Mark ... needed or necessary or not, just spend the $150 and replace the
radiator.
It will LIKELY make a huge difference.
bob ... with a new radiator and glad of it ... eliminated a possible 23
year-old problem
producer.

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 4:35 PM, Mark Tuovinen <aksyncronaut@gmail.com>wrote:

> Our `87 Westy Syncro with stock 2.1L has for years always operated with the
> temperature guage needle centered on the LED.  It would climb on long
> inclines, or other similar hard use situations but in general it stayed on
> the LED the rest of the time.  The last couple of summers it has been
> reading a needles width higher and lately a bit more so that it seems to
> maintain just below 1/2 way between the LED and high mark.  Turning on one
> or both heaters will bring it back down but obviously that is not going to
> cure the problem.  Years of operation tell me this is not normal for the
> van
> especially when you consider that we are in Alaska and ambient temp is
> never
> more than 75 - 80F.  The coolant level is fine and it has a fresh fill with
> the proper ratio of antifreeze and water.  The radiator was flushed
> recently
> as well.  We do use a bra on the van during our road trips as we tend to go
> places where rocks, bugs, etc, will attack the front of the van.  Our trips
> always include mountain passes as you can't get anywhere from here without
> going through one or more of them but the elevation gain is usually not
> more
> than 1-2000ft and a gradual climb with few exceptions.
>
> I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions to cure this with out just
> throwing parts at it.  Sticking t-stat, radiator plugged????  Anyone have
> any ideas?
>
> TIA
>
> Mark in AK
>