My hatch has a b16a swapped in and it started overheating when i go up hills on freeways, i mean REALLY big hills. i bought a del sol V-TEC thermostat, which, i looked up all over and it should fit, i also bought the gasket and it too should fit. My dad said i should just take out the thermostat and leave it as is because "summer is coming"

MY MAIN QUESTION

does my dad have a point? should i just take out the thermostat and leave it as is?

 

i wouldnt take it out figure out why its overheating. does the thermostat have a jiggle pin? small hole with pin in it goes up

 

If you dad was talking about an early 70's vehicle then I would say just leave it.

However, In todays vehicles with computers the coolant temps are watched by the ecu and used for closed loop operation. If the ecu does not see the temps required it will never go into closed loop and your gas mileage will suffer.

By the way "closed loop" refer's to the ecu ability to respond to the sensors and make adjustments rather than the preset setting from the factory.

Not only a thermostat is required but the correct temp thermostat is just as important.

 

^^ X2

I've run without a thermostat before and woudl actually overheat when in traffic. The water wasn't staying in the radiator long enough to cool down properly.

 

thermostats are important, but i wouldn't say it won't run correctly without one. me and my wife had a 99 cavalier and at 55,000 miles the thermostat caused the car to overheat while on a road trip. i took it out along the highway, and drove another 125,000 miles without one. not one problem, not one cel, not one issue. took a little longer in the winter to get heat, but we got heat. i'd say its up to you if you want to take it out, but to say that it'll **** **** up, i can't rightly say.

 

If your B16 didn't need a thermostat, Honda would have never put one in. Replace the thermostat anyway. While the cooling system is drained inspect the radiator and, if possible, remove and inspect the water pump (unless you have recently replaced it with an OEM unit).

 

[QUOTE=88Hatchy;37565430]If your B16 didn't need a thermostat, Honda would have never put one in. QUOTE]

Now that is an untrue statement. If this was true the why do they put in Throttle Body heat lines for vehicles sold in climates that don't require it? There are plenty of possibilities and parts and ways a manufacture will make a car and things they will do that the car does not require. Most of these have to do with being able to market the car all over the globe without having major overhead from having to make the car differently for different parts of the world.

Living in California I doubt you would have a problem not heating up correctly. As you may already know Honda's B16 motor requires a 170* thermostat from the factory. I would almost bet that even without the thermostat you still would see close to 170* but probably more like 160*.

The reason Honda runs a cooler thermostat from the factory is almost genius by design. It allows for more efficient combustion to take place. This also allows for a higher compression to be run with the lower octane fuel that was the big buzz starting in the 80's.

The very thought of coolant going through the radiator too fast is a hysterical joke at best. The person who said it made their car run hot when they took out their thermostat probably did not bleed ALL the air bubbles out of the motor.

Checking the water pump is typically pointless. Usually coolant will leak from the weep hole if the seals are bad. The other thing to go out on water pumps is the bearing/s. When these go bad they almost always with squeal, and usually not very long before the shaft breaks. An also very rare instance is when the impeller falls off the shaft, but that is very unlikely.

You should look more in depth as to why you are heating up when you go up big hills. Think about it, when you are going up a hill what is happening? The engine is under a huge load, and even bigger if you stay in high gear. Well while an engine is under load the combustion chamber heats up from all the extra work and fuel being delivered.

I would check the coolant to make sure it is full and of the proper mix. Check to make sure all of the air is bled out of it. Also make sure you are not running lean, this will also (especially under a load) make the cylinders heat up and cause the coolant temperature to rise.

Typically when thermostats fail, they fail in the open position (most aftermarket ones today are made like this). If the thermostat did fail in the closed position then the car would run hot all the time not just under a load.

Also you could just feel the hoses to make sure the thermostat is opening.

 

I wouldn't leave the t-stat out, it doesn't sound like the root of the problem.

 

More than likely your over heating problem is your rad. As they get older, they build up calcium deposits and the flow of coolent will decrease over time. I have had this happen on a couple of my Honda's over the years.

I would most definitely use a thermostate as Honda intended the engine to run with.

 

[QUOTE=N3va3vaSatisfi3d;37568469]No. It was bled correctly.
I guess what I wrote is a bit incorrect... it's not flowing through the radiator too fast.
What I meant is that the water was flowing through the engine water jackets too fast - thus not allowing proper heat transfer.

The thermostat's job is to
- regulate the flow of the water.
And that doesn't strictly mean 'to help cars warm up in cold climates'.

You may have read too fast - the overheating only happened in traffic. By that I mean stop and go on the freeway, surface street with lots of lights, etc. There was never a problem in steady driving.

Call it BS or whatever... I don't care.
Put a thermostat in and problem solved.

 

well im gonna replace the thermostat, just cuz i have it lol but yeah anyone have a link or know a site that shows how to bleed cooling system? and just another question bleeding system means getting any bubbles out right?

 

Yeah don't forget to bleed it. I forgot to bleed the cooling system on my bmw after a hose blew, and i overheated 10 minutes later and went crazy wondering why. Bleed ittt

 

Sorry, but I know from true experience with my 1 Honda circle track car, and my 1 Honda autocross car that running a motor with no thermostat in a Honda will not cause it to overheat what-so-ever. You probably did not bleed the air out properly when you took it out. Then when you put it back in you did bleed it properly so then "problem" solved.

There is a bleeder on the water outlet. Looks just like a brake bleeder valve. Basically for this you have to have the car running and bleed off any air that is in the system, be sure to add coolant while you are doing this also. Also, another way you can typically get almost all the air out just by adding antifreeze and repeatedly squeezing the upper and lower radiator hoses, then repeat, repeat again, ect, ect, until it is full (this is done through the filler cap). Doing this method I have almost never had to bleed my coolant system. Don't overfill at first because you will waste a lot of antifreeze when you squeeze out the air.

 

There are tooo many variables for you to just assume someone doesnt know
what they are doing and what a thermostat will or wont fix.

You crack me up.

 

I crack myself up.

 

Was your cooling fan working? I was on LA traffic and my B16 started to over heat (replaced the thermostat 2 month ago) but the caused was the fan not turning on when it was suppose to.

 

no fan was definitely working, but yeah it might be that im gonna bleed the system, cuz i replaced thermostat, and that same hill gave me problems, not as bad this time around cuz i took someones advice here and downshifted, but still went up a tad. thanks guys!

again anyone know any links to how to bleed the system? im gonna bookmark it

 

To bleed it all you have to do while the cars running is open the bleeder valve untill a constant stream of coolant come's out, no bubbles you'll see.

 

Without a T-stat the coolant doesnt spend enough time in the radiator to be cooled.

I would never run a street car with no T-stat