acer9876

The previous owner of my 97 Z71 apparently cut the thermostat off... Bad or good? I live in Texas. summer weather 100 and winter weather about 55-60. Most of the driving i do is highway. so should i leave it cut off? or replace it?

kevinkpk

I'd replace it. reason is, it acts as a flow restrictor as to allow the coolent retention time in the radiator to cool.

acer9876

thanks for the advice. ill go ahead and replace it. i havent drove the truck yet. its been sitting in my driveway for a couple months while im trying to legalize it. but the reason i found out its cut is because i put a pump in to look for leaks. and there was a leak right at the thermostat housing. so i pulled it off. and saw only the top piece to the thermostat.

OLD WRENCH

Most engines today are designed to run with a 195 thermo. Without them the computer will think the engine is cold and keep the mixture rich. Also the trans wont go in to the top ratio. When you pull the thermo housing you will only see the top of the thermo,it may be all there. If you want to test it put it in a pan of water with a thermometer and slowly warm it up to see what temp it opens at.