On Sat, Jul 20, 2002 at 10:05:47PM -0700, Craig Oda - Personal email wrote: > Jeff, > isn't it better to have the engine run cool? Why go through the > hassle of switching out to an 87 degree unit? Generally, at least with watercooled engines, the hotter you can run it without causing the coolant to boil over, the more power, better milage you'll get out of it. So on many water cooled engines, you'll see thermostats for 196F even (I'm assuming the 87 degree one is 87 C), or pretty close to boiling. Some people would drop that back to 180F for Summer use. With the air-cooled engines, they always run way too hot, so hot they cook the oil even, so everyone expends effort to cool them down. The head temp gauge on the '81 engine in my '73 westy often hit 600F, and seldom was less than 350-400F. Likewise, the oil temp was usually around 225F at freeway speeds. Water cooled engines don't get anywhere near those temps, and can easily handle temps of 200 or so, if the radiator is adequate to stop boil overs. -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.