If I force the thermostat open, how is is different from leaving it
out altogether?
Without a thermostat, the MB engines essentially won't be cooled.
Using an electrical analog, the typical US thermostat design is
a SPST switch. The one Mercedes uses is an SPDT switch. If you
leave it out altogether the hot coolant takes the shortest path,
which is back through the engine rather than through the radiator.
Forcing it open (I hold it open with a split brass shell casing)
makes the coolant go through the radiator. Photo:
http://formicapeak.com/~jimc/SDL/SDLcooltool.jpg
Note that the pictured thermostat is standing on the piece
that US thermostats don't have: the plate that blocks off
the recirculation path back to the engine when it is open
to the radiator.
-- Jim
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