b-16a engine thermostat

is this the same as the D16 thermostat?
(engine swap into a 92 civic.... it's winter now and my legs are
freezing when I'm on the highway plus I'd like the oil to get warm
once in a while)
thanks

 

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Diagrams and part numbers are at www.slhondaparts.com

Be sure to top up the reservoir after any work is performed on the
cooling system, per the manual.

'Curly'

 

look for parts numbers online. since the b16 is a higher performance
motor, i would expect it to be different.

 

Grr. Clicking on the delsol/b16/engine/thermostat gets me to a 'we
don't got none' page. Whereas clicking on the D16 thermostat, they do
have. so it's not only different, I have to start looking.

Although..... when I start it cold and it's idling and I open the
radiator cap, there doesn't seem to be any movement of coolant,
whereas when I do so and it's warm i can see the coolant move, so
maybe it's not the thermostat? ????

It barely gets off the peg with a half hour of highway driving in the
winter; as soon as I get onto city streets it gets right up to normal,
though. Makes me think it has to be the thermostat. Doesn't exactly
heat up super quick in the summer, either, but at least it does after
a couple of miles, right up to normal.

The thing is, I had similar troubles with the D16 before I swapped it
out; went through 2 new thermostats without improving things. not
quite as bad, on the highway the temp went at least halfway up to
normal in the winter. What the hell? Could there be a secret radiator
I don't know about that bypasses the thermostat? Is this an
experimental air cooled Honda I got by accident? AAAGGHH!

 

The B16 you have is probably from an '86-'89 Integra, so call your local
Acura dealer for a thermostat. I do believe it's the same as that used in
the '90-'93 Integra's B18.

However...are you sure the engine isn't warming up properly? Does the gauge
go up to its usual level? Have you checked the heater control valve?
Sometimes the cable slips off the control valve post, or it bends.

 

See my other message.

I posted another message before reading this one. Now I'm thinking you need
to make certain the car is actually heating up properly. You need to have
somebody point an infra-red thermometer at the rad after a half-hour's
highway drive.

If the problem persisted through two engines, the either both engines had
bad thermostats or there's something wrong with a sender or gauge.

 

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I think you're describing AIR in your cooling system. Forget the rad
cap. How full is your RESERVOIR? It needs to be full to the MAX mark.
When the drops tomorrow, fill it up again. Repeat until it stops
dropping overnight.

'Curly'

 

Nope, reservoir's full to the max; opening the cap on the radiator
it's almost up to the bottom of the neck, which is what I always see
on other cars.

 

well, the whole ungodly story:
Car always ran somewhat on the hot side after I got it (one of those
"program cars"; last year's model, but never registered, with 1K miles
on the clock, not a dealer demo, supposedly just used to run people
around the Honda campus up near the airport here) I assumed it was
normal, given that silly teeny radiator. Over the years it got hotter
to the point I was driving around on hot days in the summer with the
heater on. Finally in the infamous summer of 98 it was so bad I
replaced the radiator before the motor ungasked. Plain jane
aftermarket $200 replacement radiator, indistinguishable from the
original. Temp gauge now never went above not quite 9 oclock. boy did
I feel silly. Everybody tells me now how efficient honda cooling
system is even with teeny radiator. But now, in winter it doesn't rise
above 8 oclock. Takes a couple of miles to get warmed up, summer or
winter. So i swap the thermostat for one of the hanging on a card on a
rack ones in the car parts store. No different. i figure, that's what
I get for getting a car parts part, so I swap it for a Honda
thermostat. No different. ?? Must be that efficient Honda cooling
system.
Then, the head gasket expires from the previous overheating anyway, so
instead of fixing it in goes the B16. It's got the same "highly
efficient" cooling as the D16 did. That was a few years ago, this
winter the cooling seems way too efficient on the highway; pull off
into the city, and it goes up to normal heat, so it seems like Too
Much Cooling Through the Radiator. Which, with a stock radiator, has
to be the thermostat? But as I said, I don't see any flow in the
radiator with the engine cold. And four different thermostats in two
different engines all with the same problem????

 

That silly teeny rad is amazingly efficient...provided the rest of the
system is up to snuff.

Gone are the days when you needed a billboard-sized rad in front of your
engine, two water pumps and five gallons of coolant.

That sounds normal, actually. The gauge should never get to half-way.

That's normal too. It should be warmed up within five minutes of driving
at 50F, ten if around freezing.

Exactly where on the gauge is "too efficient" and where on the gauge is
"normal"?

The only ways the engine could overcool are these:
1) poor combustion, or low compression;
2) thermostat opening too far, too soon;
3) dash gauge is incorrect;
4) driver misinterpreting cooling system behavior.

I think the problem here may partially be your perception of the gauge's
behavior. If it gets up to eight o'clock, that's correct.

The cooling system consists of a number of parts, only two of which are
the rad and thermostat. ALL those parts need to be singing in harmony
before your engine runs at the right temperature.