Back when I drove my 85 year-round I would slide cardboard under the bra to cover the upper and lower grills. Not sure if there’s a functional difference between the two. It helped a ton. Also used an oil pan heater, battery blanket, and lighter weight (or synthetic) oil. 

Jeff
Balmy -15C today

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 2, 2018, at 6:39 PM, OlRivrRat <OlRivrRat@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
> 
>        It may just be that You have the Coolest Version of the "Standard" Thermostats in there ~
> 
> I'm not actually aware of what is available for that Eng' ~
> 
> 
>> On 2 Jan , 2018, at 12:11 PM, ddbjorkman@verizon.net wrote:
>> 
>> Ford battery died and the Bus (Vanagon) has been put into extra service.  Always starts right up, hope I didn't put a whammy on myself with that.  Well, it's into the single and low double digits here in New England and I have noticed the Bus has a hard time maintaining heat to the interior.  My temp gauge sits on the lower edge of the red light.  It takes the normal 5 + minutes driving to warm up enough to move the gauge far enough off bottom to turn the heat on at all.   I am considering constructing some sort of bra to go over the upper grille to decrease air flow over the radiator.  First I thought  I might post this question.  Is this normal in the frigid cold?  Have others experienced this?  Could it be a malfunctioning thermostat?  Does someone make said bra/cover?  I await your reply.
>> 
>> Dave B.