Another grill cover bites the dust

[Diesel_Dave]

Don't forget that you can get buildup on the inside of the radiator as well. You can get rid of some of that by doing a coolant flush and refill.

It's also not fair to assume that the grille opening has to be as large as VW designed it to be. VW designed it to withstand the absolute worse-case scenario: loaded to the max weight rating, in high ambient temperatures, with low vehicle speeds, etc.

Most hypermiling & ecomodding techiques will decrese the cooling requirements because the engine won't be burning as much fuel. I've noticed that P&G, especially EOC P&G affects the time it takes my engine to warm up (an indication of the required cooling requirements after it's warmed up). I estimate that, for me, it takes almost twice as long to warm up with EOC P&G vs normal driving. The reason for this is twofold. First, I'm burning less fuel more efficiently, so there's less heat that needs to be taken away. Secondly, the engine cools down during the EOC portion. After a particularly long glide, I'll notice that my coolant temp gauge moves off it's normal operating temp.

[Varn]

Yep I was at 53 mph with the car loaded to the gills in 100 degree heat with a tail wind. My grill cover was letting less than half the normal amount of air in. It was increasing temp gradually and was nearing the top of the range in the standard gauge.

My car is old and I don't need to replace any components because of over heating.

I suppose I could have removed half of the cover but it was 100 degrees and I was near overheated personally. Removal of the cover settled things down great.

After reading what aerohead says about Hucho and these early vw's, I am pretty convinced that the stock opening is just about perfect for the conditions I described.