[Vwdiesel] Anyone try this? (To have a warm, toasty car)

[James Hansen]

When it's really cold, this is a big deal.
On my A1 NA Jetta, I ran most of the winter with 2" of the rad exposed,
along the top.  I had air intake under the bumper closed off completely with
black coroplast (cardboard would be fine), a plastic deflector under the
front air dam to divert the air off the oil pan, and a nice one-off storm
front the local upholstery guy made me over the rad.  At highway speed, the
engine made insufficient heat to run the blower at full, or the engine temp
dropped, and eventually the blower temp, it was that efficient. 
-james

> -----Original Message-----
> From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com]
> On Behalf Of Andrew .Libby
> Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 3:46 PM
> To: lbaird119 at aol.com
> Cc: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Anyone try this? (To have a warm, toasty car)
> 
> While I agree that the temperature of the coolant in the radiator is
> virtually irrelevant to the temperature of the engine up to the point
> that
> the thermostat is fully open (almost never in colder weather), there
> are
> some situations where cardboard covering the grill can help a front
> engined
> car run warmer.   When the temps are cold enough for the thermostat to
> stay
> fully closed, cardboard will help the engine run warmer by reducing the
> cold
> air that is flowing over the engine itself.
> 
> Andrew
> 
> On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 1:56 PM, <lbaird119 at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> >   Cardboard in front of the radiator only helps if you have a bad
> > thermostat, too cold of a thermostat, or the bleed hole (if it has
> > one) is enough to cool down the engine.
> >  If the engine won't heat up then it's either losing the heat or not
> > producing any.  Hayden's point is good, to check those coolant
> > heaters, if it has them.  The other stuff you can do is drop a gear,
> > or turn the heater speed down a notch.
> >    Loren
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