Time to engine warm-up

[andreic]

Hello all,

I am running a 1.8L engine on my 1975 914, single Weber carb. Recently I installed a new thermostat (bellows type, bought from eBay, looked to be brand new and completely tight when cold).

My question is after how much time should I expect the flaps to open completely, when driving the car at highway speeds? The outside temperature today is around 55-60 F. From testing it today it seems that after driving the car for about 25 minutes at 45-65 mph, the thermostat had opened just a bit, certainly not completely. My worry is that if something is bad, the engine will overheat and the flaps won't open, and I have no way of knowing it.

Any others with experience on this?

Thanks,
Andrei.

[Joe Ricard]

What are your head temps looking like?

There is a bit of adjustment to these. At your ambient temp the bellows should be holding the flaps "ever so slightly" closed.

In other words don't honk down on he cable and then tighten the pich bolt.

[lars s]

I have noticed on my 1,7, -72 that it takes quite a while to open the flaps fully and Im not sure that they will open fully at all in cold weather crusing at 45-65 mph. Driving in 65mph at 70F also may require some time say 10-15 minutes to open them fully.

Sometimes if I stop the car after running, open the lid and rev the engine the arm where the wire is attached to reacts wery quickly to the higer rpms; I can se it move to more open pos.


/Lars S

[Joe Ricard]

Do you have the piece of tin in place that goes under the area of the bellows? kind of a funky piece that connects to the heat exchanger and tab on engine case and has a molded groove where the shift rod passes.

I ended up making one for each side.