Helps a lot -- thanks!

On Tue, 2011-07-19 at 16:38 -0700, Jake de Villiers wrote:

> The coolant pulls heat from the heads ie the roof of the combustion
> chamber, the valve seats, the exhaust valve guides and ports and the
> outside of the cylinder liners.
>
> The oil cools the cam lobes, lifters and valve tips, pistons, wrist
> pins, rods, rod bearings, crank, crank bearings and the cylinder
> walls.
>
> So you can see that the coolant is somewhat distant from the sources
> of major heat, whereas the oil is right in the thick of things.  This
> is why you want an oil temperature gauge, so you can see what's going
> on in the primary circuit, rather than waiting for the secondary
> system to let you know.  By the time your coolant temp is making you
> aware that its having trouble removing the heat from the engine, the
> oil temperature is through the roof.
>
> Now that you've got a better source of information, you'll have a
> better idea of how hard that poor engine is really working.
>
> Oil temps are okay to 212 - 220 degrees F - any much more than that
> would have me taking some ameliorating action ie slowing down or
> pulling over, though driving slowly cools the internals more quickly.
>
> Does this help,  Mike?
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 3:56 PM, Rocket J Squirrel
> <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>         On Tue, 2011-07-19 at 13:14 -0400, Edward Maglott wrote:
>
>         > I'm pretty sure the coolant flows through the heads and that
>         is where it
>         > picks up most of the engine heat.
>
>
>
>
>         Oh -- okay. The only heads I've ever held were from an
>         aircooled. They
>         had no plumbing for coolant.
>
>         So on the waterboxer, where is the oil picking up the extra
>         heat that
>         shows on the oil temp gauge but not the coolant gauge when the
>         engine is
>         under demand?
>
>         -- RJS
>
>         sent from my old aircooled heads
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
>
> 1984 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX - 'The Grey Van'
> 1986 Westy Weekender/2.5 SOHC Subie - 'Dixie'
>
> Crescent Beach, BC
>
> www.thebassspa.com
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
>