What brand and what temp. should I use.  In Florida.  Hot....very hot.

A lot of different opinions on this.  I use a 170 degree stat with a wide mouth.  NAPA  6  (THM6).  There are other makes with the wide mouth.  Another one I use is a Moto-Rad 320-170 that I found on ebay.  It has worked very well.


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

]55charliebird (7/4/2018)

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I am sure at least One Person will  suggest the "Robertshaw" Type Stat. I have tried 3 over the Years and not had any success getting them to work. Much better success using the "Widemouth" conventional Stats as suggested above. I used one of the TMH6 Stats and worked very well. Other Upgrades You might consider are smaller Water Pump Pulley and possibly an Aluminum  Rad..

  

Looks to me that the colder thermostats like 160° F and 170° F were used with alcohol-based or methanol type antifreeze. Shop manual for '64 sez "All Engines" thermostat begins to open at 185° to 192° F, fully open 210° to 212° F

If you look at this Rotunda t-stat it shows 190° F despite the nomenclature on the box. It definitely looks to be higher flow compared to what's out there today.

It is important that any engine warms up quickly and to a sufficiently high temperature for engine cylinder wear reduction and boiling off sludge and condensation. The operator's manual allows that fuel economy will also be improved.