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Date:         Thu, 16 May 1996 09:04:00 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Maher, Steve (SD-MS)" <SMAHER@gi.com>
Subject:      Re: What should I look for or avoid in 84 Westy?

>EX>1) Cooling system. I would drive the van for about ten minutes, >EX>and then let it idle for a good 20 minutes and see if the temp >EX>guage goes much above 1/2 way. By now, the radiator should be a > >Another great idea if available take her up some long hard grades >climb them mountains and watch there for an overtaxed cooling system.

The V6anagon, and most stock wasserboxers I believe, have two somewhat- independent temperature-regulating systems (please correct me if I'm wrong about wasserboxers). One is the combination of radiator/waterpump/ hoses/ram air into the grille; and the other is the cooling fan on the radiator. Not completely independent, obviously. But on the V6anagon with its Chevy engine and fan switch, the fan almost never comes on-- ram air is enough to keep it in the correct temp range, except when idling in traffic jams. The fan comes on when the temp rises to right around 215F, according to the (chevy) book, which seems kinda hot to me. Are wasserboxers this way?

Back to the original point-- this provides a convenient way of doing a quickie check on your cooling system, without driving all over creation. Start it cold, let it idle a long time (as the previous poster indicated), and see how long it takes for the temp to rise high enough for the cooling fan to come on. If you have a way to compare this to a "known-good" vehicle, it gives you a rough idea how similar your vehicle is to the known-good one-- is your radiator a little clogged, water pump a little weak, engine running inefficiently enough to create extra heat, etc.?

Once the cooling fan comes on, all bets are off. In the V6anagon, the fan causes the temp to drop quite quickly (3/4 gauge to 1/2 gauge in about three minutes). This much cooling power can mask a number of problems-- nice to know it's there when you need it, but when you're testing an unknown vehicle, you're trying to reveal the problems, not mask them.

This is only a rough check, of course. And my experience is limited to the V6anagon, with its oddball Chevy engine and cooling system. Several wasserboxer and diesel-Vanagon owners on this list, have described similar behavior in their vehicles, so it may be that our "normal" cooling system performance is similar.

I'd say that, generally, if you can start your Vanagon cold on a normal spring day (70F) with little wind, and let it idle for 15 minutes or more before the cooling fan comes on, then your cooling system is probably doing its job pretty well. If the fan comes on in less than five from a cold start, then you may have a problem somewhere-- pump, radiator, tune-up, or even simply low radiator fluid. Anybody had any similar experience? Or experience showing different results? It would be good to hear from owners of "real" Volkswagens, instead of hybrids.

Driving up a long hill has its uses, too, of course. You're putting a lot more strain on the drivetrain and cooling system, of course, but you're also getting ram air into the radiator, which you weren't while idling. A few wasserboxer people have mentioned their cooling fans coming on under these conditions. With summer coming, it'll probably happen more, obviously.

But this is a much less "controlled" experiment-- how steep was the hill, how long, how fast were you going, what gear, manual or auto trans, etc. Hard to come up with a general rule-of-thumb here, except maybe:

If you're ever in a situation where your cooling fan comes on and your engine temp does *not* come down in the next few minutes, then you may have a problem-- or else you're really beating the cr*p out of your long-suffering Volksie. Shift down! Or rent a big Ford truck to tow that 30' sailboat with weighted keel, up to Lake Tahoe.

Well, pretty vague, I know. But the idling test is a useful quick check, and tests different things than driving up a hill. Handy, since it's easy to hear when the cooling fan comes on.

Guess that was about $.04 worth-- blabbermouth does it again. ______________________________________________________________________ _ ______________ ______//________ Steve Maher smaher@gi.com //__][__||____\\ /o _ | -| _ \ San Diego, CA 75461,1717 (o _-| _ o| `-(_)=======(_)---' '(_)-------(_)-' '66 Mustang Coupevertible '89 Son Sherwin '80 VW V6anagon

http://www.wp.com/IrishMafia

"There are plenty of jobs to be had-- I have three of them myself!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------


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