I’m not a car guy. I want to be. I’m learning. I learn by making friends with mechanics and absorbing their information. I had a car a few months ago with some overheating issues. (Got it resolved. No water in my coolant at all, using straight concentrate in a brand new, empty radiator, like a dingus. 🤦🏼♂️) But before I fixed it, someone said it might have been the thermostat. I asked a mechanic friend of mine about it. (I haven’t known him long.) He told me he’s been a mechanic for right around a decade and has NEVER seen a thermostat issue cause overheating. Is he just totally out of touch? Or did I misunderstand how the cooling system of a vehicle works? Let me know.
He never drove an 86 Camaro. That stupid thermostat would fail at the worst possible time during the weekend or summer. They can fail closed or fail open. When they fail closed, they can cause overheating rather quickly. I used to pull the thermostat, put a pot of water to boil and use some tongs to suspend it in the water to watch the opening temp. When they fail closed they just won’t open.
I personally don’t like Motorad thermostats. They seem to fail too often. Most parts store thermostats are rebranded/reboxed Motorad. They stamp Motorad right on the thermostat. I try to get an OEM thermostat as often as possible. There’s nothing like doing a thermostat twice because the stupid thing failed in a couple months.