73 dart 225 thermostat temp?

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Futzy1

Futzy1

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What temp thermostat should o get for a 226 slant in my 73 dart custom? I didn't see it in the manual. . . I also may not have spen THAT long looking. . . . :usflag:
 
This is from a 70 Challenger / Dart service manual

upload_2018-4-13_8-29-2.png
 
Thanks guys. Those are both so close. It seems like as long as I'm in that 190 range I should be good.
 
Ok, so OE calls for 195°. I'm wondering about throwing a 180 in there instead. Possibly keep things just a little cooler? I live in the SoCal desert and summer is almost upon us so we will start having more days above 100 than below soon
 
Read this and then choose either a 180° (this one's best, what I would pick in your conditions) or a 195° (this one). Don't go lower than 180°. Might want to read the other 4 parts of the linked article, too (bottom of each part has links to next/previous part).

Also, your Slant-6 is (still) a 225, not a 226.
 
Thanks guru Dan. I'm going to check those out right now. I'm looking at adding classic auto air, and so I figured I should make sure all my cooking is running proper before I start.
 
Yup—grab some coffee or beer or whatever and read thru the whole cooling system article. If you're adding A/C you're going to want to upgrade the whole system substantially, and also see here and here.
 
slantsixdan said:
also see here and here.
Click to expand...

Yeah those are all things I'm thinking about. We have a five year old now, and a baby on the way, (luckily not due until October when it will be starting to cool back down) and if it weren't for them I would just leave it as is and deal with the heat.

The 2 things I have working in my favor is that, one, in the summer I make room in the garage, (car cover the rest of the year) and two, my sons school is right down the street with less than 4 minutes for the car to heat up.

My 5 year old isn't the most socially adjusted kid, and he takes a lot of crap from his peers, but I'll be damned if they are not all super jealous of "his" ride. Lol.

However I will say I drove classic trucks before dad life when I (my wife) decided I needed more seats and doors, but I feel like a small truck can would be much easier to cool.
 
Futzy1 said:
Yeah those are all things I'm thinking about. We have a five year old now, and a baby on the way, (luckily not due until October when it will be starting to cool back down) and if it weren't for them I would just leave it as is and deal with the heat.

The 2 things I have working in my favor is that, one, in the summer I make room in the garage, (car cover the rest of the year) and two, my sons school is right down the street with less than 4 minutes for the car to heat up.

My 5 year old isn't the most socially adjusted kid, and he takes a lot of crap from his peers, but I'll be damned if they are not all super jealous of "his" ride. Lol.

However I will say I drove classic trucks before dad life when I (my wife) decided I needed more seats and doors, but I feel like a small truck can would be much easier to cool.
Click to expand...
One thing I wouldn't recommend is that you start up your old car and drive it 4 min down the street and then back home and shut it off. These old cars (with carbs and chokes instead of modern fuel injection) don't take kindly to short trip drives. It is more healthy to warm them up a bit before driving and get them to operating temp.
 
Yeah. It's funny because my Dad was a drivers ed instructor back in the 70s. When he thought me how to drive at the turn of the century, he thought me a ton of things that at the time seemed completely useless. "Never turn the wheel all the way to its stop." "Pump the breaks." Always let the car warm up." At the time, my first car was a 94 Sentra, I drove a civic after that, and a Saturn, and none of those lessons ever really came into play.

I bought my first older car in 2010, a 73 f250, and all of a sudden, like a freight train all my Pops' old lessons REALLY mattered.

Typically I run out and start the car about 5 before we leave. I leave it running while I run him into school and if I have any errands to run I do them after he gets off.
 
slantsixdan said:
Read this and then choose
Click to expand...

Ok, so I read that article and here is my first thought, let me know what you think.

Since I do live in a desert, and triple digit ambient temps will be a right now problem within a few weeks, I'm thinking go with a 180° for now. Once summer is over, I can get to work on fuel lines, etc, and re-up the thermostat while ambient heat is not as big an issue.
 
So at the risk of completely derailing this thread. . .

With A/C is in the near future, I'm basically just replacing rather than testing my thermostat, temp sensor, wiring, etc, because while I've never seen heat issues, the car sat before I got it 2ish years ago, this stuff is cheap, and I know I'm going to be putting more strain on my engine. Any thoughts on temp sensors?
 
If your engine temperature gauge works, you don't need (or benefit from) a new sender. They don't tend to fail from sitting as a thermostat can.
 
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