[toobroketoretire]

The quickest way to ruin a thermostat is by drilling holes in it. On a cold winter day many years ago I decided to see how much two 3/32" (.093") holes would affect my 454's warm up time. On a 25 degree mornings my heater would usually begin blowing warm air at around 7 miles but after drilling two 3/32" holes in it my heater didn't begin blowing warm air until 15 miles and even then my interior didn't get nearly as warm as it used to.

C3 thermostats don't completely close. When examined closely you'll find there is a tiny notch in the outer edge of the center disc that allows air and some coolant to pass thru it. So even when the thermostat is closed a little bit of coolant is pumped into the radiator. Even two tiny 3/32" holes were enough to prevent the engine warming up fast enough to allow my heater to work normally so I ended up plugging them.

 

[Lethal Tendencies]

I remember back in the day we would remove the thermostat to get our cars to run cooler

 

[toobroketoretire]

I remember back in the day we would remove the thermostat to get our cars to run cooler

I remember tearing down a 283" in 1969 that had been run on 30 weight Pennzoil and no thermostat. The entire lifter valley was filled with sludge so thick it left an imprint of the underside of the intake manifold and with holes where the push rods went through. Same with the valve covers are they too were completely full clear to the underside of the valve covers. The sludge was almost as hard as window putty so I had to use a 2# machinist hammer and a 12" chisel to break it into chunks before prying it out. Same with the oil pan as it too was completely full of hardened sludge. I had an awful time getting the pan off because the oil pump's pickup was buried in sludge. I was amazed it could still run.

.