Club 80-90 Forums

Im considering fitting a cht guage and maybe a oil temp guage, just want to know what peoples views are on this. My bus is a 2 litre Aircooled, it runs sweet ive replaced and fixed the tinware and is all present, serviced, new exhaust and heat exchangers, had Gasure refurb my carbs etc. I keep on top of my bus very much but im a bit worried if it blows up. If i keep it this well looked after what are the chances of it over heating. Am i being paranoid and do the guages work and will they make me more paranoid. Any help please.

stevo1980 wrote:If i keep it this well looked after what are the chances of it over heating.

How long has it survived so far without overheating terminally? At least you're not going to suffer a coolant leak without noticing...

The 2cv racing boys use CHT guages on their air-cooled flat engines, but they're not exactly running standard engines for road use.

Personally I wouldn't bother fitting temperature gauges. The alternator light will come on if you lose the fan belt, and the oil warning light will come on if you dump the oil, and the road will disappear in a cloud of smoke if you crack a piston. Driving a T25 should be a tactile experience, you should be able to feel what the engine is doing without having to look at gauges every few minutes.

Yeah your right. I have had the van only 2 months and been working hard on it for summer so not really been anywhere in it yet. Done a 50 mile trip the other week from Gasure after having the carbs overhauled no problems to note. I have been studying up on the cu engine as its my first Aircooled and i pretty much know how it should be run. Just need a bit of confidence on a long run to see it actually work proper.

I fitted one to both my T25 CU and a bay 1600 , TBH they are not that accurate, much discussion on the Samba site, they do give an indication that something is going amiss, as has already been said you can get an idea from how it drives, the T25 has advantage that fan is driven off crank so cooling will happen whilst engine is running.

But it saved my bay from terminal engine syndrome when something blocked the fan and temp went beserk, alternator belt also more critical on the type 1 engine as it works the fan as well.

Various types available , I used VDO imported from states, can be cheaper just beware the customs check on entry to UK and Royal Mail charging as well for the pleasure. Aviation type work well apparently but Pricey........! Putting on hottest cylinder No 3 is a bit awkward.

If everything is working, tinware, heat exchangers then all should be as designed. It gives some reassurance, but calibrate the gauge with a pan of boiling water to give a base line reading.

Cheers

Mike

As no one mentioned it, CHT Gauge = Cylinder Head Temperature Gauge

i would not like to fit the cht sender under the spark plug on a cu motor, its bad enough trying to fit one to a type 1 motor where the spark plugs are near the cooling shroud , in fact i dont think the sender would be long enough unless they do one specially for the type 4 motor

It isn't easy but can be done, sender wire plenty long enough,if carefully routed, need to remove sealing ring from that plug first and use the sender ring instead

Mike