Hello, Replacing the thermostat in my 355. Went on line and vendors selling 355 thermostats for $200? It looks like an ordinary thermostat to me. I'll take it to Pep Boys or Autozone tomorrow to see if it matches up. Is this just an ordinary thermostat or am I missing something that justifies charging $200 for a $10 part? Has anyone sourced a "fail safe" thermostat? I believe mine has failed and failed in the closed position. The fail safe thermostats, when the fail, fail open so your motor stays cool. Seems they all should be this way. No?
They are less than $130 here: http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?products_id=216124 I looked at mine recently and thought the same thing but upon closer inspection it does more than a $10 thermostat would. I didn't spend the time to break down what happens during warm up so hopefully another member can break it down for us.
Seems to be that the 355 and 348 have the same part number for the thermostat so I assume they are the same. There are a couple of threads re thermostats for 348 in the US $8-$20 range that are exact crosses for factory. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236109&highlight=348+thermostat http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50339&highlight=348+thermostat&page=8
From reading the 348 thread it doesn't appear anyone has found a replacement with the appropriate size foot? GS300 version has smaller foot than the 32mm 355 version. At $15-$20 for the various GS300 thermostats vs $127 through Ricambi America is a decent difference. Has anyone measured the bypass hole to see if the GS300 fully covers it? http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138370258&postcount=147 http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138370548&postcount=151 Sounded like randyleepublic was running the GS300 thermostat on his 348, I'll ping him as well.
It works fine. I have had no overheating at all - in fact I wish the car ran a bit warmer! On my list of things to do is to experiment with running a 54mm 190 degree version that was used on a lot of cars including the X19. When I install the 54mm, I am going to beef up the gasket with some silicone sheet that I have to make sure it seals, but I have not yet got round to it. Make sure that you get one for a GS300 - the ES300 is different and won't fit.
