I had some issues with over-heating after replacing my thermostat in my 02 Intrigue. Two Motorad thermostats from Rockauto would both overheat.
I ended up getting an old thermostat from PicknPull last year, and it worked great until recently as the car would not heat up properly. I did notice it had a weird design with four vents in the top plate. Due to the rubber gasket tearing on the PickNPull Tstat causing it to not close properly I replaced it with my Motorad one, but I cut three slots about 1.5 mm x 4 mm at the top of the plate near the retaining wings.
Car heats up normally now with temp needle just below 1/2 hot. I suspect the holes allow enough extra flow to the radiator to prevent overheating.
Sorry I don't have any photos of the holes drilled in, but I used a Demel and burs/diamond to cut slots around the slightly raised part similar in position to the old one. I only cut three as the old Tstat seemed to run a little on the cooler side.
Hope this saves others some headaches. Let me know if it works for you!
Some photos of the old Tstat with the slots and torn gasket, temp needle, and roughly where I cut three slots into the new Tstat. The Motorad ones don't have a gasket or slots.
I ended up getting an old thermostat from PicknPull last year, and it worked great until recently as the car would not heat up properly. I did notice it had a weird design with four vents in the top plate. Due to the rubber gasket tearing on the PickNPull Tstat causing it to not close properly I replaced it with my Motorad one, but I cut three slots about 1.5 mm x 4 mm at the top of the plate near the retaining wings.
Car heats up normally now with temp needle just below 1/2 hot. I suspect the holes allow enough extra flow to the radiator to prevent overheating.
Sorry I don't have any photos of the holes drilled in, but I used a Demel and burs/diamond to cut slots around the slightly raised part similar in position to the old one. I only cut three as the old Tstat seemed to run a little on the cooler side.
Hope this saves others some headaches. Let me know if it works for you!
Some photos of the old Tstat with the slots and torn gasket, temp needle, and roughly where I cut three slots into the new Tstat. The Motorad ones don't have a gasket or slots.
