air cooled newbie

................If your just interested in getting it home with a minimum of wear and tear, why not have it shipped? Another way to get it past the most difficult part of the trip might be to tow it yourself with a rental vehicle to maybe Denver and then drive your bus the rest of the way without having to deal with deserts & mountains in the August heat which is going to put a lot of stress on that type 4 engine. If you do rent a towing vehicle, it'll probably need to be a small truck that either has a hitch or a real bumper that will accept one of those clamp on hitches from U-Haul. Another bit of advice, NEVER tell the rental people that your going to be towing anything, what they don't know won't matter and they'd probably turn you down if they thought that you were going to be pulling 3500+ lbs across the Sierras & Rockies. A general rule of thumb while driving your aircooled bus in hot weather is to slow way down while the weather is really hot, especially during long uphill climbs.

Ok. I understand all of that. But my real question is how hot is to hot? 85?

90? 100? I have no problem driving at night, or taking a couple of extra days if need be.

Jim

Yeah, what Tim said.

The hot air, by itself, is *not* a factor. Highway speed and hill-climbing must be considered too. Engine temps shoot waaaaay up as speed goes up, especially over ~55. If you combine that with high ambient >80 ?, and heavy load the engine suffers more.

Common failure modes on that engine are: Exhaust valve/seat failure. Piston top failure from advanced timing and high temps. Valve problems usually didn't show up till the engine had over 125K miles.

There is one more less common problem that killed lots of these engines on trips: the tiny plugs in the oil galleries had a bad tendency to just pop out when the engine got hot:-( And the driver has very little chance of seeing the little OIL light come on when the desert sun is beating on the dash!

I have a '78 Bus, BTW. Tim's idea to have it trucked out is a good one, although I'm sure it doesn't fit in your plans.

If it were mine, the VERY least I would do is perform a compression test. It could alert you to an "incident" ready to happen, like an EKG or a CAT scan.

If you're so inclined, add an audible sounder to the OIL light. Some hints on my web site; at its simplest you can wire a piezo buzzer from Radio Snack right across the light.

Good luck; go slooooow Speedy Jim

"Jim Pineau" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

...................OK, here are my observations from driving acvws for over thirty years and I'd guess there are many others who have learned the same things. Hot weather is bad for them unless you slow down. At 90 deg, I'd stay under 60 mph........just a stupid rule of thumb that seems to make sense to me. When climbing a long hill at 90 deg, I go down to 50 mph and drop it into 3rd gear. Higher humidy and 90+ deg?.........even slower. More weight (like a bus?) and higher humidity with 90+ deg............maybe even slower yet. If you want to see the relative changes in engine heat that are associated with load vs work & heat output vs varying cooling efficiency (ambient temperature & engine rpm), you ought to have an oil temp gauge and a head temp gauge. There are shops in LA that could install them for you no doubt. There really is no simple way to answer your question. A type 4 engine is almost bullet proof until you push it past its limit. If you could keep the oil temp under 250 deg and the head temp under 350, I'd guess that a properly built type 4 engine could push that heavy bus through any condition including 100 deg in Las Vegas so long as you don't push it past its capacity for performing work without overheating..........which means that you may need to go slow at times and maybe even pull over once in a while and let it cool down while idling. Another thing, never turn it off when it's really hot.........idling is the most efficient way to cool it off no matter what the the ambient temperature.

Thanks!

Does that model/year have temp sensors fitted to the engine? Here in Texas the summers are often over 100 and humid and I haven't noticed any problems with my bug, but I don't drive it on freeways much either.

unlike our bodies, the humidity factored into the "heat index" doesn't affect our engines...if anything it helps with the cooling...(so i have read, can't say either way for*sure*)

------------------- Chris Perdue

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug!"

Remove "PANTS" to e-mail

................Humid air is less dense than dry air. When air is less dense, it absorbs and carries away less heat.

well now i've *read*(you did see that in my reply?) both ways...guess it is anyone's guess....i don't care...in my hot and humid weather my vw's never overheated...

------------------- Chris Perdue

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug!"

Remove "PANTS" to e-mail

Jim,

I live in las Vegas.. I would suggest planning your drive for first light and evening time drive in your Magic Bus. It gets real hot here by 11AM and stays there till 8PM.. reaches 105 to 110 most days.

Mostly with heat in a vw if you are moving at a reasonable speed (60) it'll stay nice and cool all day. But it gets soooooo hot you will not enjoy the ride and the heat will drain you.

So leave LA at about 430am to also beat the local rush hour.. head into the dessert you'll be in las Vegas in about 5 hours. you canstop at Baker.. the worlds biggest thermometer.. or just keep going...

Las Vegas is a good place to evaluate what the drive was like and load up on parts, pick a part at our fine Junke' yards, and even arrange services... stay at a local hotel and gamble up the dough,, see a show... ho-ho..

Then in a day or so, leave after 7pm ( to avoid the morning drive madness and heat.) and go to Utah.. once in the high country.. it'll cool off......

Have fun bring tools and water... maybe a gun, too

Marc

Oh Come on. Why not just drive the thing. I think that VW aircooleds are tougher than that. They were used all over the Sahara during WWII ya know.

-- the Grokdoc Tom Malmevik all that groks is god

67 Baja "marti"

Yeah, and those were made to last an average of seven *days*. They also were all brand new.

Catch my drift?

Airhowlingly yours, Erik.

I don't know for sure Erik. Maybe I am just duned for failure.

-- the Grokdoc Tom Malmevik all that groks is god

67 Baja "marti"

Oh no. Come on, let's sand this already. Or at least, let's promise to dry.

Airhowlingly yours, Erik, not as good at this as some of you all are

If you do, you may get your just deserts.

This would be palm for the soul.

Airhowlingly yours, Erik.

OK I'll try to just dust this off and get out of the bowls and onto a subject that is not as grainy, eh?

-- the Grokdoc Tom Malmevik all that groks is god

67 Baja "marti"