opinions needed on this idea

retroron said
I'm Not sure who jimharvard's snide remarks were intended for so I'm curious jimharvard, where did you get your degree? If your shot was at me, my degree came from Cal Poly 1972 not a slouch school. So beyond being able to capitalize and italicize what do you bring to the table?

BillGrissom, I didn't see where anyone said anything about water flowing too fast through a radiator, etc., and I certainly wouldn't challenge your expertise in heat transfer. Having said that though, I do know that if I don't use a thermostat in my sprint car to throttle coolant flow it doesn't perform as well.

And, I'm outta this thread.

mr. retroron...

well... i don't know how to respond to you other than to say i did not intend any "snide remarks" directed to you. i think when i offered my opinion on the effect of using and not using a thermostat i stated i would like to hear from other FABO members on this issue and that i didn't want any "angry responses." so if i've offended you retroron, i apologize.

i am not an engineer, i am an attorney. i did go to Harvard but i did not study any engineering classes there. i could have cross-enrolled in classes at MIT but my double major was Psychology and Government - not "the sciences" so i never did that. i have no doubt "Cal Poly" is an excellent school.

the only things "i bring to the table" here on FABO (other than the ocassional "lawyer stuff") is a lifetime of mechanical and body work on cars. i'm 63 now and got my first car at 15 - so about 48 years of "practical" experience. AND i started playing with mopars in high school (70-72).

my first opinion (from my personal experience) was that running without a thermostat would increase the cooling of a vintage V-8. then, after reading your post about that not being the case, i did some research and posted the above article that also agreed that running without a thermostat will not aid cooling. THEN bill grissom posted that "as an engineer" he knew that the idea of no thermostat causing water to flow too quickly through a radiator for cooling heat transfer to occur was "incorrect" and actually similar to an "old wives tail."

so there you are mr. retroron. i'm sorry i offended you. it seems that there is a reasonable disagreement on this thread as to the cooling effects of installing or not installing a thermostat in an old V-8. i don't know what else to say...