Guys, my brother and I finally got his looooooongterm project running and driving. It's an LC9 5.3L and GTO T56 in a 2006 Colorado ZQ8 regular cab pickup. The stock truck tstat opens fine, truck runs around 200-210* but I'd like to get the Lingenfelter 160* tstat to work properly. I can't get the sumbitch to open! I've tried a Lingenfelter and 2 Motorads with no luck. The 160 tstat is shorter than the OEM tstat so I have a feeling it's not seating correctly and therefore not opening. I actually had a similar issue on my 05 Silverado a few months back, but I was able to get the 160 stat to work by reusing my stock water pump. The LC9 motor still has the stock water pump, but no matter what I can't get the 160 tstat to open. Very frustrating. Any ideas?

 

Drill a .070" bypass hole in the larger ring. You most likely have no flow past it so it never actually gets hot.

 

The larger ring has a bypass hole already just like the stock thermostat. I'm suspecting it has something to do with the thermostat being too short. But I've tried both OEM and aftermarket water pumps and they all have the same thermostat depth.

 

I use the SLP 160*, works great. it is also a short one like yours

 

Throw it away. There is no advantage to running a 160 degree stat unless you go with a radiator and fan setup with increased capacity and then retune your electric fan setpoints. You will just end up running around the same temps anyways.

 

Obviously I will change the fan settings. This isn't a thread asking about advantages of lower temperature thermostats.