Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2009 12:41:22 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Takes a darn long time for the heater to come up to speed
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
On almost all cars, the heater circuit is 'direct' from the cylinder head/s usually.......
so you are getting 'full cooling affect' from the heater circuit as soon as you start it up.
this can keep the engine from warming up as quickly as it otherwise might.
Waterboxers are pretty slow to warm up anyway, btw.
It helps a little to keep the heater temp lever fully off, for the first 5 mintues are so......
although, I'm just leaving mine in full 'hot' these days.......and I start getting warm air in about 4 miles on the freeway at 50 t0 60 mph.
In town however, like you probably drive in Bend........
at lower speeds, it might take quite a while to warm up, like up to 15 mintues to even begin to get half way on the temp gauge from 'zero' to half way to mid-deflection, or fuly warmed up.
If it never gets to full mid-deflection on the temp guage.........a new german thermostat is in order. They usually come in two temps - get the hotter one. You'd really like a 195 F degree t-stat for winter use.
Be mindful of the rear heater. Many vanagon owners don't even know about the lever that controls coolant flow through the rear heater under the back seat. I recomend having it about half on ........all year long.
If it's closed in the summer or for months, or all the time ( very common actually ) the old coolant sitting in there helps corrode the rear heater core.
Left full on in very cold temps, it might make it harder for the engine to reach full operating temps.
On my own vans I remove the rear heater anyway from ore storage space......and I don't carry passenger's back there very often anyway.
Hope you get some warm operation going there !
I've been trying to get over there for weeks to pick up a 'new to me' engine I bought over there in Bend ........a 16 valve inline four Jetta engine ..........
for my persaonl vanagon eventually, when I find time. ha ha.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Rocket J Squirrel
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 6:21 AM
Subject: Re: Takes a darn long time for the heater to come up to speed
Well, heater circuit is independent of the radiator circuit. If you're
trying to heat up the front heater core you're circulating 6 meters of
5/8" hose worth of ice cold water into the engine.Well. There's my answer! I was thinking that no coolant exited the engine compartment until the thermostat opened. And I was wrong. But now I know!
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
On 3/5/2009 9:17 PM John Bange wrote:
Subaru heater hoses? 1 meter total? Protected from the elements in the
engine compartment. Vanagon heater hoses? 6 meters total? Hanging out
in the breeze.
What the heck difference does that make before the thermostat opens up?
Well, heater circuit is independent of the radiator circuit. If you're
trying to heat up the front heater core you're circulating 6 meters of
5/8" hose worth of ice cold water into the engine. Also, most cars
recirculate interior air through the heater core, while the Vanagon
draws only butt-cold outside air. That's a sight more cold to fight
off than the Subaru has. My wife's 94 Civic is up to operating temp
almost before it gets out of the driveway. I have to go 3 miles at
least in the morning before I dare open the vent in my work Vanagon.
--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Lastwagen"
'90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"
