|
I just had a brainwave about this last evening and I thought I'd run it past you guys to see if I'm on the right track here:
- there are two sides of the thermostat: the hot engine side and the cold radiator side.
- a thermostat rated for a specific temperature is supposed to start opening at that temperature, not snap to the fully opened position.
- the ETC (temp sensor for fuel computer) is on the 'cold' side.
So with this in mind, I think my fuel mileage might go up a bit with the lower temp thermostat (87C for turbo cars, as per Volvo).
My short commute is killing my mileage right now. The fuel computer is dumping fuel in the engine while it's cold, trying to keep it running, and warm it up, and feed the catalytic converter, and lubricate, etc.
If I were to use the lower temp thermostat, the thermostat would open up sooner in my commute, the ETC would 'see' hot coolant sooner as well. The computer will see that the engine is starting to warm and lean the mix out a bit.
Right now the thermostat doesn't start to open up until 90C or 92C (I forget which one I have) which of course will be later in my commute than 87C.
The temp inside the engine should be relatively similar to what it is now, as the thermostat will slowly open after 87C, reaching fully open somewhere around 100C (I guess).
How does this sound to you folks?
--
1998 V70 AWD->FWD->AWD Turbo 220k+
|
