[Vwdiesel] A1 Radiator improvements

[Scott Kair]

>>I think there is a 2-fan shroud on some of the gas VWs.<<

    TD Quantums have an electrically driven 2-fan shroud, but in stock trim
it's a good bit too wide to fit an A1 radiator.  We measured the unit from
my destroyed Quantum for possible retrofitting to my Caddy and found that
we'd have to fabricate a shroud.  Since cooling wasn't that great an issue,
we didn't bother.
    Late A2 Jettas, or at least my 92 ECO, have an unusual 2-fan
arrangement.  Rather than two fans governed by by separate thermo-electric
and a/c switches, as the B-bodies were, the fans are mechanically linked by
a belt.  I don't know whether that shroud can be fitted to an A1 radiator,
or whether a complete radiator/shroud could be grafted to an A1.
    It might be worth looking through a junkyard, though, as it seems to
stand to reason that a less efficient gasoline engine would put out more
waste heat and therefore benefit from twin fans.  I seem to recall a thread
about the ECO's link belt occasionally failing, but in my experience the
Quantum arrangement worked quite well.  One fan was connected to the
radiator thermoswitch and the other came on when the a/c button was on.  I
drove mine in traffic on some pretty hot days and it rarely nudged past the
halfway mark on the gauge. If gas Jettas had a similar arrangement that can
be adapted to an A1, it might be worth looking into.
    HTH,
    Scott Kair