Thermostat or No Thermostat?

krazykuda said
Running without a thermostat is not a good idea... It makes the engine warm up slower which increases wear.... 80 - 90 % of wear happens when the engine is cold...

You need a good shroud and make all of the air from the radiator go through the shroud... Not all electric fans have a large enough shroud to cover the whole surface area of the radiator...

The shroud should act like a funnel so all of the air passing through the radiator goes through the fan...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ AGREE W/ THE ABOVE POSTS
I will tell of my recent experiment w/ elec fans. Get ready will be a long post.
I have an aprox. 723 horse 505" stroker in a 68 barracuda. I have been running a 17" belt driven / mech. steel fan, 28x19 alum. crossflow rad. w/ 2 rows of 1 1/4" tubes. I reworked a 16" full alum. fan shroud to run 2 - 14" ceramic ball bearing fans. They seemed to pull more air at idle than the mech. fan. I drove it to mens prayer breakfast yesterday morn., outside temp was hi 50`s to 60 degrees. The engine heated up as much as it did w/ the old mech. fan set up, when in 90* weather. The same thing when I drove home. I have a 15" pusher fan set to come on at 200 in front. It was running all the time after total warm up. I attest the bad performance to the 1/2" deep shroud w/ the elec fans. My mech fan shroud is a little over 2" deep. I had both sealed to the rad. very well. No doubt in my mind the elec set up would cool a lesser engine tho. I got home and pulled the dual elec set up off and reinstalled my mech fan and shroud.
The only thing I might change is the fan itself, the steel fan is very heavy, I think an alum. fan exactly the same size , hi RPM rated would be a hair easier on the water pump.
Oh. everything between the bumpers is new, no rusted or stopped up parts, 180 degree thermostat used w/ both set ups. NO BRAG JUST FACT ! JFYI Bob