DIY: Bench Test Thermostat
 

This DIY will show you how to easily bench test (or stove top test) the thermostat.

1) Remove thermostat from vehicle.2) Start boiling water, in a pot, on the stove (hopefully you can handle that).
3) Grip the top of the thermostat with long pliers or channel locks. Just make sure its long enough to where your hand isn't over or near the boiling water.
Attachment 158712
Notice the valve is closed.

4) Once the water is boiling, place the thermostat into water.
Attachment 158713
Hopefully you'll begin to see water coming up through the center.
This indicates the wax is melting and the valve is opening.

5) Now the valve is fully open.
Attachment 158714
Allow the thermostat to cool before handling.
The valve closed is a good indication that its likely cool enough to handle.

Keep an eye out for our next edition where we show how to make mac and cheese from a box!

Always a good DIY, thanks Jon!

no thermometer to measure temp?

Thought about adding a thermocouple from my Fluke, but with the boiling point of water being 212F, its probably most important that the valve is fully open at this time anyway.
If you wanted to verify opening and fully open temps... sure, you can use a thermometer.
Verify the valve starts opening at ~180F and should be fully open by 203F
But if the valve isn't open while inserted into 212F water, then you know there is a problem and temp measuring is meaningless.

Also, for anyone with the MazMart/REmedy thermostat who wants to measure opening temps, the valve should start opening at ~170F

212 at sea level

pressure's a bitch

LOL... touché :)

It is not recommended to make tea, pasta, mac and cheese, or any other consumable treat using this water if your channel locks are as rusty as these appear to be! :)

^LMAO... that 2nd pic does appear that they are entirely rusted.
They are a little bit but it isn't that bad.
Must be the angle/lighting giving that appearance.

Yeah, they kinda do in that 2nd pic! :)

as usual, great DIY Jon.
I have my OEM t-stat lying around, I'll mess with it and see if is still working properly just for fun.

I put the t-stat in cold water and bring it to a boil to measure when it cracks and when it is actually open.
This test shown above is only pass/fail and not really useful for the RX-8 since our "failure" mode is around the cracking temperature.
Get a laser thermometer and monitor the water temp as it climbs.

^^^ that's what I was gonna do.
gives me an excuse to use my laster thermometer. Such a fun little toy

i think Jedi usually uses the laser to test the heat in his pants... good thing they can read below ambient

I planned on updating this DIY to include monitoring the water temp, but ran into some inconsistencies using my thermometer.
Where are you centering the reading/laser?
I noticed if I aim towards the top of the water along the side of the pot, the temp is almost 10F lower than if I aimed along the outer-bottom of the pot.
Then the more I moved towards the center, the hotter it got.

Tried to concentrate the aim around the TS, but that was inconsistent too.
Reading the temps on the top of the valve was different than around the spring or anywhere else.
I thought it would be ideal to focus where the wax is, but the spring was much hotter than the shaft that houses the wax (I assume since I couldn't get a direct aim at the shaft).

So how do you guys go about monitoring the temps with a thermometer?
I'm thinking a thermocouple at the top of the water near the TS would be most accurate.
What are your opinions?

candy thermometer

AH... that makes more sense :pat:
Thanks for clearing that up.

http://media.rexbo.net/parts/gates/j.../TH24782G1.jpg

Is this the correct size and dimensions of the OEM one ?