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Reply to "Cylinder cooling tin?"

Gordon Nichols posted:

 

All that said, the time it takes to get to 180F depends greatly on the outside ambient temp.  70+F ambient and it warms up in about ten minutes of neighborhood driving.  Take it on a turnpike and it'll rise up to 200-ish and sit there with the external cooler fan running all the time.

I answered on the Spyder thread, but this statement ( highlighted) confirms my own "seat of the pants" observations.

I know all about what Gene Berg said about pretty much everything, and I don't doubt that he was right-- with a perfectly functioning thermostat/flap set-up, I'll bet the engine last longer.

How much longer is just pure speculation on Gene's part. 12%? 25%? 100%? Gene didn't do a double blind test to come up with that number. He either climbed up Mt. Baldy and had the Commandments of the Type 1 handed to him from the God of Air-Cooled Engines himself, or he just "guestimated". I'm going with the latter, and yet everything the man said is quoted chapter and verse. Regardless, most of what he recommended (super-low CR, this, etc.) was based on the idea of getting 100k mi out of a build, very often at the expense of power and fun.

Nobody cares about that anymore, because VWs aren't anybody's daily driver (Jim Ignacio excluded). I've got the full-meal-Gene Berg approved-cooling-deal on my bus 2110, and it's a whole lot of this-'n-that for something with a very limited effect (as Gordon notes above). It's nowhere near like having a water-cooled car with a thermostat. My oil is just fine on my DTM 2276.

I'd also note that if a flaps-n'-stats engine ever approached 100k mi with all of the Rube Goldberg apparatus installed, something would hang up or break in that amount of time. If the flaps stick closed, any benefit you might have seen is out the window.

I know the Sainted German Engineers designed this, and that Gene Berg approved it, but perhaps the net/net might not be as awesome as we've all been led to believe. I'll use it all on a vehicle I will try to drive in the winter, and would not consider it for something without even a top. It's worth noting that Porsche did away with all that nonsense with the air-cooled 911, and those engines last nearly forever.

That's my opinion, and my opinion and a dollar will buy you a coffee at most McDonalds in my part of the world.

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