Date:         Tue, 6 Dec 94 21:29:03 PST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <schwarze@io.nosc.mil>
Subject:      Re: Thermostat and other things???

William Abbott writes:
> 
> 	Tracey,
> 	On Type IVs there's a thermostat on the bottom of the engine
> that drives a couple of flaps at the top to control the flow of
> cooling air. I think your 72 has an 'upright' Type II motor, which
> may or may not differ from a Type I. I just bought the Bay Window/Breadloaf/
> 68-79 Bus Bentley book and I'll look-up thermostats tonight.

No, they stopped putting the type I "upright" engine in the bus in mid-year
1971.  Unless the bus is from out of the country, it has the type IV
pancake motor.

> 	Thermostats are popularly left off aircooled engines by 
> silly people who assume that more cooling is always better- which makes
> it hard for the engine to warm up, blah, blah.

I'm one of those silly people, and I maintain that it is better for my
engine to have the flaps removed.  They way they work is silly!  They 
direct air away from the oil cooler.  I took them out and my oil temp
dropped noticably.  The flaps do help the engine warm up faster, yes, but
IMO that is to protect against the "silly people" who get into their cars
and immediatly floor it and rev it to redline while it is still cold.  I
have had the cooling flaps out for a long time now, and have no regrets.

> 	My 914 came without a thermostat and I installed one, but
> I can't say I noticed any difference. It just made me feel better :-)

Keep an eye on that oil temp there, friend... :)

-David

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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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