Engine tin hole plugs..., Where to find premade plugs that fit holes in engine tin?? Options

[second wind]

Hello all....so I went on the March 6 SoCal mini rally and it was a blast car ran great....on way up to 6.500 feet on Mt. Baldy I kept an eye on my cylinder head temperature gauge it was fine....even going down as the elevation went up....but glanced at oil temp gauge and temp was through the roof into the red!! Once we stopped and took a break one of the gurus looked at my engine to see where the problem was and he noticed that all of the holes in my engine tin were wide open....blower hose holes...rain gutter drain holes....fan belt adjustment hole....just a bunch of wide open holes. He said there you have it....your cooling fan efficiency is cut in half by all of those holes...plug 'em up and you will definitely see improvement in the oil temperature. So anyone know where to get ready made hole plugs for these holes? Would be nice to just plug 'em in and cure the issue.....thank you very much and would love to hear more comments about oil temp cooling tricks.
All the best,
gg

[914Sixer]

Greg,
Most of the plugs are stock VW size plugs. Problem is there is no cross reference for this stuff. Most have VW Type 3 & 4 part numbers. 914Rubber, URO parts, AutoAtlalnta all have made replacements. You have to go shopping.

[Superhawk996]

Agree seal up the holes that should be done regardless.

However, something is not making sense.

If you were fine going up hill under much higher load and not having oil temp issues, it is counterintuitive that you would going down hill.

Thoughts:
What RPM were you spinning on the way up. My bet is more RPMs due to low gear to climb.

Now things are good and hot at the top and you probably stopped at the top, shut off the engine and then went to chat with folks (i.e. heat soak things). You don't mention how long it was a the top. If 15 minutes, that would be a significant to heat soak time. If you stayed at the top, engine off for two hours, none of the rest of this theory matters.

What RPM were you spinning on the way down? My bet is you were in top gear or at least higher gears than on the way up, riding on gravity, and, working the brakes way more than the engine. Now you've got heat soaked oil washing across heat soaked heads, with very little cooling air flow (relatively speaking) coming from the engine fan. Would not be surprised to see oil temp increase yet again.

As far as oil temps go, a small, temporary dip into the red is nothing to panic about - especially if you whave the wrong sender (i.e. the 120C or 150C sender instead of OEM 200C sender).



Remember oil temps lag cylinder head temp substantially.

You don't mention how it ran on the rest of the trip home. Assuming it was more or less normal once you started driving on level ground and had engine RPM's up, I'd say that helps confirm the hypothesis above and woudn't worry about a thing (other than sealing the holes which you should do anyway).

Personally, if it were me, I'd do the whole thing again just to see if it was repeatable. Then I'd do it one more time without the heat soak, and keeping the RPM's up (lower gear) on the descent to see if that keeps it cool.

[barefoot]

Essentra components will supply free samples of lots of the grommet sizes we need.

https://www.essentracomponents.com/en-us/protection

[second wind]

Agree seal up the holes that should be done regardless.

However, something is not making sense.

If you were fine going up hill under much higher load and not having oil temp issues, it is counterintuitive that you would going down hill.

Thoughts:
What RPM were you spinning on the way up. My bet is more RPMs due to low gear to climb.

Now things are good and hot at the top and you probably stopped at the top, shut off the engine and then went to chat with folks (i.e. heat soak things). You don't mention how long it was a the top. If 15 minutes, that would be a significant to heat soak time. If you stayed at the top, engine off for two hours, none of the rest of this theory matters.

What RPM were you spinning on the way down? My bet is you were in top gear or at least higher gears than on the way up, riding on gravity, and, working the brakes way more than the engine. Now you've got heat soaked oil washing across heat soaked heads, with very little cooling air flow (relatively speaking) coming from the engine fan. Would not be surprised to see oil temp increase yet again.

As far as oil temps go, a small, temporary dip into the red is nothing to panic about - especially if you whave the wrong sender (i.e. the 120C or 150C sender instead of OEM 200C sender).



Remember oil temps lag cylinder head temp substantially.

You don't mention how it ran on the rest of the trip home. Assuming it was more or less normal once you started driving on level ground and had engine RPM's up, I'd say that helps confirm the hypothesis above and woudn't worry about a thing (other than sealing the holes which you should do anyway).

Personally, if it were me, I'd do the whole thing again just to see if it was repeatable. Then I'd do it one more time without the heat soak, and keeping the RPM's up (lower gear) on the descent to see if that keeps it cool.

Hello Superhawk....thank you for your input. The temp went up while I was going UP the hill....not down. Going down the hill and on freeways I was back to normal. Someone mentioned that my oil might be too thick , VR-1 40wt, but then I had a VW Vanagon guy tell that he ran 50wt religiously with no issues....for years. I am all ears though and welcome your comments.....and I will fix all holes before I start the car again. Thank you very much,
gg

[Superhawk996]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

I completely misunderstood what you had clearly written. In my defense it was 8am in the morning and I'm not a morning person. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Yeah, seal up holes. That doesn't change.

See if you can ID your taco plate sensor to verify it is proper 200C sensor. Per graphic previously posted, the 120C and 150C sensors result in a more conservative calibration that might be causing undue concern.

I don't want to justify 300F+ oil temps too much. However, 300F head temps going up hill under load aren't that unreasonable. If you wash oil over heads at 300F temp for long enough, the oil will eventually saturate near that temperature. If the actual head temps were 350F the saturation would only occur quicker.

Best measure is to downshift another gear (if you can) and keep the fan speed up.

[Grosbard]

Essentra components will supply free samples of lots of the grommet sizes we need.

https://www.essentracomponents.com/en-us/protection

@barefoot Interesting site! I have the same engine tin holes as "second wind," so I want to get hole plugs also. I don't necessarily need them to be free, but an assortment would be nice. That site has a huge number of options. Do you know which ones on their site to look into? Push-in barrel plugs is my guess. Thanks!

[Mark Henry]

I just make a patch from a beer can and RTV it on. Sometimes I use the can bottom.

Sounds hacked, but one side looks like a nice aluminium plug, it's semi-permanent and it will come off clean if it's just temporary.