Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:03:58 +0000
Reply-To: Bill Shawley <easywind1975@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bill Shawley <easywind1975@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Limited high coolant temps
In-Reply-To: <m1zlnlbluf.fsf@cs.indiana.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I agree with Allan that everything is probably A-OK and the idling in traffic temp creep is normal but... I am neurotic about these things after having a overheating incident in a very inconvenient place. I can tell you that there's not much room between normal sitting in traffice temp creep and spewing coolant out your ass end overheating. It turns out my fan resistor was caput and I only had one fan speed. I check that bitch every season now.... Ken Wilford has a little article telling you how to check things out, 10 minutes max.
http://www.vanagain.com/How2fan.htm I'm so paranoid I made my estranged dad come over and help me bleed the van before my last long haul trip, no bubbles I guess these 86 and ups do self bleed pretty well. The peace of mind knowing that things are working right is priceless. Maybe a radiator shop could do temp readings on your radiator if you still worried and your fan system is OK.
Ryan (kinda bummed that Bernie Mac died :( )> Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 23:16:56 -0400> From: streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU> Subject: Re: Limited high coolant temps> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> > John Reynolds <kayakjr@COMCAST.NET> writes:> > > I've experienced high coolant temps occasionally - like 3/4 gauge> > readings. At highway speeds, the needle is just to the right of the> > LED, or bit more. If the van is allowed to idle too long, or see> > slow city speeds, I'll see the 3/4 reading, but then it seems that> > it takes forever for the temp to return to it's normal condition.> > I'm not sure this is unusual. As long as the motor does not overheat,> some variation over the "normal" range on the gauge is not a cause for> alarm.> > When you're in slow traffic, or idling, you have two things that will> contribute to higher temperatures: the vehicle is not moving so you> don't have as much air flow over the radiator, and also the water pump> is not moving as much water at slow engine speeds.> > I'm still pretty new to Vanagons; it seems like a lot of folks worry> about the temperature, but in my experience with other cars, as long> as you're not getting up into the "warning" end of the gauge, i.e. not> actually overheating, then you really don't need to worry about some> variation within the "normal" range on the gauge.> > Allan> --> 1991 Vanagon GL
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