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Date:         Tue, 2 Aug 94 11:11:10 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <schwarze@io.nosc.mil>
Subject:      Re: Vangon Fan Housing

Dr. D.W. Carment writes:

> shop in Menlo Park and they said it was ok, they also set the timing and > fuel mixture so the engine would not run hot. A mechanic also told me > that an engine with worn main bearings will not produce high pressure > even at cold startup.

True if they are *really* worn. But I guess they would have to be to lose that much oil pressure. Anyway, I don't think it is likely that your bearings are worn :)

> The flaps are also tied up

Tied up? Hmmm... on my engine the flaps (well, more specifically the drivers side flap) can be in one of two positions. In the closed position ("down") it blocks off all air from the large port in the fan housing, so that no air gets to the oil cooler or the cylinders. ** In the open position ("up") the flap is at roughly a 30 degree angle jutting outwards toward the front of the motor, letting the air flow over it to the cylinders and BACK UNDERNEATH it to the oil cooler. Point being that the air going to the oil cooler has to go over the flap, make a 180 degree turn, and go back towards the rear of the engine and down through the cooler. There is not a lot of room there, and with the sharp turn, I don't think it is likely that the oil cooler gets its fair share of air! This is so stupid, I'm gonna look at it one more time just to make sure I'm not imagining things.

> The thing is, the engine oil light never comes on at idle no matter how > much we drive it (we covered about 450-500 a day coming back from CA) > with the second oil cooler - still in this hot weather oil pressure will > not budge above 30 psi unless the Van has either been at idle or going > down hill.

I wouldn't exactly consider 78 degrees hot :) Good that you still have pressure at idle, though. Sometimes when I'm running really hot, my oil light will come on at idle. I just set the idle up.

> A good of rule of thumb so I was told is 10 psi per 1000 revs. However I > recall David S. saying that he shuts his engine down after reaching 30 > psi on the highway...hmmm.

True. I don't have a tach, but I am fairly sure that I am turning between 3500 and 4000 rpm in 4th at 60 mph. That's exactly why I stop when my pressure drops to 30 psi. Maybe your vanagon is geared differently?

> I still think the cooling setup for oil cooler is both bizarre and > inadequate.

I agree with you completely.

-David

** My friend and I looked closely at this assembly at the junkyard last weekend and discovered something. The flap pivots at the bottom, and when in the "closed" position, there is actually a sizeable gap at the bottom which would seem to allow some air to get through the oil cooler.

============================================================================= David Schwarze '73 VW Safare Custom Camper (Da Boat) SAIC Comsystems, San Diego '73 Capri GT 2800 (Da Beast) schwarze@nosc.mil '87 Mustang Lx 5.0 (Da Bruiser? Soon...) =============================================================================


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