Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 21:59:42 -0700
Reply-To: Alistair Bell <albell@UVIC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alistair Bell <albell@UVIC.CA>
Subject: Re: Addition engine cooling thoughts and ramblings...
In-Reply-To: <AIEFIGCNNANNIHLNFBPECEFEFJAA.vanagon@volkswagen.org>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
on 13/05/2002 9:44 PM, David Marshall at vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG wrote:
David,
comments in body of text...
> My 2.0L I4 that I installed in my Syncro 16 is now running great (using
> European T3 Diesel hardware). The coolant needed is above the LED when the
> engine is warmed up by about 2 needle widths. The rad fan doesn't come on
> and there is sufficient heat when the heater is on. When I do turn the
> heater on I notice the temp will drop about 1 needle width - hmmm.....
Is this the engine you had problems getting going? what was the final
diagnosis?
Who knows how accurate your or my temp gauge is, but my needle sits just on
the high side of the LED (still covering half). This is with an 88C tstat.
The needle stays on the other side of the LED wit the lower temp tstat.
Hwy diving is not a high coolant temp problem (for me). Summer time low
speed steep hill climbing (like getting to Bolean lake outside Falkland), or
3rd gear long climbs, van loaded to the gills will make the coolant temp
rise enough to get the fan going.
My experience with the heater cooling effect is that the big temp drop is
temporary, mostly a result of the slug of cool water being introduced into
the flow. Of course the heater core will help reduce temps to some degree.
First step is a lower temp Tstat.
> This weekend I was looking at ways of keeping the oil temps down. Currently
> there is the Audi 3A water -> oil cooler on there and from what other people
> have told me it does an OK job of keeping the temps down but not really when
> you are working the engine up a good hill. The local wrecking yard has some
> 2.3L Audis in it with the external air -> oil coolers mounted on them. The
> cooler is pathetically small, but there are lots of bigger oil radiators out
> there.
>
The water-oil "cooler" is more of a oil temp moderator than cooler!
Sustained high speed driving is where I see my oil temps rise. The lower
Tstat helps to some degree, but as you suspect, an external oil cooler would
be the answer. Both Frank Grunthaler (I4) and Stan Wilder (air-cooled) have
installed a RX-7 oil cooler. They have found that solution to work.
> My idea is to do the following to keep the temps down to a minimum in the
> engine. First, mount an 12'x4' oil cooler on the right side of the engine
> bay where there is all sorts of room below the coolant bottle - protect it
> from my 4x4ing adventures with an extension of the skid plate. Then I was
> thinking of how to further cool things - if I turn on the heater, the water
> temp drops slightly - so, why not install a small heater core in the engine
> bay as well in line with the other heaters in the van - one could even
> install an on-off switch on this so in the winter time I could get more heat
> inside of the vehicle.
I wouldn't add any more heat to that engine bay.
Install the rear heater for cabin heat, but you prob. won't need the engine
cooling in the winter.
Alistair
>
> Suggestions and comments are welcome.
>
>
> David Marshall
>
