What temperature should my coolant and oil temp be running at?

 

Have you got gauges ?

Oil temps should be around 100C when hot. Coolant around the same.

 

Yeah I have gauges. My temps are around the same. Would it be better for the engine to drop the temp by installing a new thermostat. 100C is pretty darn hot.

 

Actually that is the optimum temp for both oil and coolant.

 

Serious? When the coolant temp is hot enough to boil water I thought it would be too hot.

 

That's why you add coolant to the water. It raises the boiling and lowers the freezing point.
The stock thermostat is either 190 or 200 F.

 

Plus you gain 3 degrees of boiling points for every pound that the rad cap is rated at. IE-lets assume your coolant in a 50/50 mixture will boil at....240. A 15lb radiator cap will add another 45 degrees before that coolant will boil bringing it to 285. Just an example but it works.

 

Yeah I know that coolant raises the BP, but wouldnt a lower temp be more efficient at removing the heat?

Im not saying that i want to run icy water through the engine, but wouldn't the thermostats rated at 87 degrees would be more effective?

 

Actually not......the manufacturer will specify the temp rating of the thermostat to keep the engine at the design temp. This is usually a compromise between fuel efficiency and performance, but going to low will actually hurt the engine by causing the ecu to think the engine is not warmed and running way to rich.

 

^^^Uh-huh. Stand next to a 5.0 Mustang with a 160 t-stat and see how much gas vapor is in the air. Also, the hotter a motor runs, the more power it will make. NASCAR will run from 230-240. More heat in the motor means better (read-finer) fuel atomization in the chamber and more power.

 

Not sure what you mean by this.......

 

Meant I agree with what you stated before my last post.

 

Gotcha........guess I am to old to get some of this new fangled internet stuff

 

Welkume to teh interwebz. The place where things are borked, not broken and your best friend is actually your BFF.

 

Roflmao 2 much uber 1337 speak 4 me. Ill get back 2 my mmorpg n pawn some noobs.

 

The real trick to improve cooling is the head gasket. And it is the combustion chamber temperature not the coolant that you want raised for more power. The reference to the Mustang guys that I presume running a cooler 160 thermostat I would think neglected to change the location of the coolant temperature sensor which is what you want to do to compensate for lower coolant temperature. If properly and strategically placed can give the recommended information to the ECU.
M7 Tuning has a 180 thermostat but does not come with a new housing seal. It works very well at lowering the coolant temperatures. There has been some claims that it does not allow the engine to get warm enough for maximum WHP though? Adding a good oil cooler will help maintain an even oil temperature.