>Well that all sounds good, but how come my engine overheats all the time?
>I rebuilt it with all new parts, took my time, put in a Melling oil pump,
>and it will overheat if I go up a steep grade, or just try to maintain 65
>on a long strech of highway in warm weather.  I don't know what else to do,
>except assume that the engine cooling system was "underengineered".  Also,
>my camper is several hundred pounds heavier (and 24" taller) than those VW
>engineers designed the motor to handle.  For now, I have to keep a close
>watch on the pressure and temp and back off when it starts to run hot, but
>I am determined to put in an external cooler eventually in hopes of solving
>the problem.  I hear there's a puke-eggnog parts van up in the Bay area
>somewhere, anyone know where to find it?  =)
>
>-David

Well, there are a multitude of things: 1) what is the CR? 2) even new parts 
are sometimes are not going to work right.  I got 4 rebuilt rods for my last 
rebuild, and not a one was even close to straight.  I think that bend rods 
are a real bad thing to have.  The engine that I built had 7.7 to one CR, 
and was stock 1600.  Even going up a mountain on rt 64 on in the "mountains" 
of Virginia, the engine wouldn't overheat.  I talking about 4 miles of 4th 
at 60 mph here.  I think that having all four cylinders displace the same 
amout is also very important.  I had cc'd the heads to something like .6 cc 
of each other.  If the conn rods are different lengths, the same thing could 
happen.  4) I remember reading in a very old issue of Muir's book that he 
had a engine that would overheat just like what you have.  He was baffled 
because he had 100psi on all four, but it still overheated.  After he pulled 
it apart, he found that tthere was .008" between the piston and the 
cylinder.  Go figure.

I don't think that a cooler will help much, but if that is what you want, go 
for it.  Does any of the above look like what your problem maybe caused by?

Hope this helps.

   

  Chris Bridge
  
  ''71 Westy (Sportsmobile?)
   E-mail: cbridge@vt.edu