Warmed Up = More Power

[HondaBoy]

ok, since its been cool lately i'll notice that the car doesnt get hot at all due to the broken thermostat. so if its cool or cold outside, the car wont warm up to however hot its supposted to get. the T'stat supposed to open at 180 degrees. anyway, if its staying at a cold temp, it seems to have less power than when its at a normal temp. just an observation, i plan to go buy a new T'stat like tomorrow or friday because i dont think its good to run the car at a cold temp all the time.

[A20A1]

I wouldn't use the temp gauge to judge coolant/engine temp... especially when you don't have a working T-Stat.

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah i used to get the best power when i was n/a right after the t stat opens and then the intake manifold starts heating up but before then thats when the car seemed to be fastest.

[HondaBoy]

nah, its just in cold weather it's at the bottom line. i can let it run and it'll go up to the normal temp. fans still work. do i have to show a receipt for the purchase of the T'stat? its a fail safe with lifetime warrenty, so they took my info down for it. believe me, i know when the car is overheating, if thats what you were kinda implying. i dunno. anyway, when it does, it smells like burning rubber and knocks. wonder if i should get another fail safe? obviously it did what it was supposed to in the case that it breaks. maybe that's worth the $12 or so.

[snow_man_20]

i would say it's worth the $12 if you can still drive it after it goes bad and not have it overheat, a few extra dollars to not get stranded if it stops working. good deal i guess.

[train]

like A20A1 said, i wouldn't drive it much at all if the engine stays cold. the engine needs to heat up properly and run at operating temp. its bad to drive a car very short distances so the engine doesn't heat up. old cars with like 30k miles that granny drove to church and back on sundays are often problem cars, even tho people think they will be a great running car because they have low miles. but if the engine ran for 30k miles and rarely got to operating temp because church was a few hundred yards away from granny's house, there could be all sorts of internal problems. this is just an example of course and that situation is not always the case, but your situation somewhat relates. i would try to find something else to drive until you get it fixed.

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

The reason that your car doesn't have as much power when the engine isn't warm may be because the carburetor's functions are controled by coolant temperature. For example, the secondary won't open if the coolant is cold. Similarly, it may cause the carburetor to create a more rich mixture than necessary resulting in loss of power. Just my $.02

[HondaBoy]

i know it'll run rich when i first start it up on a cold morning, but only for like a minute. anyway, i have fixed my long going problem of running too cold. i already had a pot boiling on the stove incase i wanted to check the T'stats functionality. but when i took it out i could already see it was stuck open. i went and bought another one along with the rubber gasket that goes around it. i filled it up and got all the bubbles out, thats pretty important to do. anyway, i drove it around after that and there a very noticeable differece in the power it has now. it doesnt make much to begin with, so that little bit is noticeable. i thought it was just slower lately because i had changed from my 13's to my heavier 14's, but that really isnt it. it also idles much nicer, not rought to the slightest. guess it ran slightly rough because of the cold temp of the fluid before. i think its well worth the extra bucks to buy the fail safe one. i'd hate to overheat it, its been done before when i first got the car and the T'stat went bad. that was so easy to do i dont know why i didnt do this before. i had flushed the system and refilled it a few months back. i need to do that again because before last time, it had been over 4 years since the system was flushed. so theres deposits and rust in the water that loosened up. dont think i'll get to that this weekend, maybe next weekend. also, i left my car sitting at my friends house for over an hour and when i went to start it i didnt have to wait for it to warm up which was nice. before, each time i'd leave it sitting for a bit, i'd have to let it warm up. and so my theory was right, warmed up = more power

[HondaBoy]

i dunno, i'm pretty proud of my car now. after doing the rebuild and some other stuff, it accelerates pretty good. considering it is now actually able to feel a push into the seats. even with passengers in the car its still doing good. i dunno, maybe its just my car? the '89 LX-i i drove down the street was slower than mine when i had taken it for a test drive. i was going to buy it, glad i didnt.