36 replies to this topic

[Longboarder]

5-30 fully synthetic will handle just about any engine temperature a zetec can reach apart from actually being on fire and still do its job. Zetecs thrive on higher temperatures than pintos. 80 is way to cold. At least keep it in the nineties. Fan off at 90C at the lowest!.

Nigel

[knights_templar]

lots of speculation, but what is the correct temp that a zetec should run at?

clue..................its stamped on the bit that ford provide, but we can not use on the raceline.

anyone?

[mcramsay]

i chucked the thermostat housing away months ago....  i would like to know what thermostat they have fitted as standard though, i thought engines generally were meant to run around 90 degrees. 70 degrees when driving does sound too low.

[Simon B]

Still got mine (quick look)

Ok, the thermostat says 92 degrees. Does anyone know what the thermostat is that comes with the raceline kit by any chance?

Thanks,
Simon.

[mcramsay]

I will try to have a look tonight, I think the raceline thermostat is opening too soon personally

[merc190]

Most  zetec engine tuners say 85 - 90 deg is about where you should be looking to run at. Mine runs at 90deg (ecu) fan comes on at 92deg, although i may have the fan come on at 94-96 deg. Looking at my Dyno sheet i see that it ranges from 88 - 92deg throughout the whole process.

Does the Raceline system run a bypass near to the thermostat to allow gradual warm up.?? I have heard of people drilling small hjoles in the stat for this ??

  Marty Smith

[Simon B]

The thermostat that came with the raceline already had a small bypass hole in it.

I'm not sure what the temperature of the thermostat is though without taking it out again.

Simon.

[mcramsay]

I will have a look tonight for sure, I'm out in the garage anyway!

[knights_templar]

merc190, on 22 May 2012 - 05:58 AM, said:

Most  zetec engine tuners say 85 - 90 deg

interesting, why would they want to run cooler than Ford design? Ford stat says 92 -102

merc190, on 22 May 2012 - 05:58 AM, said:

Does the Raceline system run a bypass near to the thermostat to allow gradual warm up.?? I have heard of people drilling small hjoles in the stat for this ??

Simon B, on 22 May 2012 - 09:30 AM, said:

The thermostat that came with the raceline already had a small bypass hole in it.

increasing the size of the bleed hole in the stat is to help with filling, nothing more (info from Ben at GBS)

[merc190]

I have a Dunnell engine, Paul Dunnell is regarded as one of, if not the best Zetec tuner on this planet, his brother also helped design the Zetec. Chris at Raceline even suggested i use him for my engine build.This is how he has set up my engine to run, who am i to argue with that .lol.
I could have used the water rail system, GBS and Dunnell both have them but i was told to use the Ford one as it does the job best. my car is plumbed in using a header tank supplying the radiator
My fan will come on after sitting in traffic for about 10 mins. I had a 2.0 Mondeo for 7 years and can`t say i ever heard or knew of the fan coming on once in that time, the Zetec is known to be over cooled in a tintop.

The small hole in a Ford thermostat i thought is to allow a gradual warm up, especially beneficial on a kit car if you have blocked off the heater pipes as i have.

Someone may correct me, just going on what i have been told.

  Marty Smith

[Longboarder]

Quote

the bleed hole in the stat is to help with filling

Yes, its there as an aid to getting rid of air locks but the way raceline say the rail is designed to work, without warm-up bypass or header/overflow tank is so gash that drilling a larger hole specifically to allow some warm-up flow is a common trick.
My fan is set 95 - on, 90 - off.

Nigel

[knights_templar]

lots of advice, as usual.

given all the above, should we not ask the following.

Ford stat is 92, do they really know whats best for their engine?

why pressurise the system if you expect it to run under 100 deg?

if the job of the stat is to get the engine to an efficient temp asap, why would we need to drill holes in it for gradual warm up?

shouldn't the cooling fan switch on and off setting be higher than the stat opening temp?

aren't stat bypass systems designed to circulate water within the engine until the stat opens?

before reaching for keyboards, the above are rhetorical.

the real unanswered question is

whats the racline stat set at?

[Simon B]

knights_templar, on 24 May 2012 - 08:49 AM, said:

lots of advice, as usual.

given all the above, should we not ask the following.

Ford stat is 92, do they really know whats best for their engine?

why pressurise the system if you expect it to run under 100 deg?

if the job of the stat is to get the engine to an efficient temp asap, why would we need to drill holes in it for gradual warm up?

shouldn't the cooling fan switch on and off setting be higher than the stat opening temp?

aren't stat bypass systems designed to circulate water within the engine until the stat opens?

before reaching for keyboards, the above are rhetorical.

the real unanswered question is

whats the racline stat set at?

Some interesting questions.
I have thought that the bypass hole is there not just to assist filling as has been mentioned but also to allow some water to flow past during start up.

My thinking? If the stat has no hole at all, no water can get past so NO water flow past the engine and as water is a bad conductor of heat, the water around the engine could boil before the water around the stat is even hand hot. The heater take offs for the raceline do not bypass the stat so they're no help.

If there is a small hole, some of the hot water can circulate slowly through the stat and eventually it will open.

If the stat opens as above without the hole, overheated water can now get out of the engine and will be replaced suddenly by the comparatively very cold water from the outer system and radiator. This sudden shock can't be good for the engine. With the hole, the difference in temperature is not so great.

My cooling fan does switch on after the stat has opened and that is set to around 90+ degrees. As you say, the system never reaches 100 let alone the boiling temperature of water+coolant which is higher and with a pressurised system, that is even higher still. However, the system DOES pressurise a bit as I found when releasing the cap when hot. Dangerous, yes of course, but I wanted to check something else out. Releasing the pressure shows that the coolant MUST boil around the hot engine parts as it forces coolant out the filler. I expected that as I think the coolant from the engine must cool a little before it reaches the stat. How much would depend on the rate of flow of the coolant which I don't know of course.

That's just my theory of course

Also, I have looked at the Paul Dunnell engines site and they also sell an engine breather block off plate (nice one too) and their reason? They state that the engine breather is only activated by the ECU for emissions control. Interesting.

Simon.

[merc190]

Sorry if i was not clear,   I was stating running temp, not stat opening temp.

When fitting the stat, obviously make sure the bleed hole is at the top.
I know the Raceline rail is so much neater, but why spend all that money when you can use the original ford system.

Quote.
.If the stat opens as above without the hole, overheated water can now get out of the engine and will be replaced suddenly by the comparatively very cold water from the outer system and radiator. This sudden shock can't be good for the engine. With the hole, the difference in temperature is not so great.

Exactly Simon, i also thought this too, as i said to aid in gradual warm up and reduce the risk of Cold shock.

  Marty Smith

[knights_templar]

cold shock?

http://auto.howstuff...ling-system.htm

and

http://www.familycar...olingSystem.htm

may have missed it.

new question

does the "zetec"

http://en.wikipedia....rd_Zetec_engine

that GBS supply, have the bypass system built in?

and we still don't know the raceline stat temp?

PS

note the Zeta section

Edited by knights_templar, 26 May 2012 - 09:08 AM.