During the summer months, when I occasionally run my car at a drag strip, I want to keep the engine and supercharger as cool as possible for as long as possible. Has anybody run their STR without a thermostat?

If all goes well, I will reinstall the thermostat in the Fall so I'll have heat to quickly heat up the cabin and defrost the windshield.

I have done some looking around and it appears running a STR with a low temperature thermostat will cause an engine code.

[QUOTE=avos;201112]I have had some negative experiences with a 170 something (iirc) thermostat on a STR. The ECU checks the time it takes until the coolant reaches operating temperature (takes of course also outside temp into consideration), and it triggered an engine code as it took too long with this thermostat on some occasions (according to the ECU, we were fine with it ;-). So we put the original back in.

Engine code aside, will the engine still run at full power or will the ECU restrict performance until the code is cleared?

I plan to experiment and run my car without the thermostat for a while. If anybody has information or experience with this please chime in.

 

Racer, aside from the info. you garnished from Avos's post on low temp. thermosats, I'm not sure how she'll react without one. I run a Eurotoys low temp. thermostat and all works well.

 

Will be interesting to see how it reacts. Thanks for trying something new!

 

You could always just drill holes in your current thermostat. An old muscle car trick.

 

So far so good. No codes after my 35 min test drive.

 

It was a cool 59F as I was heading to the golf course yesterday morning. After approximately 5 minutes of driving, my engine light came on. The golf course was only another 5 minute drive so I continued on since the car was running fine. I played my round of golf and once I started my car again I noticed the engine light was still on.

I'm away on vacation and do not have my ODBII reader with me. So I headed for a Autozone to have the code(s) read. Guys, your information was correct again! I did not see the code number clearly since they would not let me use the reader myself. The guy working was not the most hopeful person but it appeared to read PO128 = "coolant temperature below thermostat regulating temperature or threshold".

Next week, once I return from vacation, I will reinstall the thermostat.

 

You tried. Thank you for the experiment. Try run a Eurotoys low temp thermo. I've gotten no codes, etc.