Dropped my cobra off for chassis dyno tuning this week and was chatting with the owner about the cooling system. He's built many high performance street and race cars and told me that if carbureted, this engine needs to have a 160 Tstat and the fan trigger sensor set at 160 also, and run at 160 in cool weather, 185-190 in blazing hot weather (which we get a LOT of during the summer around central California). He says at 200+ engine temps the runners get hot enough to affect the atomization quality of the air/fuel mixture and make the car run poorly, that higher temp running works best for EFI engines.
Then again I've read posts here that say cool running hurts an engine, AND I'm wondering if having the fan work ALL the time is really any help, especially when on the road at speed. Right now I'm planning a 195 fan trigger though a 180 is available for that, and I have a 180 Tstat in place.
Man...if I ever graduate from the school of cobra/auto engineering I think I'll have a minor in confusion!
Regards!
Dirk