Mishimoto Racing Thermostat - Anyone use this yet?

[mercdank]

Just browsing the Mishimoto site and ran across this little piece that I hadnt't seen before. It allows the coolant to flow into the engine sooner by reducing the activation temperature from 207 to 160.

My question is, couldn't this already effectively be achieved by adjusting the coolant duty cycle or something like that with the AccessPort? Or is this one of the purely mechanical things that the ECU cannot manipulate?

Here's a link: www.mishimoto.com/ford-fiesta-st-2014-thermostat.html

 

[mercdank]

[MENTION=1848]mishimoto[/MENTION]

 

[Wimp Lo]

It is purely mechanical so an Accessport can't do the same thing.

They have said that they chose 160° so that the ECU will enter regular mode instead of staying stuck in warm up. I think that is a little too cold, I would rather have 180°. Instead I'm stuck at 207°.

There is a science to how hot an engine should be run, everyone knows too hot is no good but too cold isn't great either.

 

[SirSlaughter]

So I used the search function and it brought me here. Has anyone gotten one yet or had any experience with it? I just ordered one a few days ago and am gonna put it in my car when I get it, but I just wanted to be sure no one has blown up their car because of it. (I know your car won't blow up for being a little too cool, I was just using an example).

And before anyone berates me for putting this on a DD:

I know. A DD isn't a racecar unless I race and junk.
But I have plans and this is just another piece to the puzzle and everything will fall in to place as time goes on.

 

[Izzy]

So I used the search function and it brought me here. Has anyone gotten one yet or had any experience with it? I just ordered one a few days ago and am gonna put it in my car when I get it, but I just wanted to be sure no one has blown up their car because of it. (I know your car won't blow up for being a little too cool, I was just using an example).

And before anyone berates me for putting this on a DD:

I know. A DD isn't a racecar unless I race and junk.
But I have plans and this is just another piece to the puzzle and everything will fall in to place as time goes on.

I have always used Mugen or Spoon thermostats on all my Honda builds with great success. I'm interested in your outcome. Although the Mishimoto has a 160° activation point it doesn't mean the temp will not reach optimal operating temperature. For example my Spoon Sports thermostat starts opening at 155° & Fully open at 178° vs OEM opening @ 176° & fully open by 194°, but I would maintain 195° to 205° on track with it.

 

[DP03]

Your engine will run at stock temps with these t-stats on anything but highway driving unless you find a way to adjust your fan on/off settings. At highway speeds you will be running cooler. Around town the car will run at stock temps without fan corrections. Maybe Cobb will add that to their AP at some point.

And I agree with Wimp Lo that I'd prefer a 180 stat over a 160. If the car is just used for track, thats one thing. If a DD all year round use, for me 160 is too low.

 

[SirSlaughter]

Now here is another question. Why do you guys want 180 rather than 160? I know that different temps effect the expansion of the metals and such of your various engine parts, but is there some kind of proven sweet spot that 180 has that I don't know about?

Or is it the optimal temp for your oil to do its thing to lube up your internals properly?
I've gone to technical school and I have an ASE certification (in A/C) so I've learned about all that stuff, but I don't have any first hand experience in the super high performance area.

 

[Izzy]

I would much rather do a thermostat and fan setting adjustment than to do a radiator swap.

 

[Siestarider]

After much deliberation and some experience tracking, now I just run with heater on. Hi will pull coolant and oil temps into the ideal range at worst conditions I have run in, 95F and 95% humidity. With front totally sealed and WRC-style hood vents added, fierce track use will run coolant up to 230 and oil to 260F. On Hi heater, coolant drops to 210 and oil to 225.

Windows are already open, just aim vents out. There is probably a way to duct heater air flow to outside (NASCAR is about to ban electric brake cooling fans because they are being used to increase downforce) and gain some aero advantage.

 

[SirSlaughter]

Ok, so I have the thermostat.

...where the hell do I put it?

I see two locations possible but I don't know which one of these plastic doohickeys is the thermostat housing.
I looked online and I could not find any diagrams or anything on the 2014 Fiesta ST.

So can anyone chime in or put a picture to which one of these things I gotta take out?

 

[Siestarider]

I looked into changing thermostats more than a year ago and decided it was too hard to get to, not worth the trouble. Seems like I found a Ford diagram in catalog for their coolant parts. Vaguely recall it being low on engine behind radiator, but not sure about that.

 

[SirSlaughter]

Ok so after taking my bumper off, getting most the front end off of my car, I have come to the conclusion:

Not this day.

It turns out you have to take your engine halfway apart to get to the thermostat housing which is located on the lower left area of the car. I also found some pictures of Mishimotos R&D and stuff and to install it they had to take off the crash bar and basically split the engine compartment in half to get to the damned thing.

So I was not able to install it as I had somewhere to be the next day and unfortunately that did not allow me the time needed to do the job.

I WILL Install this, but just not at this time. I'll be waiting until I get some more parts that require working in the same area so I can do a large upgrade all at one time. So that means intercooler, possibly new intake, manifold spacers (So I can introduce some injection and possible extra fuel setups), and the thermostat probably all in one big go.

 

[dyn085]

Your engine will run at stock temps with these t-stats on anything but highway driving unless you find a way to adjust your fan on/off settings. At highway speeds you will be running cooler. Around town the car will run at stock temps without fan corrections. Maybe Cobb will add that to their AP at some point.

And I agree with Wimp Lo that I'd prefer a 180 stat over a 160. If the car is just used for track, thats one thing. If a DD all year round use, for me 160 is too low.

The other way around-the car will run at normal temps on the highway and cooler in town. On the highway there's a continual load so the thermostat stays open.

Cooling fan tables-