[Vwdiesel] A1 Radiator improvements

[Roger Brown]

Scott Kair wrote:
>
> >>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.

There was some discussion on the Scirocco list about using a 2-fan unit and hooking up something like the above.  Of course the
fan really only comes into play at low speeds to pull air through the radiator when the vehicle speed won't move enough through
on its own.  Gas engines put out a lot of heat idling and puttering around town.  A diesel is sort of the opposite, little heat
a low power and lots of heat at high power.  My single fan will always cool the engine right down in traffic on the hottest day,
so I think its got enough air flow.