Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:00:34 -0700
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Takes a darn long time for the heater to come up to speed
In-Reply-To: <71d9cdf90903111424v426f6896j52b891c9b9f47de4@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Too simple.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
On 3/11/2009 2:24 PM Jake de Villiers wrote:
> Umm, call me old-fashioned, but you can get very good results using
> your HAND to see if the relevant hose is flowing warm water.
>
> Its pretty easy to see which hoses from the thermostat housing go to
> the heater loops and which goes up front to the rad.
>
> Apply fingers as necessary. :-)
>
> On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Rocket J Squirrel
> <camping.elliott@gmail.com <mailto:camping.elliott@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> What's the easy way to tell whether the thermostat stays properly shut
> until the engine reaches temperature? I was thinking of starting the
> engine, take the temp of the radiator with an infrared thermometer,
> watching the temp gauge, and, according to my theory, when the gauge
> starts to indicate operating temperature the radiator should suddenly
> start warming up. That should work, right?
>
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
>
> On 3/7/2009 4:37 PM Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>
> yes you should.
> I highly recommend the correct 'real' right German thermostat.
> ......the hotter of the two temps available normally.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Rocket J Squirrel <mailto:camping.elliott@gmail.com
> <mailto:camping.elliott@gmail.com>>
> *To:* Scott Daniel - Turbovans
> <mailto:scottdaniel@turbovans.com
> <mailto:scottdaniel@turbovans.com>>
> *Sent:* Saturday, March 07, 2009 4:24 PM
> *Subject:* Re: Takes a darn long time for the heater to
> come up to
> speed
>
> Thanks, Scott. I replaced the thermostat a couple years ago
> while
> doing an R&R on the water pump. That was the hard way. The
> replacement thermostat was a "cooler" one which the vendor
> (busdepot? I forget) helpfully sent instead of the correct temp
> one. Once I found out that the engine wasn't being allowed
> to come
> up to the design temperature I didn't feel like taking things
> apart again. I really should get that done, though, put in a
> proper temp range one.
>
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
>
>
> On 3/7/2009 4:12 PM Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>
> There are two ways to do the t-stat on a 1.9 waterboxer.
> one is to take the whole housing off............which
> is good since you want
> to know that those long studs, which easily get very,
> very corroded,........
> to be sure they are not badly rusted, so that's an
> advantage to doing it
> this 'proper' way.
>
> the other way is to directly unbolt the t-stat cover
> from underneatht he
> van.
> On some engines the t-stat cover will clear the exhaust
> pipe, and it's easy
> to replace the t-stat.
> On some engines it won't quite clear the exhaust pipe.
> On one t-stat cover I
> had to grind away a tiny bit of metal on the t-stat
> cover to get it to
> clear.
> It wastes fuel and is much rougher on the engine if it
> doesn't run up to
> temp properly., so quite important to have right.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rocket J Squirrel" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM
> <mailto:camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> <mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>>
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 7:16 AM
> Subject: Re: Takes a darn long time for the heater to
> come up to speed
>
>
>
> I reckon there are two things that I need to
> observe: 1. the time it
> takes for the temp gauge to start moving from the
> cold pin (Mrs
> Elliott's Subaru comes up a lot sooner), and 2. how
> soon before one
> starts to feel tendrils of warmed air come creeping
> out of the vents.
> Again, it's much quicker in the other car. If these
> are significantly
> longer time than others, like Jake, observed then
> something there's
> something fishy going on. Given that the thermostat
> is such a pain to
> get to on the 1.9l engine, I'll want to be fairly
> sure that replacing it
> is a worthwhile project.
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan
> Capistrano
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
>
> On 3/6/2009 9:47 PM Jake de Villiers wrote:
>
> On account of this thread I paid attention this
> morning on the way to
> work
> in the grey van. It took about a mile at ~30
> degrees F. to feel a
> difference, about 3 for it to be warmish.
>
> I've noticed that the rear heater gets warm a
> lot quicker on both vans.
>
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 5:35 PM, alfred bagdan
> <abagdan@shaw.ca <mailto:abagdan@shaw.ca>> wrote:
>
>
>
> If you have the rear heater valve open,
> most of the hot coolant goes
> through
> the rear heater. Try closing the rear
> heater and see what happens.
> Also
> replace your thermostat in case it is stuck
> open. If the temperature
> gauge
> does not go up to the halfway point in cold
> weather, you will probably
> have
> to replace the thermostat to get some
> decent heat. Its a bitch of a
> job,
> but doable. When I replaced the hoses
> last summer I also put pipe
> insulation on the hot lines and also
> replaced the thermostat and the
> water
> pump. What a difference that made. I live
> in Edmonton, Canada, and I
> drove the van once this winter when it was
> -30C ( ~ -20F ) and it was
> warm
> as toast inside, and didn't take long to
> warm up.
>
> Alfred
> 85 Westy
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Tuovinen" <mst@AK.NET
> <mailto:mst@AK.NET>>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> <mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>>
> Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 2:49 PM
> Subject: Re: Takes a darn long time for the
> heater to come up to speed
>
>
> You just send her up here to drive my
> Syncro on a cold(subzero)
> morning,
>
>
> she will appreciate your van much more
> afterward. My kids ride to
> school
> with a blanket over them for warmth and
> they are wearing winter coats,
> hats, mittens, and boots at the same
> time. Vanagons have a rather
> large
> area to warm up and the front core is a
> long way from the heat source.
> Though it won't cure your problem you
> could put pipe insulation on your
> front heater hoses under the van. This
> will reduce the heat loss that
> occurs before the hot coolant gets to
> the core. Another and more
> difficult issue to deal with is that
> the front heater only draws air
> from
> outside, it does not recirculate cabin
> air. Thus while your heater
> core
> is trying to warm the air, the air is
> trying to cool the core. Not an
> issue in moderate climates but those in
> extreme cold areas suffer
> because
> of it.
>
> Mark in AK
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rocket J Squirrel
> <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM
> <mailto:camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>>
> Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009 4:35 pm
> Subject: Takes a darn long time for the
> heater to come up to speed
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> <mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>
> My wife's Subaru Outback's heater is
> ready to put out some serious
> therms
>
>
> in about 3 minutes of drive time.
> The temp gauge comes up quickly,
> whereas the temp gauge in ol'
> Mellow Yellow needs another 5-8 minutes
> of
> driving in freezing temps to really
> start to creep upwards and for the
> heater to start doing anything
> interesting.
>
> I'd like to think that the
> difference is due to the awesome
> efficiency
> of
> the WBX engine . . . I'd like to
> think that, but something tells me
> that
> a 2006 Subaru engine is a tad more
> efficient. So, does anyone have any
> idea why the 1.9L engine is so
> sluggish compared with the Outback's
> engine when it comes to making hot
> water available to the heater core?
> Mrs Squirrel gripes about how long
> it takes to get warm air to come
> out
> the heater and I'd like to have
> some highly-technical answer to
> respond
> with. You know, baffle them with BS?
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The
> Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug
> Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
>
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
>
> Crescent Beach, BC
>
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com
> <http://www.crescentbeachguitar.com>
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
>
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
>
> Crescent Beach, BC
>
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com <http://www.crescentbeachguitar.com>
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
| 
