it just wasn't getting a constant stream of coolant so the coolant would expand a lot mimicking a head gasket leak, thought this was my issue since I push as much boost as I can from what I have, around 20 psi. Changed the head gasket, dumbest waste of time ever, head gasket that I pulled looked perfect (at least I upgraded to ARP head studs so there's that). Anyway, then I tried two different generic thermostats that fit in the housing, as I found that other people have said that this works if you don't care about your heater a terrible amount, which I don't since I don't have a heater core anyway, I guess another important thing to note about my motor is that I have blocked off all hoses other than rads, so the stock turbo cooling system, the stock oil cooling system, the one that goes from the intake for whatever reason that is. I should mention that all the thermostats I've tried are 192 or 195 thermostats and I know how to bleed the cooling system, interestingly enough it seems to swallow up all the coolant around 150 on the gauge, but why? Always the same with all these thermostats. Also I use a new thermostat gasket each time with The Right Stuff gasket sealer on both sides and a little around the thermostat's sealing point, I'm very careful not to get any sealer anywhere near the functioning part of the stat.
Either way both those thermostats didn't warm the car up to my utter shock because literally what else could it be... I'm at a total loss at this point, I've spent pretty much every day after work trying different **** to get the thing to work correctly. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated but honestly at this point I think I need a break from looking at thermostats and getting coolant on my hands, not really, I just want a plan for what to try when I recover from this trauma lol. Thanks guys.
1987 Ford Mustang LX 5.0
1974 Ford Pinto Wagon 2.3 Turbo
1973 Ford Maverick 4 Door 302
1974 Ford Pinto Wagon 2.3 Turbo
1973 Ford Maverick 4 Door 302