Re: 164 overheating

[Rodney Tidwell <rodneygt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken Stevenson wrote:

>  Unlike detroit cars, the Alfa V-6 will over-heat without a
> thermostat. The
> coolant flow goes off the wrong direction without a thermostat.

Milanos and GTV6s certainly don't overheat w/o thermostats.  I can't
imagine the 164 would be any different.  What other path could the
coolant go except to circulate through the entire cooling system?

For example, my wife overheated my milano a few years back and a guy at
a service station took the thermostat from the housing and straight
wired the fan (Note: thermo wasn't bad - the elect fan had shorted and
car overheated while in town).  I fixed the wiring when she got home.  I
didn't bother to order a new thermostat for a few weeks.  The milano,
like any other car (Detroit, Japan, Germany, etc.) ran substantially
cooler until I installed the new thermostat.

I would imagine the reason you don't want to run too long w/o a
thermostat is because of the lower temp would cause the injection
computer to think the car is still warming up.  Fuel mixture might be a
tad richer than optimum.

Rodney G. Tidwell
McComb, MS

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