Completed my frist long trip in the bus: 250 miles round trip from Pittsburgh up to Townville, PA and back.
Water temps mostly stayed at or below 180degF as indicated by the VDO gauge measured at the main block outlet flange. Not sure if this is because that's the temp where (1) the T-stat is opening, (2) the oil starts getting sent to the oil cooler, or (3) when the fan starts coming on (the fan seems to occasionally run when the vehicle is going slow and the indicated temp is near 180)...or some combination of all of the above.
Regardless, it makes me very happy!
Highest indicated temp was around 200degF after particularly long, hilly runs. It was more common for the temps to hit and hover around 190degF until I took my foot out of it and let it come back down. And honestly, the times I most often saw temperature issues were when I tried to go too fast for too long: when I stuck to a steady 55 to 57 mph (3100 to 3250 rpm), I didn't have any issues, and she just sipped diesel (fuel gauge needle didn't move in 50 miles). I'm used to driving slow having owned buses for so long - it's often more a matter of driving by oil temperature than by power that you've got - so it wasn't a big deal, although I honestly was hoping for slightly higher cruising speeds with the TD. More cooling system tuning to do I guess. The one thing of note was that cruising at 55, I barely had my foot on the throttle...lots of spare power to give.
And really, power was solid in general, and I spent very little of my time with the throttle all the way open. The gap in gearing between 2nd and 3rd is a little large on long hills, but I'm surviving so far.
Misc notes:
- I still have an oil leak somewhere. I'm thinking it's at one of the oil pressure senders. Ugh.
- Still running straight water as a coolant (I've been mucking about with plumbing enough that I decided to stop wasting coolant)...need to change that now that the leaks are mostly sorted out.
- Waffling between using a 170degF thermostat and the current 180degF one. A big part of me says: it ain't broke, so don't fix it! But I'm still considering experimenting with it.
- Ambient temps were around 60 degrees on the ride back (although it was slightly downhill, so that might have helped my temps). Temps last night were around 40-45.
- I did a lot of work to seal the area around my radiator so that no air would bypass it. This might have been a difference maker (along with the oil cooler).
- With all the electronics on: headlights, rad fan (possibly), and heater fan, the alternator light glows slightly, so I might be putting too much load on my system.
Currently working on shoehorning a 1.6 TD out of a 1984 Jetta into a 1971 VW Camper (Hardtop)
"Huppity Hup! Rev! Rev! GO GO GO GO!"