I have to ask how you find yourself in a situation that you suddenly need a
thermostat with an engine that only has 1,000 miles on it and you also now
have to go on a trip. Thermostats do not suddenly fail without cause so what
are the symptoms?

The waterboxer thermostat is not a simple open/close device. It is really
used as a mixing valve and the goal is to continuously circulate water in
the engine to maintain constant temperatures between the heads and the rest
of the engine. As the thermostat opens to allow flow to the radiator it also
closes a bypass. The design keeps temperatures close throughout. Not only is
it important to maintain temperature but an uncontrolled rush of cold
coolant from the radiator to hot heads can spell certain trouble. Also,
without the bypass closing you may not get enough flow at idle or during
hill climbs to properly cool the engine especially if you have the radiator
partly blocked off. There are a lot of dynamics going on here.

My bet is that if you suddenly experienced cooling systems problems while on
your trip the thermostat is not your only problem if that is even the
problem at all. Something else is going on.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Roger Whittaker
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 10:19 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: question about thermostat ... or not

dear fellow vanagoners

i am in a position where i am making a 20 hour drive with out the thermostat
in place on a 1984 vanagon
with a 2.1 digifant replacement engine (2005) with less than 1000 miles on
it ...

benny boy says the thermostat is crucial to proper performance of injector
system
then he writes about living in very cold quebec ...

i am in the very pleasant northwest ...

i will of course replace thermostat with proper item once back home

will 20 hour drive cause problems ...
what about a four hour drive to get parts then ???
yours

--
roger w
From Proverbs:
Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a
servant who becomes king ...
----------------------------------------------------------
Explore printed work at: http://www.prliving.ca/
View the growing list of video work at:
http://revver.com/find/video/?query=LastonLastof&search_on=owners