My Dodge had a pinging problem and it was recommended to drop in a 180 thermostat in place of the stock 195. What a difference. It honestly felt more responsive, pinging stopped, and milage didn't suffer. I saw elsewhere where it was documented that the mod actually did help some with power output of the Dodge. I was wondering if this was unique to Dodge or if it helped the 5.4's as well. I've seen adds for low temp thermostats in the magazines for Ford and Chevy's. Seems like it would be a good deal, especially in the hotter climates like Florida here.

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- Soon to be 2001 F150 Harley Davidson Special
- 1993 Mazda Miata, wifes car
- 1994 Harley Davidson Heritage
- 1976 Honda CB750K, Original
- 1965 Honda 305 Dream, Original
- 1971 Triumph Trophy 650, Original
- 1971 Norton Commando
- 1970 Honda Trail 90, Original
- Yamaha 500 Short Tracker, racing #69
- 1984 Yamaha Virago 1000, wifes bike
- 1981 Honda Passport 70, wifes bike

 

Just bringing this back up, nobody knows anything about this??

 

https://www.f150online.com/f150board...ML/001252.html

 

Thanks, I guess I won't need it on the 5.4 like I did my Dodge to get rid of ping.

 

Hi Irutt,

I was glad to see that Max posted that link to where we were discussing the topic of using abnormally cold thermostats, but I also wanted to add to that a bit.

You can go to a 180 thermostat but no lower, and that really won't negatively affect your engine like going lower will, say 160 degrees or below, isn't a good idea on the street.

Your situation was a bit different; you were suffering from detonation, and anytime that happens, you're already losing power. So in your case, since it quelled the detonation, the knock sensor no longer reported the detonation to the computer which in turn reduces spark advance giving you less power as you noticed, so it was a good move.

Gasoline engiens generally make their berst power at a coolant temperature of 190-200 degrees; reducing coolant temperature generally reduces peak power a bit, which is why you don't want to do it usually. In your case, you were already getting a power reduciton because of the detonation, so using that 180 t'stat did the trick for you. You won't see that happen very often, but I'm sure glad it worked for you in that vehicle to quell the detoantion.

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
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(540) 862-9515
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