Hey list,

I finally got my new (to me) van earlier this week. Picked up a 90 Westy to
replace my 85 Westy that my wife and I sold a few years back. Have to say
I've missed having a Vanagon and glad to be back in one.

So, as no suprise, I have a laundry list of repairs and maintenance to take
care of (the 4 different car tires is another story...), but the one that
has me a little stumped is that the engine runs cold. By cold I mean the
needle barely comes off the bottom of the scale, if at all.

I'm in Northern Virginia, so its just below freezing most of the time
lately. The symptoms I've got are the temp warning light flashes when the
van first starts and stays flashing for several minutes, then goes out. The
needle never makes it off the bottom of the scale, unless I've driven for
about 20-30 minutes and then stop and idle for a while. Then it will rise
just off the bottom of the scale, but never get up to running temp.

Took a 3 hour round trip up to visit Dave O. in Maryland the yesterday and
same thing. The van never got up to temp. Never got anything but warm air
out of the front heater. The rear heater was a 'above-warm' but never hot.

Since I've seen SOME movement on the scale, I'm thinking the temp
guage/sensor is okay. The PO said he never had any problems with it. Now,
since this was a Miami van all its life, I'm suspecting the PO pulled the
thermostat.

Any thoughts about what might be causing the low temp I'm seeing? Any way to
check for a thermostat without pulling coolant hoses (and making a mess)?

Thanks,
Gregg
90 Westy (finally!)