180 Thermostat

Some of you might have seen my post about stretching the timing chain on my Supercharged SXT Plus. My car was in the shop for almost 3 weeks and would have been done a day earlier but my mechanic noticed my thermostat housing had a leak and he replaced it. So I picked my car up and driving through downtown traffic on the way home I noticed my coolant was running around 215-217 degrees. I realized that they replaced the entire housing and forgot that I am running a Ripp 180 Degrees thermostat. I had all the parts from the shop so this morning I swapped out the normal one for my 180. I drove a few miles and did a couple of 0-60 pulls and my coolant never got above 195, and stayed at 192 all the way home. Not sure if anyone else runs a 180, but I think keeping the engine a bit cooler is a good thing. Don’t forget that you’ll need to have your car tuned for it.

 

Many people have more issues with overheating going to 180's because they get air in the system and bleed it.
Next a 180 thermostat does not mean its gonna run any cooler once they are open they are open.
A Higher Volume Radiator with more Coolant Volume is a better way to do it replaces hoses with something like Gates Silicone
Hoses like Police and Rescue Units use and a good higher quality cooling fans and you good.

The Engineers of these cars choose a Temp for a Reason and as long as your within that Temp your good to go.
Just blowing out your Condenser and Radiator couple times of year will blow debris dirt that block the cooling fins
and make all the difference in the world. Blow it out from both sides with a medium air pressure.

Again the 180 does not mean that is what it runs at that temp all times it means the Temp in which it OPENS UP to allow
fluid to pass nothing more so yes you can get hotter and will why that change in modern cars is a placebo nothing more.

Of course its been a while since I renewed my ASE certification but I don't turn wrenches anymore but did for over 20 plus years.

 

I know how the 180 thermostat works. If you don't want to run one, then don't.

 

As stated, you can't just throw it in. You have to tune your car to it. Thousands of people use these every day with zero issues because they know how to use them.

 

Yes, I would imagine that your tuner changed the settings on your ecm software to turn the cooling fans on at a different temp setting than the factory.

 

What a 180 thermostat does that a larger radiator is discard efficiency to band-aid fix what is often actually a problem of overall heat rejection capacity.

In a very-monitored electronically-controlled engine, putting the coolant temperature down to a lower activation level, cooler coolant can result in less detonation, which can result in more spark advance if the PCM is on the ball, but a lower thermostat temperature can needlessly discard heat that could have been used to drive the engine, at all other times.

I am more of a fan of just using a larger radiator, also, but I like oversized coolers for everything, and the rear end being cooled more actively than it is now, such as with the Gale Banks rear end cover used on some brand(s) of axle(s). With a thermostat on the trans, engine oil, and engine itself, the Hellcat is pretty well-cooled, but if I wanted to, I could just run far larger coolers, including the coolers for the aftercoolers, as the thermostats only deal with the temperature at which the cooling circuit activates, but does not increase the capacity for heat rejection overall.

Retaining heat at a desired level is not only accomplished by using the kludge of a cooler thermostat, but also, as SRT-Tom and Wm TPA SXT said, not overcooling on the bottom of the temperature scale and ensuring adequate overall cooling capacity.

My own preference would be a much larger system of coolers, as the Hellcat loves one thing: adequate cooling for all its fluids.

One day, I would like to do a "cooling package baptism in fire" so to speak by running a Hellcat up the Grapevine in California in mid-August. I wonder if there are other steep inclines that more severely test your overall system cooling capacity like the Grapevine in California in summer. It would be interesting to watch the air-fuel ratio to see if the stock computer kludge of just dumping more fuel in it is being leaned on to allay extra-heat-induced knock.

 

Not sure if you are still on warranty, but tuning your car voids the warranty, to my knowledge. The dealer seemed shocked that my Hellcat was bone stock when I brought it in. What can I say? The greatest production muscle car in history didn't need much in the way of smaller pulleys, etc.

It's like weight training. One day, in the gym, I thought, "Why am I always pushing for higher-poundage lifts? I'm already stronger than 99.999999 percent of people on Earth." (I don't include juice monkeys in my thoughts, as they are no more real to me than silicone hooters are) I realized that there was no particular point in always seeking the next vista. With the Hellcat, I'm like, "How much gold do you gild the already gilt-coated lily with?"

However, I am a fanboi for cooling capacity.

 

I think it would be cheaper for guys to buy a super-strippo body in white or junkyard rescue challenger, strip it down to the bare metal, and only include whatever parts are needed to do whatever it is at the race track or drag strip. Maybe throw in a roll cage or full cage for rigidity. Can you imagine the lightness of your classic Trans-Am or Pro Stock-like Challenger when it is done that way? You should be able to knock 1000 pounds off of it, 100 of which would be an aluminum engine block.

In fact, you could have two of them done up on the outside to look identical. It's like having twin dogs where one is the house pet mainly for snuggling the kids, and the other one is the lion hunter, but you love them both.