:? hey guys, just got my bonnie. 96 ssei. awesome ! but...............in traffic, temp goes up to 220. varies between 205 and 220. is this too hot ?? seems a bit high to me. seems like maybe fans arent kicking in soon enough ? or am i just edgy? lol thanks bubba

From my experience, and others on this forum (who I got the ideas from), install a 180° thermostat to replace the stock 195°, and add another tranny cooler right in front of the original, if you have one. both of these mods combined should cost you less than $50, and your temp will run under 200°. I'm damn glad I did it. you'll run cooler, more efficiently, and there will be less heat stress to the engine. You'll need to get the thermostat gasket from the dealer. a couple of us ran into that little one already. most parts stores will tell you that you don't need one, but they're wrong.

thanks will, i did put in a new stat and antifreeze. autozone recommended the 195 stat. ill go back and get the 185 .

It is that 195 that actually kills our engines. They should give you a 180 unit. Now comes the interesting thing if the car is overheating so much you may be right about the fans, or even the belt could be a little loose. I would still look for other culprits. If your rad needs to be cleaned buy a new one it will cost a little more but you get a brand new rad. A new rad lasts longer than a cleaning.

Ty

180°, not 185°. the 180 is tried and tested by most of us, and alot of GP owners.

220 is still ok because due to stop and go traffic.. ( there isn't much air flow cooling the engine down ), but never the less, I will back everyone up on changing to a 180 T-stat, and yes you WILL need a thermostat housing gasket. It'* only about $3 bucks Canadian so I"m sure you can dig that kinda money up even in between the seats of your couch ha ha ha... I still want to get a Tranny cooler, but just haven't got the time yet.. besides, winter is coming.. I'll invest in it after winter, the only thing I have to do is to sit down and think it through on mounting location of the Tranny cooler. I really don't fancy the idea of covering up part of the radiator, just to run another one. It reminds me of stealing from Peter to pay Paul... just doesn't make much sense. I want to mount it at the right passenger side just beside the radiator, because there'* an opening beside my fog lights and bottom of the bumper that the air is flowing to nothing. I already duct the driver side into the airbox, so maybe I"ll duct the other side for the tranny cooler. Try and match it up a little at least :?

That sounds like a good idea, although stacking them still works. I have my aftermarket tranny cooler mounted in front of my stock cooler, which is in front of the radiator. Just make sure your cooler is protected. You don't want a rock getting kicked up and killing your cooler at your transaxle'* expense. Putting a fine screen over it to protect it would work. I know people that mount them that way.

Humm... a screen... thanx... I wouldn't have thought about that untill it got hit probably.. ha ha ha.... what kinda screen did your friends use? I'm wondering because I want something strong enough to withstand rock hits, but not to the point where it blocks too much air.

Most of the guys (rednecks ) up here in Orygun use 1/4" welded wire galvanized fabric. That'* 1/4" grid. Anything that got through would be too small to puncture a vane, and it'* not tight enough to disrupt air flow. You want to gap it at least an inch in front of the cooler so a heavy hit won't push the screen into the cooler. Just thought of something. This is a good tip for Tamara, living on a gravel road like she does, if she ever added a cooler. If you stack it where I put mine, it'* pretty well protected, but if you wanna see how bad it can be the lower it'* mounted, look at your radiator. If it'* like mine, the bottom 3 inches should tell you what I mean

The cooler I added was a perfomance cooler with 30% better cooling, and it'* made of aluminum...thicker vanes than most. It'* supposed to be more durable, so in effect, it'* protecting my stock cooler and half my rad!

I'm still running the stock 195 stat because up here in Edmonton it gets to -40 Celius in the winter & with the highway driving to & from work every day I'm going to need all the heat I can get!