Im back at my quest to fix my cooling problems in my 67 bug with a 12a rotary. Well, I drove it today to 225 degrees before my wheel and hub came off and got stuck in the fender, luckily my bug didnt lose the wheel out of the fender and hit someone or private property, well, I fixed that but im wondering how far I should go before I have to just turn the car off. 225 230 235 240 degrees? Before I took the car out, I made a scoop in the front to get air to my radiator to get some air flow going. My last resort is I have one fan and a dual fan I could put on the backside of radiator to help pull air through. Let me know what you guys think, once again, I appreciate the help.

 

hissing of air was coming out of the engine area/water area..if this helps anyones theory on whats goin on.

 

180 is the target temp. I would say 225 is way way to high.

 

Both the water and oil thermostats pop open @ 180*F.

General rule is, slow down @ 210*F

Pull over @ 220*F

Some racers say they run their oil @ 250*F all year long. But they also go through a lot of junkyard engines......

Make sure your oil cooler and radiator have good airflow. Don't know how to do that on a formerly air cooled bug. Both need a fan too.

 

if you have an aftermarket water temp gauge (autometer or any similar brand with sealed probe lines), 220* is max temp but thats really pushing it to the limit. Temp gauge connected in back of the water pump housing. I never let my engines run above 210*

 

Hmmm, im lost for words then. I guess I have to draw some air through...help it or something, I know when I opened up the water neck, I seen water circulating at 190 degrees...I didnt check to see if it was still open at 180 degrees..hmm

 

actually, I only use gutted t-stat to eliminate a source for failure. A gutted t-stat is better than not using a t-stat to slow down the flow of coolant on a stop and go traffic.

 

Ditto what wackyracer said. But it does take a longer time to warm up the motor. And driving around with a cold motor is not a good thing.