[Blacksport]

I bought a P3 Cars digital gauge last year, it fits in the A/C vent to the left of the steering wheel and plugs into the OBD. Was monitoring the coolant temp and was shocked how hot it runs...it'll go up to maybe 225 then drop to 205 when the thermos opens. I know it's to reduce emissions, but that's hot...too hot IMO. There's nothing out there in lower temp thermos, trust me...Mishimoto makes one, which I bought, but it doesn't fit the thermo housing. I bitched up a storm to ECS and posted a bad review...they still have it listed but did post my review. I put the stock thermo & housing back, then bought a new one to play with. No other thermo will fit this housing, so I bought an inline-type housing with 1.5" inlet/outlet, and a Chevy 170 thermostat (it's important to get the temp over 160 to get out of fuel enrichment mode). Anyway, before I installed everything, I play around with the BMW thermo housing...the thermostat is huge, but I soon realized that the Chevy thermo would fit perfectly inside the outer flange of the BMW thermo. I destroyed the big BMW thermostat, keeping the outer flange and dropped it back in the housing...the Chevy thermo sat right in the middle and was held in place by the BMW housing...amazing! I dropped the assembled housing in a pot of water & turned the heat on...it opened well before the water was at full boil...perfect. I installed it that weekend, slowly adding coolant as it warmed up...the BMW electric thermostat opener does not operate the Chevy thermo, so you have to be careful at initial startup...I took the car for a long drive...highway, town traffic, etc. and it worked perfectly. The temp goes up to 185 or so, then drops to 175 when the thermo opens...at a long stop, it went up to like 195, but immediately dropped once the car was rolling. Can't believe how well this worked out...and no more 225 degree temps.