No joke this whole process taking pics and everything took MAYBE 15 minutes.

I will post pics in my gallery and if anyone wants to post em up that is fine by me, otherwise just check out my gallery.

In lue (sp?) of some members here blowin freeze plugs I decided I would mod my T stat, and I do already have my rear freeze plug capped off.

There is 3 8mm bolts that hold the housing down. All you need is an 8mm socket, a 1/4" rachet and a small extention, a par of wire cutters, and a 1/4" nut driver speeds things up a bit.

Simply pull the 3 bolts, pull the tstat, clip the 2 brass peices (in pics) and reinstall.

I have one pic of the tstat with one barbell cut off and the other still in place.

I did not drill mine out at this time as I want to see how this affects my warm up time and such. At a later date I will likely drill the holes out oto 1/8 th or 3/16s. I may even drill one and not the other first to see what that does.

I think ultimately I may have 2 tstats. One without barbells but NOT drilled for winter and one without barbells and drilled out for summer.

If you have any questions feel free and for those of you worried about blowin a freeze plug, by all means go out there and do this mod.

Also, you will loose about 10-20 oz of coolant so you may want to have a little on had to top it off.

I just looked at the pics and you can see when the tstat is still in the block if you look closely you can see water coming out around the 2 brass barbells.

 

great job will. some members here blowing freeze plugs? you talkin about me willis????
glad i could be your motivation to mod the tstat.
when you loose 10 oz of coolant, that is a good time to top it off with a bottle of water wetter.
thanks for posting that.
chris

 

I think I am gonna order some water wetter today. I dont know for sure how much coolant was lost exactly it was just an estimate. My resivior is just above add right now and I am not runnin the truck hard.

And yes you were my insperation.

 

I notice Royla Purple sales a prdouct called Purple Ice. I have used water weter in my 6.5 with good results. Anyone used Purple Ice?

 

I used it in my race car for a season and noticed slightly cooler numbers, but didn't run the car daily, so not a lot of help there, but I do know a couple of guys that run it in their cars and trucks and say it helps.

 

what do you gain by cutting off the barbells?

 

what you gain is a passage for the coolant to go when the tstat is closed, you are at high rpm(coolant flow). with no where to go, there is a sudden pressure spike, and then you get the mess I have.

 

Any Downfalls?

 

Zilla,

Well said, what we need to figure out is at what pressure is it blowing out?
Also what is the pressure spiking to?

There is no Tstat on the lower end!!!! All the Tstat is doing is stopping the flow through the system while closed, therfore waiting for the motor to heat up reopen to allow flow through the radiator and therefore cooling down.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't it make more sense that the frost plug is blowing out right before the Tstat opens, NOT WHEN IT SLAMS SHUT??? You will have the most pressure in the system right before it opens, when it is hottest?????????????

When the Tstat closes the cooling system should be at the coolest temp with the least amount of pressure.

 

i dont know if the heat increase is the case of the pressure or the sudden blockage to flow. the pump is still pumping at full gpm and capacity. the fluid has to go somewhere. there is a small bypass passage from before the tstat, to the pump inlet(which is the normal path when the tstat is closed)

when that thing is wide open and the rpm is really high, then the flow is reduced through the tstat, pop goes the weasel. you would think that a centrifugal pump would just allow the pressure to go back through the pump and then the rad cap would deal with the pressure, but i guess not.

 

True, but also remember that the pressure in the block can not really be any higher than the pressure in the rest of the system!!!!!

If there was a Tstat in the lower and upper hoses than it would make sense that the frost plug would blow about the time they are getting ready to open when "block" pressure is high, correct??????????????

But because there is not a Tstat in the lower the pressure should be the same whether measured from the block, head, radiator cap or wherever.

What about tapping the block or another frost plug with something like a nipple for a hose, run about 6 inches of hose to lets say a 14 PSI valve (approx PSI # for valve). Then run another 18 inches of line to return it to the "blown off pressure" to the coolant bottle.

 

i have thought about making a t off the heater core hoses with a small bypass hose back to the rad to prevent problems, but most folks have had good luck nipping off the tstat barbells and installing a plate at the rear. i will try that for now to see if it saves my butt from blowing the rest out. i am at a loss to the real culprit, i am just speculating the cause.

 

has anyone clipped the fins on the water pump yet?

I have heard that some of the 12 valves use that trick

just throwing that out there

 

Therefore reducing the amount of flow & pressure???????????????????/

 

Yes.

I drove the truck a good bit this morning and it takes a while longer to heat up, like 10 minutes or so.

It was about 45 early this mornin then I drove it again and it was about 60.

You guys up north may want to just clip one first and then see how it responds.

Peak, also I am with you on the plug blowin before the tstat opens.

I think that it could definately blow when/if it snapped shut but I know a lot of people that crank up a truck and floor it first thing in the mornin.

#2, I am kinda thinkin maybe yours wasnt open all the way and like we talked about the other night, just cause the coolant may be warm it doesnt necessarily mean the motor is.