Thermostat question

[secondchance]

Thanks, Tom. Looking at the housing I figured the 3rd bolt wouldn't be a major issue although I will correct it.

Well, driving back home yesterday it was 95-97 degrees here. Some 60 plus mph and rush hour crawl. Despite 97 ambient temp at 50 plus mph coolant temp stayed at around 200 (about 13 degrees lower than before). 15-20 minutes of crawling in the traffic Z mainteained 218-220 with AC on. Eventually by the the time I got home she was at 227 w/ 216 oil temp. Before I would have gone past 230 and would have had to turn the AC off to drop the temp. So, thermostat change most definately helped. However, I am not sure drilling holes helped even further or not.

Bottom line, it seems, at ambient temp of 90 plus w/ AC on, heat produced is higher than the amount of heat that can be rejected not so much due to radiator but rather insufficient air flow. That being the case, I wonder replacing at least one of factory fans w/ an after market higher flow fan would put an end to this fear of over heating once and for all. Factory fans look to be 16" dia. (did not measure it yet). Anyone know what CFM factory fans are rated at? Looking at Summit catalog 16" are available between 2100 to 3600 CFM. It couldn't be that hard to rig same diameter fan to factory harness and typically engineers build in extra amp to the circuits - just a thought.

[tomtom72]

Yun, if I'm not mistaken your model yr has updated fans. They are supposed to have totally sealed motors and have a higher rpm limit with redesigned blades to move a lot more air than the early fans ( 90 - 92 I think? I know 90 for sure! ). I still have my OEM set up & I keep meaning to go to vette recycling to get me the newer set up.

The only electrical knowledge I can offer up is on A/C circuits. UL & trade standards say that any circuit should only be loaded to 80% of the rated amp load at the breaker. That's a safety margin so when people make a birds nest at any duplex device ( outlet in non-electrician speak ) they don't pop the breaker and overheat the wire gauge ( as that isn't a good thing ). I do not know if this applies to DC circuits. I would figure that there has to be some load safety margin even in a DC circuit.

[secondchance]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Yun, if I'm not mistaken your model yr has updated fans. They are supposed to have totally sealed motors and have a higher rpm limit with redesigned blades to move a lot more air than the early fans ( 90 - 92 I think? I know 90 for sure! ). I still have my OEM set up & I keep meaning to go to vette recycling to get me the newer set up.

The only electrical knowledge I can offer up is on A/C circuits. UL & trade standards say that any circuit should only be loaded to 80% of the rated amp load at the breaker. That's a safety margin so when people make a birds nest at any duplex device ( outlet in non-electrician speak ) they don't pop the breaker and overheat the wire gauge ( as that isn't a good thing ). I do not know if this applies to DC circuits. I would figure that there has to be some load safety margin even in a DC circuit.

I agree that it may not be a good idea to push the limit. Perhaps an inline fuse could be a safety net?
Granted, 90 plus days occur perhaps 15 days out of a year but this mod seems to simple - $200 experiment. We shall see.