Engine overheating?

I have recently fitted three new gauges to Buddy. an Oil temp a Battery Charge- and an Oil pressure. Last season I had fitted a Save My Bus temp gauge. On the trip to Busfest and back my oil light occasionally glowed. It was worse whilst stuck in heavy traffic with the engine in idle.
Having been advised that the Save My Bus gadgets are unreliable and often inaccurate, I decided to fit Oil Pressure and Oil Temp gauges.

Last weekend I went to the WWT2 OC event near Banbury, a 70-mile trip. It was fairly hot on Thursday and the temp gauge was showing 120 rising to 130 C on steep hills. I stopped to see how hot the dipstick was and was able to touch it without burning my hand, So I crossed my fingers and carried on. The engine sounded fine and made no unusual noises. We got to the campsite without any problems, apart from my frayed nerves and strained eyesight, caused by staring at the temp gauge for 70-odd miles. The oil pressure ranged from 65 psi when cold to around 40 psi when hot. I checked the oil and it appeared that I had not used any oil. When the engine had cooled I felt the oil and it seemed fine.

The dilemma facing me was, whether I should I should call for help or take a chance on the return journey. On Sunday I decided to take a chance and left the camp site at 11 am. It was another hot day. So with my eyes glued to the gauge, I set off. I had almost the same result as I drove down the M40. The hill by High Wycombe caused the gauge to reach its highest at 135C, but as the engine seemed fine I crossed my fingers and toes and continued home. We stopped at a friend in Staines to let Buddy cool down. and finally reached home at 5 pm. The engine still sounds fine and runs beautifully.

So, what could the answer be? Is the engine overheating or is the gauge faulty. How do I find out? The gauges are made by Durite, do they require a specific sender unit? I am using a unit supplied by Just Kampers.

Answers or any ideas welcome.

Thanks,

Granite

Have you checked what the gauge reads when the sender is sat in boiling water?
I tested mine as the gauge was reading high compared to the temp reading on 123 dizzy.
I found that the gauge was reading 20deg higher than it should.
It’s worth checking, especially if you were able to hold the dipstick no problem.




Worry gauges eh

Thanks for the idea, I'll do that tomorrow. You're right about the Worry Gauges. I'd probably not have suspected that the Bus was overheating if I'd not fitted the Save my Bus or the pressure gauge.

Granite

Don’t forget to ground the sender casing to the bodywork with a wire when it’s in the pan

matty74 said:

Don’t forget to ground the sender casing to the bodywork with a wire when it’s in the pan

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?? The sender is fitted into the dipstick tube.

Brilliant. I bet you got stressed right out when it went up to 135’ . I reckon Matty ^^^ has the right idea as above. I’ve got a nice big tacho on my dash with a shift light on the side. It also has oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature guages and possibly an ammeter with little faces all staring at me expectantly trying to cause me worry. I have the tacho connected most of the time and the lights connected too, but all the little worry gauges can stare at me as long as they like because they are not connected and I’ve no intention of ever connecting them unless I connect them to the indicators for a laugh. You’ll know when you’re too hot as you’ll smell degrading oil and you’re bang on with the holding the dipstick test, that’s as real as it needs to get.

Granite said:

?? The sender is fitted into the dipstick tube.

Click to expand...

If it’s a 2 wire connection then it will already be grounded , so you’ll be okay

Hi Ozzie,

I wish I'd never fitted them, but now I have, I've got to find out what's wrong. A pan of boiling water is the first job tomorrow.

Best wishes,
Granite

matty74 said:

If it’s a 2 wire connection then it will already be grounded , so you’ll be okay

Click to expand...

Matty74,
Ok Thanks, fingers are crossed. I'll let you know what the boiling water test shows.

Granite

Granite said:

Matty74,
Ok Thanks, fingers are crossed. I'll let you know what the boiling water test shows.

Granite

Click to expand...

I hope your gonna do it in your van and on the cooker just like Matty did.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, cut the bloody wires

ozziedog said:

I hope your gonna do it in your van and on the cooker just like Matty did.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, cut the bloody wires

Click to expand...

I can't get the van indoors

Extend the wires if you can and boil the water on a camping stove, a boiled kettle will cool down quicker than you think.
You really want to know what the gauge is reading when the water’s boiling away at 100 .

Knowing my gauge was reading 20deg high on our last trip made the gauge a little less worrisome

Hi Matty,
I'm waiting for my neighbour to come home from work as I've just realised that someone needs to be looking at the gauge as the boiling water is applied. My arms are not long enough.

Granite

Yes you need Mr Tickle




Don’t forget to switch ignition on

LOL thanks, will do.
Grant

Basically monitor the gauges while normal driving (whatever that is ) when that reading changes by a lot, then worry. Definitely check that temp gauge they can be all over the place, mine was 20 degrees F high

ozziedog said:

Brilliant. I bet you got stressed right out when it went up to 135’ . I reckon Matty ^^^ has the right idea as above. I’ve got a nice big tacho on my dash with a shift light on the side. It also has oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature guages and possibly an ammeter with little faces all staring at me expectantly trying to cause me worry. I have the tacho connected most of the time and the lights connected too, but all the little worry gauges can stare at me as long as they like because they are not connected and I’ve no intention of ever connecting them unless I connect them to the indicators for a laugh. You’ll know when you’re too hot as you’ll smell degrading oil and you’re bang on with the holding the dipstick test, that’s as real as it needs to get.
View attachment 8162

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That is a VERY LARGE tachometer!!! It's my impression that VW Type 1 style air-cooled engines don't like being revved much past 5,000 rpm, unless they are balanced to small tolerances with a counter-weighted crankshaft. I figured that a 52 mm diameter VDO Cockpit style tachometer would have a more than adequate range, even for a VW Type 4 style air-cooled engine.



All temperature & pressure gauges needed to have a sender-unit of a type which has appropriate specifications for that gauge. Instrumentation catalogues should specify with which sender-units the gauges are compatible. I have VDO Cockpit gauges and matching sender-units.

Wonderful Nigel A. Bet that looks like a Christmas Tree when you’re bombing along at night. Does anyone of those tell you how cold the Stella might be in your coolbox.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,get the priorities sorted yeah !

The 1679 engine in the daughters drag beetle makes 8000rpm with an odd (Brazil?) counter weight crank renound for bending according to one source. Stock rods and pistons and so far it has survived 3 years of track action.

I have a tacho, oil pressure and volt gauge, I don't bother with the temp gauge as I feel as long as your engine is well serviced with the valves checked regularly, and the oil pressure is healthy then there is no reason why it should overheat. I too had one of those save your bus dipsticks and it set my oil light off on the motorway, so I pulled over in a panic, this happened about 3 times on the same trip before I disconnected it!
Just maintain and enjoy your bus