The marine hoses in question are far more thick then the orignal
plastic so they most likly have some insulating effect but I doubt it
is of concern is effecting the cooling efficency of the system.

The metal (and original plastic) hoses acting as a heat disipater is
just a theory until someone has done the testing and I'm not
completely sure I agree with that theory. I would consider the marine
grade hoses combined with the lower fan thermo-switch from BD, thus
you fan is kicking on sooner if you feel you are loosing a few degrees
of cooling effect from the long run. But as others have stated there
is an ideal operating temp for the engine, until you can prove the
very thick marine hoses are increasing temps...just stay with the
stock switch in average climates. I personally would do the marine
hoses.

Shawn

On 6/28/06, Mike Collum <collum@verizon.net> wrote:
> Personally, I can't see that insulating those pipes would be detrimental
> to keeping the engine at the proper operating temperature.
>
> In northern climes, insulating the fore and aft heater hoses has a
> positive effect on the heater output, though.
>
> Mike
>
>
> mark drillock wrote:
> > The first 5 years had metal pipes, the next 20 years or so had plastic,
> > even as the engines became more powerful. Clearly VW did not consider
> > metal pipes to be the way to go.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > Kenneth Lewis wrote:
> >
> >>    I have to agree with Richard on this one.  First, the Digifant series
> >> has plastic tubes which would be comparable, in heat loss, to rubber
> >> hoses.
> >> Second, even if you lost some cooling effect from the tubes, this
> >> radiator
> >> is used to satisfactorily cool much  larger engine transplants, so it has
> >> plenty of extra capacity .
> >> Ken Lewis
> >> http://neksiwel.20m.com/
> >>
> >>
> >
>

--
shawn feller, ohio
1986 vw vanagon gl westfalia
1993 vw eurovan gl
plus a couple of saabs, boats, jet skis, dog and wife (all require to
much maintenance, accept the dog)...

www.carboncow.com
www.carboncow.net