Date:         Mon, 14 Jul 1997 22:48:00 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         uvx196@juno.com (Jim Thompson)
Subject:      Re: cooler Thermostat

Doc & Jack Reed make some valid points here.  My experience with Water
Cooled VW's (this is not my first) and a couple of other vehicles make me
want my coolant to get to the radiator a lot sooner than a 87C (192F)
thermostat allows, especially in Century-Mark Degree weather here in
Redding and on the roads throughout the west & southwest.  One other
possible disadvantage is that it would take the the engine (re:
Thermotime Sensor) a little longer to fully warm up, but so far I haven't
seen it take long for a Wasser to warm up around here. Every one of my
Water Cooled Vehicles have an 80C (180F) Thermostat because the area
temperature conditions practically require it for MOST of the year.  My
heater works way too well in the winter time (mid 20s to upper 30s) in my
78 Chevy and 73 Toyota Pickup to consider using a higher temp Thermostat.
 On the flip side, if I was living further north, say in Washington,
Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Canada etc., and did no driving in the
southern part of the states I would probably run the 87C Thermostat for
most of the year.  

Running without a Thermostat entirely is a big NO-NO.  Engine will never
operate at optimum temperature range, ECU/Thermotime Sensor will never
compensate for it and will run too rich, despite what the O2 sensor's
trying to accomplish.  Even with the Thermostat open, there is still
enough restriction designed into it to correctly regulate the coolant
flow to prevent the engine from running too cool - that is one of several
reasons to always run a Thermostat.  By the same token, a Thermostat that
is stuck open is very detrimental when the engine is stone cold and it
takes forever to warm up to optimum operating temperature as well.

In addition, I do not recommend running a colder Thermostat in the
Diesel's because they require HEAT (at the proper temperature range -
192F) to operate at peak efficiency.  Could never get my 81 Diesel Rabbit
Pickup to run well with a colder Thermostat - switched it back to the
Original and fixed that problem - 78000 miles worth before somebody
totaled it on the freeway in LA in 1989.

Quite chilly late last night (30's) in the Southwestern Oregon desert and
Modoc County area - heater worked so well I had to pull back the
appropriate lever to bring the heat down.

Gee it's nice to have a VW Van where the heater REALLY works :-)

Winter time in Northern Calif does get awful cold - we'll see how she
measures up this coming November thru March.

Jim
84 Westy 2.1
62 Beetle (Father was original owner)
Sherwood Automotive * The Old Volks Home (oldvolkshome1@juno.com)
(916) 221-5342

On Mon, 14 Jul 1997 16:32:43 -0500 Dead Head
<cooldoc@iguana.ruralnet.net> writes:
>Hello group: my $.02 worth....only differance between the two 
>thermostats 
>is that one will opens at 80C and the other at 87C.. Once they open 
>they 
>have nothing to do with how hot your motor runs......Only time there 
>would be any diff is in the winter and one would keep your engine 
>warmer 
>than the other.......
>Peace, Doc
>