Don't know about those strips.  Get an IR thermometer and take several readings around the heads.  The HF unit works fine for me:  http://www.harborfreight.com/infrared-thermometer-with-laser-targeting-non-contact-69465.html 

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Skip
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2013 6:54 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Head temp > 230F + Is this critically bad?

Hi there.

I recently added temperature strips to my heads, drove to and from work (50 miles), then checked the strips.

Passenger side had not reached 210F+, but the driver's side reached > 230F.  Quite a difference.  Is 230F + too high?  Should I take action/stop driving?

The engine is an '84 1.9L WBXR case with the 2.2L GoWesty upgrade kit with about 8,000 miles/1 year on the newly rebuilt engine, manual transmission.  This is the first time that I've used the temp strips.

I run 20W-50 Valvoline, but recently changed to Mobile 1 15W-50 Synthetic (and I like it!).  The temp strips hit the above temps while running with the Valvoline.

I posted on the samba, but have had no feedback.

Thanks for your experience, wisdom, and opinions.

I'll try to link to some photos.

 http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1069167.jpg   Driver's side

 http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1069168.jpg   Passenger's side

Thanks,

 Skip