Thermostat question

[leathersmyth]

Okay, Hope no one laughs to much or shakes their heads,,,,

1985 westfalia 1.9

But The temp gauge barely moves to near the top of the bottom white mark. I flushed and replaced the antifreeze the other day, still no difference. So i am going to replace the thermostat.

Following the hoses they end up at the drivers side just above the oil filter. One bolt is a wrench, but the other bolt is those torx with the center post. these are on the under side of the van. Why would there be two different bolts? Should they be the same? I know, never wonder or ask why the previous owners have done...... Seeing that it is facing down, do you loose much coolant when you open to replace?

[Ahwahnee]

Based on my 84 w/ a 1.9L...

The bolts should be the same, just a plain hex-head.

I soaked them for a couple of days in PBlaster -- those bolts are long, skinny and about the same hardness as stick of Blue Bonnet.

I shut off the heaters and drained some coolant before opening it up (have a 'flush tee' in one of the heater hoses about amidship). Refilled fine afterwards, did not need to do a real bleed -- just let a bit of air work its way out over the course of a couple of heat/cool cycles.

As I recall you can get at the top end of one of the bolts for soaking but for the other I used a plastic cap from film container held against the head of the bolt with a small rare-earth magnet underneath. I could then fill that lid multiple times in the hopes that the PBlaster was wicking up the bolt. Anyway, it worked.

But... before you do all this... are you sure you don't just have a wonky gauge? A quick test is to see it you are getting decent heat once the engine is as warm as it is going to get. 'No heat?' = yeah, probably the thermostat.

[hdenter]

Go buy a IR gun for a few bucks at sears and elsewhere to verify temps before you go taking things appart. Warm the car up and see what the temps are at Tstat housing, top on bottom of rad etc. Then, deside if you have a problem or a cool reading gauge. Good luck!

Hans
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'79 triple white convertible bug
'84 sunroof vanagon
'85 weekender

[dhaavers]

^^^ x2 - Check out your actual operating temps first.

If your van seems to run fine, before changing t'stats you might suspect the temp gauge sender which are known to go bad.

This is the gauge sender on the front side of the thermostat housing (seen from below/driver's side is to the right):

(Sorry about the temporary emergency boot - I was desparate!)
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[Ahwahnee]

[wecm31]

[leathersmyth]

Def.The thermastat,
Now the needle comes up to the little red light and there is Way more heat as well. ( hope this is where it should be sitting.)
What a Pain in the........ to change.! On my old 81 jeep, you opened the hood and there it was nice as you please........
It did not help that who ever replaced the front bolt with a torx with the post in the center.
So i think the front bolt is tight, but the only way to tell is to pull the oil filter. so there is a straight path to gain access to it to be able to put some torque on it.

My question, if you pull the oil filter will all the oil come out? or just abit that is in the filter?

[peasant]

not ALL the oil will come out. You might have a lil mess to clean up though
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89 wolfsberg weekender carat
89 Westfalia

[dhaavers]

[leathersmyth]

I have Heard That before, Of course you will only loose a Little.......

Better have a five gallon bucket ready.........

[tkdkrav]

I have an 85 1.9 L GL and had the same issue. I just took the sender connector off, cleaned the leads, reconnected and boom - I have signal to my dash now.

[[email protected]]

I've had 2 waterboxer vanagons that suffered from cold running, and a change of t-stat restored the gauge to it's normal position, and tripled the heat output.
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[leathersmyth]

Okay, my question is, This has been run??? long running cold, How bad is that on the engine?

Hope not That bad in the grand scheme of things...........

[Ahwahnee]

Not real bad -- no worse than someone who is in the habit of taking lots of short drives in a vehicle that never get the engine really hot.

Used to be a common problem for Doctors' cars back when they made house calls and drove Fords.

Biggest issue is possibly that condensation in the oil never gets cooked off by a hot engine.

[Wildthings]