Why no thermostat for the Mangusta?

Looks great, Nate, and why not...Btw, why the bracket on the top? I have to assume that DeTomaso just got lazy....Or at least, was accustomed to the thermostat  external to the engine (as Maserati/Ferrari).

Btw, what cam did you change to? Lee

Hi Lee!  With or without a thermostat fitted, the plate needs to be installed since it serves to mount my relocated throttle cable.  Once the engine is back in place, hopefully NOTHING will need to be touched in the front of the motor, since the access is so (frustratingly) limited there on the Goose.  (long back I had to weld up some crude firewall cuts left by a previous owner, apparently to make added clearance for working on or removing the jackshaft pulley!)   

Re. cam, I swapped an Edelbrock Performer RPM (7122) for a regular Performer.  It was a mental debate years back but I'm now WAY less concerned about hp above 5.5K than I am low end torque, especially for the Mangusta.  I believe they both have lobes on 112 degree centers (not the greatest, but hopefully good enough with IR induction).  I really wanted to run a Comp 'Weber' cam (iirc built on 114 or 115 deg centers) but they are NLA, according to their tech dept.  I assumed they were popular with the GT40 crowd, maybe not popular enough to keep production rolling?  As for the Performer, #1010 has Edelbrock heads, so there shouldn't be any surprises when everything goes together...kiss principle mainly!

Nate,

You want the thermostat not so much to prevent overheating, but to prevent underheating!   Thermostat promotes quicker warm up such that you have less ring to wall wear.....the 192 temp is sort of an ideal number in the metallurgy world of auto engines........FOrd made it their defacto standard in mid 70's.....up thru the 90's in the new modular motors.....

I used the same principle of the spacer, two gaskets, and slightly longer bolts.  Worked FANTASTIC!!!!  Car warmed up right away, was great when you really needed the heater!!!  (Remember, we drove our car all seasons...floods allowing...and Christmas dinners!!!)

Why did DeT not do it???????   Good question.  Perhaps it meant one more machining operation to accommodate an "unneeded" part.......  Maybe all alloy Italian engines didn't need the regulation like 'Merican cast iron hunks.....!

Your car will run better with one in it!  Remember, even an evening blast in the cool summer evening could cool your engine too much!!!  Carb performance could suffer.....mixture gets wadded up.....

Cheers!
STeve