[Christ]

Originally Posted by micondie

Changing the radiator on a thermostat equipped motor would not decrease warm-up time since that is controlled by the thermostat. The water pump tries to move the same amount of water at a specific RPM no mattter what the size of the radiator and quite possibly a larger radiator would have less flow resistance and reduce the load on the pump. If you want to reduce the load on the pump then look into an underdrive pulley set which would slow both your water pump and alternator and reduce the load of both.

Christ: Why do you run no stat?

That's not true at all. The thermostat doesn't just stay open, this is the reason that grille blocks afford a shorter warm up time. The thermostat opens when the water touching it reaches a specific temperature. As the flow rushes past it, it cools down, lower than the temp at which the t-stat would be open, so it closes again. This heats the water up again inside the block. This happens several times before the engine has actually warmed up. A smaller radiator (or a grille block) prevents the water from cooling as much between cycles, so there are less cycles of heating and cooling until complete warm up.

I don't run with no thermostat. It was a goal I had, to be able to run without one and still have normal warm up times and no overheats. T-stats represent a fairly large restriction to flow, even when open fully, which loads the water pump. It's a negligible amount of power, but it's not like it'd be hard to do, and the smaller radiator has obvious aero benefits as well.