Now that I have the thermostat out to clean it up and unstick it, I was wondering if I should drill a little hole in it as an air bleed??????????

I know some thermostats have that little dingle-valve, but I don't think a dingle-valve would work with our applications since the thermostat is mounted in a vertical plane rather than horizontal.


And if I drill a hole, I'm thinking small as possible, but a really small one might clog up, but if too big there may actually be to much water flow, and the engine may take awhile to warm up......

So I'm thinking somewhere between .040 (60 drill bit) and .0625 (1/16).

So what's 'Just Right'

thanks

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Clean it up and unstick it? No, just replace it. I'm sure it will stick again and you will be replacing it anyway.

The thermostats for our Slant 6 applications already have a small notch in the edge of the poppet valve for air bleed purpose. Here in Minnesota I look for the smallest bleed or no bleed at all so the engine warms up faster in winter.

When refilling the radiator, just unscrew the temp sender from the head to bleed air out.

I know of a diesel farm tractor that had the engine rebuilt at the dealer years ago. The bozo's drilled a 1/8" hole in the thermostat for reasons unknown to me. It leaked a lot of coolant through that little hole and took forever for engine to warm up.

It is almost always warm here in Hawaii and even with a (1) 1/8 hole
in flange part of thermostat , the engine warms up fast.
I guess the hole may help in case the stat gets stuck closed or partly
closed.

It was actually some grit/sand...........

I think it would clog up any thermostat new or old, so unless I find a filter for the cooling system, I just cleaned it up...

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

No notch on the poppet valve, so what's the equivalent hole size for that notch???????

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Never saw that before.


Thanks!!!


It's under one of the support arms, and it's smaller than 1/16, and maybe larger than .040.........


So now I can but the notch (which I didn't know existed) on top

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes