I picked up a bunch of 88C thermostats from Ken@Japan last month and have started offering them on Ebay (item 120375070708). The standard thermostat only goes to 82C. Sad to say but Ebay requires a seller to make certain amount of sales before they can offer a "Buy it now" option. Regardless, let me know and we can coordinate a 'quick sale' (short duration listing) on Ebay and achieve the same effect. Eventually, after I get the Ebay sale count high enough, I'll be able to offer goods and services in other forums including PriusChat. But for now, I need to increment my Ebay completed sales count. Thanks, Bob Wilson
That must be a new thing for Ebay. I don't have that many sales (maybe 10?) and the last time I sold something (last summer) I was able to set a "Buy it now" price. Strange.
Messy turns on what the payoff is, IMO. It was messy getting under the Prius to install the EBH with my 6'-5" framed hands, but my mpg's went up. I bought (what was refered to as) the 90C thermostat from Yoshi at PCD and have yet to install it. But I hope the mpg return over months & months of driving will compensate for the one day of hassle. BTW, you have to bleed brakes, not coolant.
Well, it is also necessary to get air out of the engine and inverter coolant loops if you drain and refill coolant. However the thermostat change shouldn't be too bad if you just open the engine block drain cock, drain out a quart or two into a clean container (like a plastic water bottle), replace the thermostat, then pour the drained coolant back into the radiator overflow container. The hard part about purging air from the engine coolant loop is when you drain the coolant heat recovery canister and then try to refill it.
uh oh . . . thanks for the heads up on coolant bleeding, I haven't read up on it yet, but that does sound like a tad more than I'd anticipated ... which is usually on par with what I end up experiencing.
