Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:58:06 -0600
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: Scott: common knowledge?
In-Reply-To: <5103377D.9050909@gmail.com>
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My winter experience based on NY State winter driving is that the thermostat is not a sensitive as you would suppose, at least this was true on the 1970's. And in the winter when the temperature would drop to 20F & lower the engine would never reach operating temperature & this is with a thermostat that tested perfectly good & did a great job of keeping the engine at the right temperature range. And this was true with all of our cars except for Mercedes.
All I can figure is the Engineers designed the cooling systems to be very responsive at higher temperatures at the expense of operating in very low temperatures. Our solution was to drop sheets of cardboard just like the earlier post suggested & the cardboard trick worked great. And once you knew your car you know how much of the radiator to cover up.
But now it seems that things have changed. My Wife works for Chrysler in Wisconsin. We have driven a string of new Chryslers up there & I can report that the cardboard trick is not needed, at least not with those cars.
Thanks, Tom Hargrave
www.stir-plate.com
www.towercooler.com
www.kegkits.com
www.grow-sun.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of JRodgers
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 7:55 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Scott: common knowledge?
Early Volvos - the 544 series and some later - had a wind block built into the vehicle so that from inside the car you could raise and lower the wind block to deal with extreme cold air across the radiator and through to the engine. Not sure when they dropped it on cars coming into the US.
John R
On 1/25/2013 2:37 PM, Dave Mcneely wrote:
> Jack, actually, you did post to the group. Your description of the thermostat being able to modulate, and open just the right amount? Whenever I've tested one in a pot of water on a stove, it opened fully as the water heated, but as it cooled, it closed slowly, as if it might be doing as you suggested. Maybe I got it too hot too fast for that phenomenon to fully reveal itself on the way up, but the cool down was more gradual.
>
> But, I have had the experience of very low temperatures and high speeds keeping the temperature down on more than one vehicle. My father's '53 Chevy had to have a wind block whenever the temperature was below about 10 F. My camper benefits if the temperature is around 0 F or colder, when driven at highway speed but is ok without it at town speeds. I don't think automotive thermostat technology has changed much if at all since the fifties.
>
> Just my 2 cents, and probably worth what you paid me.
>
> mcneely
>
> ---- Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> Hi Scott -- before I pester the group with a question that might be
>> common knowlege, I figure I could pester you with it first?
>>
>> People write about putting cardboard in front of the radiator. I
>> think, "I don't get it. The thermostat isn't an on-off switch,
>> doesn't it open just as much as needed to keep the coolant at the
>> right temperature? If the coolant coming back from the radiator is
>> darn cold, won't the thermostat just crack open a bit?"
>>
>> Or maybe it does a poor job regulating temperature when it has to do
>> that "crack open a little bit" thing.
>>
>> --
>> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
>> 1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
>> Bend, Ore.
>
> --
> David McNeely
>
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