Low temp thermostat

[Tyler Townsley]

It depends on the engine.  Spend some money on Dyno time.  IE put the
car on a dyno and do some runs at the temps you feel happy with and see
what happens to rwhp.  A local shop owner who has a 91 Corvette zr1 ran
extensive tests with his own car and found that the LT 5 engine likes
the cold (It was designed in England) max HP was at 159 deg water temp
as indicated on the DIC.  The HP fell off quickly for the next 15 or 20
degrees above that (don't remember the numbers as this was several years
ago.)  I had a chance to talk to several engineers involved in the
design and testing of said engine and they confirmed that the
operational temperatures were an Emissions issue rather than a
performance issue and saw no real long term durability problems in
running the LT 5 engine in the 160 to 165 water temp range but the
cautioned that it goes closed loop? if it gets below 154 degrees.  I run
mine with open thermostat, aftermarket radiator and fan switches and see
160 deg temps in summer Fla heat on the interstate with 190 or so in
town temps.  Engine has 140,000 mi total with a broken valve spring
rebuild at 67,000 mi. currently has 400+ rwhp (LPE rebuild several years
ago).  I run it hard, drive it every day and have no complaints in the
durability area.  Oh yea anyone ever try to diagnose a broken valve
spring on a quad cam motor? It aint easy.

Tyler Townsley
PS Hoping to learn how to program the chip, a lot of what you guys say
is over my head but I keep on learning.