Modification question

[BBQdDude]

2013 Nissan 370z NISMO

 

On all my past cars being 4 cyl turbo, v-8 and 6 cyl I have always dropped in a 160 degree thermostat and went a step colder on spark plugs, among other things. Then got a tune.

 

My reason for a colder thermostat is, scraped from the web but I think it states it perfectly:

 

"The thermostat is there primarily to help the engine warm up in the morning. Most engine wear occurs when the engine is cold, once it's warmed up there is very little wear in a healthy engine."

 

(Please note my car is NOT driven during the winter).

 

Step colder spark plugs reasoning in my mind:

 

By using 1 step colder spark plugs it helps prevent pre-detonation. The only real reason is that it doesn't hold as much heat. Running a really hot plug will cause a lot of pre-detonation, I believe.

 

Normally though when doing this I am dropping in other performance mods (CAI, exhaust/headers, crank pulley) giving me about 50+ HP gain which I plan on doing all at the same time.

 

Not to mention engine timing benefits.

 

Now I will say I am pretty uneducated when it comes to wrenching so take the above with a grain of salt (flame suit on lol).

 

Thoughts?

[zeitgeist57]

I would think you don't need a colder spark-plug unless you're really pushing the performance of a relatively-stock N/A long block with radical mods (stroke/cam), or definitely nitrous/forced-induction.

[RyM3rC]

A colder thermostat will make your car warm up SLOWER, FYI. When your coolant hits 160 (or whatever temp) and begins to open, it is going to slow your oil temp coming up (which is more important). When I put a 160 thermostat in my z28 it took at least a few minutes more to see oil come up to normal operating temp, but it was worth the slight performance increase.

[BBQdDude]

Thank you.

[Cordell]

I would say plugs and a thermostat are resonable mods. Not going to make much difference on a bolt on car, but good insurance if you drive hard. I beleive any car should be warmed up some before driving, not necessarily completely to operating temp but enough to let the temp needle come off of its seat. This is why I always remote start my daily, and I mean as I walk to it, things get a chance to circulate and start to rise in temp. So with these practices a colder thermostat won't hurt anything.

 

Besides all my ramblings above, temp control is all aboit how you're using the car. It's important to remeber that from the factory cars are set up for emissions more then anything else. A colder thermostat simply opens sooner, whether it will actually reduce operating temp will vary a lot depending on cooling system size and use of car. Sure if you're cruizing down the highway on a cool day it should be lower, but in traffic it could be negligible.

 

Part of tuning is to figure out what the engine likes, too many people have this cookie cutter aproach just because other people think they have it all figured out or they're too lazy to try different things.

 

In the end everyone has an opinion, but as yourself if the fastest guys just did what everyone else did? Of course not, so why would it be any different on a smaller scale?