thermostat

[capnjoe]

Greetings Friends, I am thinking that my thermostat may be flooey. The car is running hot although not overheating. The thermostat is clearly not stuck shut as the rad return hose is hot. The fan cycles on and off. BUT, the car used to run with the temp gauge on the mark intermediate between 190 (in the center) and low.

I was thinking about just replacing the thermostat and see what that does but Chris Obert gets 100 for a new one. I don't want to do that if my radiator is partially clogged or something else.

Any troubleshooting ideas out there or better source for a thermostat? The "Scorpion tech tips" website says that any Fiat thermostat will work but the parts seller does not agree.

Cheers, Joe

[Will]

Practically any FIAT (or other I-car) remote T-stat will work, but hook up differently (visually). You need to make sure the hose routing is correct, and the Scorpion stat is a little odd in this respect.

The only idiot-resistant technique I know of is to determine which is the normally open port and normally closed port by blowing through the stat, and configure accordingly by matching your old stat. Trying to use the shape of the thermostat housing visually will get you into trouble IMO if you are replacing a Scorpion stat with a FIAT unit (you will get it hooked up "backwards").

The best stats IMO are the Savara units.