No worries no offence taken You were actually very close in your thoughts.

"or is it part of a heat management system that takes measures to prevent the car temp reaching a certain level?"

To put it in simplest terms thermostats are created to open at different temperatures. When they reach a certain temperature they then open the cooling system path to allow the engine to continue to run at or near the pre set temperature. If the engine drops below the set temperature then it closes to allow the heat to build back up again. Our thermostat is set at a lower degree than the stock mini item. I hope this clears it up a bit for you.

Randy
Team M7

www.m7tuning.com

 

ahhh

ohhhh

neato

if it is a non-involved install (as i already have my airbox assembly out) i may make it part of the winter-summer routine.

so now, i guess i will ask, if this keeps the engine temps cooler (or, start cooling @180 rather than 195 like the stocker) why would gas mileage go down?

 

Bisch, there are two things going on here, first is the sealed cooling system operating pressure psig (Pounds Per Square Inch Gauge) which was dropped before this test. Second and measured in this graphic is flow pressure gpm (gallons per min.) of the coolant after a drop in the sealed cooling system pressure psig. This resulted in " Pressure was intentionally dropped from 41 psig to 11 psig of engine inlet during steady running for three engine speeds, 2000, 3000, and 5600 RPM. It is noticed that the coolant flow rate at 5600 RPM accordingly dropped consistently from 35 gpm to 25 gpm, while no drops were detected for both 2000 RPM and 3000 RPM. It is believed that the drop of coolant flow rate at such a high engine speed might be associated with cavitations (bubble formation and collapse) in water pump impeller due to the pressure drop causing a decrease in saturation temperature. This phenomenon is under investigation."

Hope that helps, I'm done now back to work...... norm

 

While I dont have any experience with it, there are also people who drill a hole in their stock thermostat as sort of an "in between". :smile: Im suprised that M7 isnt offering the Evans Non Aqueous Cooling System. Seems to be more in line with their current hitech offerings.

http://www.evanscooling.com/


--
Cheese

 

i'm with cheese on the non acqueous. (it would also mean not worrying about those stupid plastic tank seams....) i've been thinking about the evans stuff for a couple of months. has anybody on this forum tried it? does anyone know if using it would allow miniusa to void the whole engine warranty?

 

will the lower operating temp make the ECU think that the engine is cold and cause it to richen the fuel mixture (choke) when driving in the cooler months?

 

Am I the only one waiting for this thread to morph into another tuner offering a free resistor if you send them a SASE?

 

Maby you and three others at the most that I can think of
Randy
Team M7
www.m7tuning.com

 

Randy, is my concern so ridiculous that it does not deserve a reply?

 

Waiting? I'm waiting for the thermostat . I spoke with Peter yesterday, and it appears that next week is the plan. Gives me some time to make sure I can tackle the air bleed procedure, and find the proper torque settings...

In the meantime, I've done some reading, and found some good info stemming from this discussion:

http://www.dodgedakotas.com/boards/v6/75.html

Corvettes going as low as 160:

http://www.corvettegarage.com/produc...0e1c3d428fff54

Cobras, with some mentioning of fan control as well:

http://www.cobracentral.net/jetstat.html

The only thing that I easily found on a SC'd engine:

http://www.techvelocity.com/gtp/38stat.htm

There are many others... just doing some homework.

 

"Cobras, with some mentioning of fan control as well:"

It would be nice if some of the modified ECU programs would turn on the cooling fan sooner. It seems like that would be easy.

 

Good point. The UNIChip should be up to task for that one...

 

Hi Darksky..

The prudent action would be to either stay away from the 180 degree T-stat,
or replace the M7 unit with the stock T-stat when temperatures start to dip in to the low forty's (40 F).

Hope that answered the question.

peter

Team M7

www.m7tuning.com

 

i've seen people pull the 'sat , don't you think it would over heat?

 

Cooler thermostats have been available for years for water cooled Volkswagens. However, many VW tuners recommend swapping to a lower temperature fan switch at the same time as the thermostat so as to keep the two working in tandem, but at a lower initial temperature.

Any thoughts as to how this might apply to the MINI's cooling system?

 

Thanks, Peter. I had hoped that this would not be the case. It will be too much for me to change the T-stat seasonaly. I see the advantages to running the engine cooler, and can feel the "snappier" response on cool mornings when the engine is not quite "hot" Do you see any worth in attempting to change the temp at which the fan kicks on?

 

Most common thing in the third world is to pull the thermostat off at the first sign of toruble and because a lot of people can't afford the cost. What happens then is that the engine runs super cool for the most part, which isn't very good for it and when there is a problem, it is an instant overheat problem with a blown head gasket to boot.
The cooling system is a two room apartment. In one room (engine) the coolant is kept at say 190 Degrees. The thermostat is a door that opens to let cold coolant from the other room (radiator) flow in and lower the temperature in the engine. If the door is not there, ALL of the coolant is a given temperature and thus when a problem arises or it is really hot outside and you abuse the engine, ALL of the coolant gets hot.... recipe for disaster.......no way to cool it.

 

Well??????........................................ ......................nah, not even close.

 

Just put in a good bit of real world milage with the 180 D thermostat this weekend going back and forth to the Hot Import Nights show in San Diego which is about a 165 mile trip each way for me. Friday afternoon a TON of stop and go traffic on the way down. they must have been giving away free Cervasa's In Tijuana this weekend. Car got to 210 degree 2 times after some prolonged stationary time. For the most part ran between 190 and 200 about 20 to 25 degrees lower than normal which was the goal from the beginning.

Randy
Team M7
www.m7tuning.com