1982 T3 AHU

[erste]

Flipped the spare on the RMW swing bracket a few months ago and have made a little bit of progress on a cover panel to use the spare as storage.

.125" aluminum disc that I cut with a jig saw. 21" diameter
tjet posted his gas can spare tire setup in this thread:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=651253&start=20
He used a Geo Tracker/Suzuki/Vitara spare tire lock. I've been thinking about ways to keep this spare tire cover lockable, and was about settled on just using a cotter pin, but the GM lock looked like a pretty good solution. I didn't want another key, and didn't really like how much this lock sticks out.

As far as I can tell, the lug nut is M12x1.25. 19mm / 3/4".

A 1" pipe gets welded to the RMW wheel plate, and a m12 x 1.25 bolt slips in there and is welded.
Then a rubber bushing. Then the cover that's had a section of aluminum tubing capped and welded on. Then the nut and lock.
Mainly I've been thinking about what happens if the spare is flat, and I think in this case, with the rubber bushing, that could be removed and the cover would tighten flat enough against the wheel.

At some point the spare tire lock bottoms out on the wheel bolt/stud, and 25mm looks like the right length with this setup. Hopefully that works out.

[erste]

Last thursday we drove up to Ft. Bragg for the weekend. Here's a link to the trip report and some of my favorite photos from the trip.

Trip Report - Ft. Bragg and back with no real plan.

This weekend I finally installed the heater valve from tencent. The '82 diesels had the valve in the cabin, not sure about the aircooled. The heater control (hot/cold) lever on mine hasn't worked in a few years, so I just took the cover off and reach over to manually open and close the valve. Since removing the rear heater core I've heard some gurgling up in the front heater core, so I kind of figured that all the air hadn't been bled out. I've bled it at the radiator, topped off the res. and bled it again after driving. It still runs 10° hotter than when the rear heater core was installed. I don't know if this valve will make a difference, but let's see.
The valve was still good, but the issue on mine was that the cable broke at the control. I didn't even think that was the case because there's still so much friction when moving that knob. This made it a little trickier to figure out where the replacement cable was supposed to go, but the broken bit of cable was still in the hole so I figured it out.

new valve in the closed position, and I needed one new hole drilled through the front for the bleed hose to pass through to the radiator.

new valve is a little bit shorter overall and the top hose isn't seated as well as I'd like but it should be fine.

Center panel is finally reinstalled.

My welder friend Garrett has the spare tire cover pieces and hopefully I'll get those back next week. Then some of the junk in the rifle box on the roof can find a home there, with the ultimate goal of taking off the roof rack and putting a high top on it in the next few months, if all goes according to plan.

[erste]

Got some progress pics from Garrett and I'm looking forward to this locking spare storage.

[erste]

Some more progress on the spare tire storage. Pretty damn flush. That may be a mistake.

[erste]

Wrapped up the spare tire storage yesterday. I did a quick photoshop rendering of what the cover would look like in different colors. I thought it might be cool to do it half ivory and half assuan brown, but it didn’t really.

I plan to put a more durable coating (monstaliner) on it but didn’t want to be driving around with a shiny disc and had this brown paint and some lighter tan colors. This didn’t look half bad in the rendering so I painted it - krylon satin brown boots

Bracket turned out really nice I think:

Cover I’m not sure about but it’ll look fine when it gets dirty. The way the lock works is you put the key in and then it’ll pull straight off. So this could be problematic some day, but it pulls off pretty smoothly and easily right now.

[erste]

I drove down to San Jose today to get a black 55 gallon drum to make a storage container for the clamshell. This should have room for the remainder of the stuff in the rifle box up top.

I cruised down at 70-75 and everything was good. I got to San Jose and turned the heater knob to hot, and noticed the temps rising to like 210F. Then I got the drum and headed back north. I was looking for a black one, which he said he had, and he did, they were just full of cleaning product. That was annoying since I drove so far, but he was a nice guy, so I got blue.

On the freeway after maybe 5 minutes I notice the temp gauge in the cluster is at 230, and the scangauge is reading 245. holy shit
I shut it down and move over a few lanes and exit. No steam or leaks, so I let it cool down for about ten minutes before getting off the exit ramp and into a parking lot.

The main reason I got the scangauge is because a friend of a friend had a T4 that overheated and he said the stock gauge is basically programmed to go to the middle and stay there so people don’t panic. I don’t know how true that is, but I do see a 10-15 degree difference between the two. Kind of just seems like it takes more of a temp swing to get the stock mk3 gauge to start moving.

245F is really hot, but from what I’ve read it should be ok. Right?? Yikes.

The rad fan hasn’t made noise in as long as I can remember, so I need to troubleshoot it this weekend. Fuse 7 wasn’t popped, and I didn’t check electrical beyond that.

I’ve driven it around town after the tencent heater valve install and figured it was somehow related. Bought some distilled water and ate a really good paneer wrap from the tandoori cafe in the shopping center and let it cool down.

The res. was just about empty. It didn’t take much to fill it, maybe 2 cups? [edit- more than 2 cups looking at the water jug in the pic] I think the tencent valve has been slowly bleeding air out as it’s designed to, and there might be a very small coolant leak at one of the hose connections.

Headed back and got turned around trying to find the freeway and saw the temp climb to 197 pretty quick, then settled down to 190. At speed it was 188 so I wasn’t too worried. I cycled the knob to hot and saw the temp drop to 175 then shoot up to 200. That didn’t seem right, so I put it back to cold. Did it a few more times and it did the same. 10 miles from home I cycled it to hot and it finally leveled out around 190.

It’s run at least 10 degrees warmer since I removed the rear heater, and I’ve heard a gurgling from the front heater core so I know there’s air in there. Hopefully the system is pretty well bled now, and hopefully those high temps didn’t do any damage.

There was no warning buzzer, but maybe that’s normal. And I need to hook up /wire in the coolant res. but I’m pretty sure that’s just a coolant level sensor.

That was my exciting afternoon trip. I’m looking forward to this drum storage project.

[MarkWard]

Something does not sound correct. I rarely see above 190f on my scan gauge. That’s at highway speeds at 90f ambient. A couple things. I see your IAT is higher than I’d expect. But in our van, on long uphill grinds IAT will start to increase as well as engine temp. So there is a correlation between the 2.

Also, the valve you installed from reading is supposed to be on the return from the heater core. I’m pretty sure the stock heater valve on our 82 diesel was on the inlet side. I think flipping it has to do with the bleed return from the radiator.

If heat is required, my coolant temp drops say 10 - 15 degrees when the valve is open. That said, if it’s cold enough for heat. Our engine won’t get to normal operating temps. We are running the next gen TDI I believe which might have a more efficient cooling system. Your temps are very high. Probably worth some investigation.
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[valvecovergasket]

it seems like prolonged running on the highway may have found an air bubble or two that pushed the gauge.
we saw something similar on ours after our first trip over the pass following the tdi install last spring.
there was a slight leak on one of the couplers on the stainless hard line, that never manifested itself as anything on my 60mi work trips that i took the van on to shake it down, or around town. and it was minor enough i never noticed. but i bet it was sucking in air on cooldowns.
once we were leaving the campsite after having been there a couple days, our first pull up the pass the gauge ran up, sure enough. lots of air. when we got back to the house i noticed dampness around one of those stainless line couplers. tightened it, and havent seen any issues since.

so, TLDR... check all your connections
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MegaSquirt resource - SpitfireEFI.com

gone, but not forgotten: '83 tdi westy - swap thread

[Zeitgeist 13]

That concept of the T4 gauge being preprogrammed might be true. Mine just stays rock steady in the middle despite me flogging it hard up mountain passes--doesn't seem right.

My ALH T3 temp needle has never even seen a middle setting, and since I have an oil temp gauge, I can monitor engine temps from two sources which roughly track each other. It just runs slightly cool no matter how I drive.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[erste]

[MarkWard]

I uploaded this a while back.

From the installation directions.

[Zeitgeist 13]

I haven't checked for accuracy, but when my engine is at operating temp (see Mark's pic above--that's exactly where my needle sits) the oil temp gauge reads roughly 180F. In both cases, neither gauge has ever exceeded those settings.

I guess I should note that my cooling system is essentially plumbed the same as the donor Mk4 Jetta, with the exception that the EGR cooler loop is deleted.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[pjn_wyo]

I installed the 10c valve on my yet to be running tdi swap. When I pressure tested the system there was a leak at the crush olive crimp fitting for the vent hose at the body of the valve. New crush washer was 5 cents.

Maybe it is leaking there?

[MarkWard]

A picture pulled back some, of the cooling hoses might help as well. Might get a better idea of your coolant flow.
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[erste]

pjn_wyo, I'll check that out, but I don't smell coolant so I think it's ok.

MarkWard, I completely understand about needing to figure out which is the feed and return and so the diagram below is just half complete.

There is a second heater hose in this bundle that snakes up over the transmission and I haven't traced it yet. It's the lowest rubber hose in this pic:

I'll try to add some flow arrows to this diagram when I find the reference images I'd saved.
Really appreciate the help!

edit to add this diagram which I believe is ALH:

I'll update the diagram above after I trace the coolant hoses to the front.

[pjn_wyo]

You are missing the heater line that connects to the back of the block. That (verified with VCG) is the heater feed line.

Also worth reviewing the oil cooler mod routing from westy venutures...

[erste]

[valvecovergasket]

heres another aba routing from the bentley... with arrows

#5 is the heatercore in a fwd setup

for what its worth im not running a restrictor on our swap. the RMW tank doesnt appear to need it
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MegaSquirt resource - SpitfireEFI.com

gone, but not forgotten: '83 tdi westy - swap thread

[pjn_wyo]

The restrictor in Karl's drawing is to keep the expansion tank from acting like a radiator bypass.

http://www.vanagondiesel.info/index.php/Cooling_System

Has a "NOTE: The 1/4” restrictor with RMW “The Tank” caused too much pressure and pissed out cap. I removed restrictor no coolant loss out of cap. Temps still low. YMMV"

The rear heater restrictor is different and only needed if you don't have the factory tapered lines for the rear heater. According to RMW it is to keep the rear heater from being its own loop and ensuring the front heater core still gets a steady supply of coolant. It is placed in the feed line to the rear heater after the t...

https://www.vancafe.com/VCHTRCOREREDUCER-p/vchtrcorereducer.htm

[erste]