Nope that was exactly what I was planning on doing. As a precaution, I am going to put it in the garage for a couple days to thaw. I've done flushes before, so I know the mess- literal- that I'm getting into. I'm going to fill with good old regular 50/50 green stuff based on research, but that is after I flush until I get no more ooky gunk coming out (hopefully won't be much in the block) then let it drain one more time and fill for the last time and bleed as needed.

I'm really hoping for a sub 200F temp with the 180f t stat and new radiator in conjunction to temp switch. The hoses are all literally brand new as they were installed at the time of the motor swap, as was the water pump and I think front cover, so I should be good there.

It's funny as I was cleaning the 10" of snow off it and took it around the block and played for a couple quick laps in a parking lot.
1- I was amazed that it started up immediately- figured with the cold and not running it much the battery would be too low
2- The ABS works even though I've got the 3 amigos (topic for another thread, but funny nonetheless)
3- The thing understeers like a pig
4- I giggled like little girl as I've not played in the snow much for many years

 

if the T-stat you bought says 78*c (=174.2*f) as you look inside of it from top on actual thermostat piece, then I have experience with it, I bought one of those couple years ago from AB, it made temps between 183*f to highest 197.4*f (when idle in parking lot with AC on for 20 min while it was 90*f ambiant temp, so it's good, but when ambiant is below freezing it runs 4-5 degrees higher, because as T-stat opens cold coolant from radiator closes it quickly,, (that's the real problem with original set-up,), so after 6 months I switched to inline thermostat, it runs much cooler, & temp changes only a few degrees from moving to ideling, & surprisingly heater heats up quicker than factory set up,
(When Land Rover states that original t-stat is for passenger comfort, it really doesn't make sense,!),
But if you are not planing on inline mod, the T-stat you bought will work fine,

 

Ah, good info. Thanks! I like the idea of the in line thermostat and might do it at some point- maybe for the next flush. I wouldn't mind if the heater was a little warmer either.

Coming from the Jeep Wrangler world, the joke is that they don't even have a thermostat as the heaters in them are convection ovens. Even my relatively new JK is obscene with how hot it gets. I guess that's needed when even with the hard top on it's insulated about as well as a screened in porch.

 

Buttoned it up today. Wow. It toggled from 190.4 to 194. Perfect.

The old sure enough was 190 when I looked based on the above. I'm ecstatic- I can now drive the truck again.

 

That looks identical to the 78F Britpart T-stats. I went from 188F with Genuine T-Stat to over 200F. Bleed again and again. Same thing. Went back to 180F. Immediately back to 188F. Served me right for getting greedy. I wanted those -2 F. You can be the ginee pig on this. I won't risk it again. Wont buy Britpart for anything unless I have to. Let us know how it goes.

 

I installed a lot of the 78C thermostats and I never had a problem with a single one of them. Then all of the sudden the vendor I was buying them from stopped having them arrive in a Britpart box, and they were no longer marked 78C and upon further research = they were generic crap!

As anyone knows Britpart never actually made the thermostat (only a handful of companies actually make them), and the particular vendor I was buying the Britpart branded 78C from must have got a better deal so they started selling the cheaper 82C unit and the only clues that something was up = no more Britpart packaging (showed up in bubble wrap, wasn't marked 78C, and of coarse I had 3 customers immediately complain they're D2's were running hot.....). I ended up using 3 Motorad 180F units from Auto Zone to get them up and going and I have NEVER purchased near the volume of parts from that particular vendor as they did not stand behind their sneaky attempt at making an extra 30.00 per thermostat.

 

they are still around the stamped 78 c
got one this week from bearmach

 

That's the same idle temp I'm getting with mine that I just completed last week. 194 mostly. Depending on speed and RPM I stay between 188 and 204, maybe a few degrees worth spikes or drops every now and again but it's pretty stable so far with the setup I have.

 

I am about to install mine from AB, but I am getting pretty high temps when I am in traffic (220s). Is that normal for the other temp tstat? Or could it be something else? This disco is new to me and I’m still working out the bugs.

 

220 is what the factory designed. Which is why people get the 180 degree units instead of stock. So 220 while it might seem really hot is normal but it leaves no margin for error. It was done that way for emissions reasons. Don't forget to follow the proper bleed procedure when you do the swap.