Honda Accord LX 4 door 1998

 

The thermostat on a different vehicle I owned (non-Honda) went out and it ended up overheating and died. OTOH: https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...mostat-459933/

 

yes, it will just run cool and you will get bad fuel economy

 

I WOULD NEVER DRIVE ANY CAR, ESPECIALLY A HONDA WITH ALUMINUM BLOCK/HEADS WITHOUT A THERMOSTAT. REASON: UNEVEN HEATING COOLING OF BLOCK AND HEAD WHICH WILL CAUSE SOME MEAN WARPING IN THE CYLINDER CAVITY WHICH IN TURN WILL SURELY BECOME OVAL SHAPED. THEN IT´S ALL-OVER BABY.......

 

"CAUSE SOME MEAN WARPING IN THE CYLINDER CAVITY WHICH IN TURN WILL SURELY BECOME OVAL SHAPED" Where did you get this information from? I can see if the engine were to overheat, but not just because you are running an open loop cooling system.

I will agree that running any engine for a prolonged time without a thermostat is not a good thing. Will it blow up immediately, probably not! All depends on the temperature in your area and traffic conditions. If you live in a hot climate running without one could cause your engine to overheat, and running without one in a cold climate will cause your engine to run cold, and you will never see any heat inside the car. As mentioned above it will have adverse effects on fuel economy and the overall performance of your engine. Running it cold can cause a buildup of hydrocarbons and moisture inside the block. As well on the other side. Running it hot can cause acidic fluids to build up inside the crankcase. Extreme heat (overheating) can cause warping and/or bearing failure.

I have known people to run without a thermostat for months and never see it come close to overheating.

Key to running your engine without a thermostat is watching the temperature gauge. Just make sure it doesn't overheat. I would replace it sooner than later though.

 

Ok, besides heating the coolant fast before it opens up so you could get heat inside the vehicle. The thermostat main purpose is to heat up the engine and maintain the temperature so that the area around the combustion chamber (hottest area) and the surrounding area are kept more or less at tha same temp..Same goes when engine is stopped, the cooling is achieved in the entire engine. Now, imagine you on the highway pedal to the metal without a thermostat in the winter or even on a cool day or evening. Can you just imagine the temp. in the area of the combustion chamber and you coolant with the temp. much much lower all around it. One area expanded and others contracting. Now when you shut the engine down she will not cool equally neither. And after doing this for a period of time I thing no good will come of it.

 

Even if the thermostat is shot or you cannot obtain one immediately, at the very minimum cut out the old busted portion of the thermostat and retain the 'washer' portion.
This acts as a flow restrictor to allow heat to transfer to the coolant. Although with my own experience the temp gauge will probably never go up to near normal with a stuck open thermostat unless in traffic or parked nose to wall.

 

run the car without a thermostat and try to get it to overheat, it's not going to

when an oem thermostat goes bad it stays wide open, and the only thing that happens is the car runs cold most of the time

so what do you think would happen if you completely took the thermostat out ? you act like there's a wall that forms inside the radiator that doesn't allow the coolant to get cooled just because it's going fast