How hot is HOT

[daltonfixr]

A team member and myself are dis-agreeing on how hot is hot. We run a type 1VW. He thinks that 260 deg. is hot but not hot enough to hurt anything. He says that above 300 deg. is the critical point.
I get worried when the car gets to 235 deg. and I start letting out of it when it gets to 240. When it hits 260 I pull over.
What do you think?

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[DougM]

A regular street 1614-1835cc motor with a oil cooler should run on the freeway at 180-200* MAX.

A 1650 race motor may run a little hotter, but remember this isn't a waterpumper so all that cools it is the oil..

[dezertchick]

A stupid old VW trick, if you can grab the dipstick and hang on to it, its fine, if it burns the hell out you, its too hot.

[UndercoverFab]

I dont know how much of a toll the desert takes on a vw engine, but in our dirt modifieds when we saw 230 we started keeping an eye on it and at 240 we started backing down unless we were in a positiion to win, our sprint car engines stayed around 230 and that was normal for us, the few vw engines i`ve had experience with all ran around 220-240 on the street and in trail buggys.

[Mike_HKmtrsprts]

on our class 10 car 190-200 was normal up hills and in the sandwashes we saw 220-240 but at around 240 the motor started to ping really bad so we would back off to about 220 and just run it but 260 on an air cooled motor is way too hot if it was a water pumper I would say you could run 260 for a little while....Mike

[pjc]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />

I get worried when the car gets to 235 deg. and I start letting out of it when it gets to 240. When it hits 260 I pull over. What do you think?


[/ QUOTE ]

A little off subject but, for water cooled motors....

220 is max for sustained running.

A few tips.

1) Dump the thermostat
2) If the motor runs too cool, try a restrictor plate in place of the thermostat.
3) Try Redline "Water Wetter". I have witnessed a 15 degree drop with this stuff.

Another oddity is water circulating through the block too fast due to performance water pumps. The restrictor plate helps here as well.

[hoeker]

for an air cooled race engine i would think that the way the engine is built and the quality of oil will make the decision of how hot is too hot. synthetic oils can handle more temp than conventional oils, 260 is probly OK for them, but if your engine tolerances are too tight 260 may be hot enough to start scuffing pistons, and maybe hurting the bearings. i ran my last race motor to 250 hard, then decided based on how the race was going what i would do after that, but i had the engine built for that kind of temp.

your definately best off below 230 deg, if it is a regular problem i would recommend starting to find a better cooling solution, even changing engine oil viscosity can make it cool better.

maybe test the oil to see if your getting excessive thermal breakdown.

www.rosshoek.com

[ESB4130]

hmm. on my little toyota 4 cyl, it ran good under 180.. at like 215-220 i got pretty worried, but it held up fine for a few hours of that.

[poolman]

Why would

[Wayne_Nosala]

Best way to keep a VW cool, ....keeping to the subject

1) Use a early stock doghouse fan shroud, no heater ducts

2) Do NOT use a power pulley, not much HP gained opposed to cooling
loss by spinning fan slower

3) Install full flow oil system, with oil cooler &amp; fan setup (kartek sells cooler, a bit
pricey, but good investment for hard desert conditions)

VWs do not like exxesive heat for very long, the cases,cylenders warp or heads will eventually fail