[Vwdiesel] Coolant flow through stock oil cooler/heat exchanger

[Marcel]

Sandy Cameron wrote:
> 
>>when thermostat is closed (therefore doing nothing to warm cold oil-actually 
>>a detriment), and either hottest coolant flowing through "cooler" or 
>>thermosiphon after thermostat is open.  Can this be correct. 
> 
> 
> Not quite. The water pump is arranged so when the thermostat is closed, it
> is pumping coolant throught the block, head, heater core, and bypass, full bore.
> Hence the only reason the heater works in winter (and it sure does)

A related question - is there supposed to be a bypass across the heater 
core? I saw an odd construction consisting of two "cans" (one in each 
heater hose) connected by a bypass hose, in the engine bay near the 
firewall. Looks like it wasn't there originally and I must complain the 
heater is not performing well. Takes ages to warm the car up and I can 
leave it on full anytime when outside temperature is below 10C (~50F). 
Hoping to solve this before I get to deal with sub-zero temperatures ;)

So I was wondering... is it safe to remove, or does it need that bypass 
hose in case I set the temp slider to "cold" ? Which I won't be doing 
anytime soon, but still...

Marcel
(early A2 rabbit diesel w/TD swap)