On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, Mark Dorm wrote:

> Anyway, forgot to mention that my second thermostat would be at a higher
> temp, for only when the radiator could use a little help, like when idling
> riding up a mountain in sardinized traffic on a very hot day escaping the
> nuclear fallout thanks to North Korea.

Have you had this problem yet?  I haven't driven my van in very hot
weather much, but the cooling system seems adequate for stop-and-go
traffic.  My low-speed van cycles on occasionally and the temp gauge
barely moves upscale.  I suspect there might be something wrong with your
cooling system if you're overheating in traffic.  The Vanagon radiator is
huge for the size of its engine.

The only time I've seen a major temperature spike was one day when I was
pulling hard, beating into a strong headwind at nearly full throttle, then
I pulled off the highway and immediately turned my back to the wind and
shut off the engine.  The heat soak effect really spiked the head
temperature and convinced me to let it idle a little before shutting off
the engine next time.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si