After 30 minutes of highway driving speed the temperature goes to the bottom of the Redzone. Oil cooler completely clean and fresh oil plus the Engine tin cooling vent fully open I never let it go in the red. I pulled this out of the fan a piece of yellow notebook paper twisted so that it looks like it would cover about half the inside of the cooling fan.

Have you had something like this before and do you think that alone could cause the motor to run hot ?

Kinda like a message in a bottle!!

Pretty sure that's why mine was running hot, found a piece of paper towel in mine.

Me too. I had a paper towel that got sucked in and oil temps spiked.

I wonder if you can get a screen cover for the fan opening like some Buses had?

Probably pretty easy to fabricate something

I wonder what happened to my home work

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I never realized how important the fan is. A small paper causing an almost overheat. Out of fear of an overhear and a new habit i'll always keep a watch on the temp gauge.

You had paper (that sucks) but I had shop rag !! What a mess new 2056 motor broke 3 fins on fan and overheated motor and had to replace one exhaust valve. Got off easy and relatively cheep. New fan on ebay and lot of time rebuilding head. I now have the cleanest engine compartment everything is bolted down.

Have you had something like this before and do you think that alone could cause the motor to run hot ?

Yes and Absolutely!

yeah
but how the f%ck did that get in there.
no way is that going to get sucked in via the engine cooling or engine lid.
the lid grille mesh is too small to admit that piece of paper?

somehow that was already floating around in the engine bay?

but i can believe that would be sufficient to mess with the cooling.
so how did it get in there.
and as to fans of the plastic grille, well the paper is still going to get sucked on to the grille, so i am not sure that is the solution.
i think those grilles on bus engines were just there to stop vw technicians getting their neck ties getting caught up in the fan while tuning the twin carbs?

1.5 hours today at 3000rpm or higher in 93 degree heat and it ran like new. Amazing that paper didn't effect balance (that I could tell) but blocked airflow to the heads.

That's what I was thinking. Most stuff found in the fan, or worse, downstream in the fins on the heads or cylinders, has to be self-inflicted. Unless the rubber seal around the engine tin is missing, or the lid was left open. (not including mouse nests)

Nature loves to score two points.

I have an OCD rule of keeping engine lids (any trunk, door, etc) closed, in fact it pisses the young lad off sometimes.
Besides stuff being blown into the car I've seen door hinges and trunk lids damaged by dust devils and strong winds.

On the bus fan screen... I bet the first time you have to change a fan belt you will toss it.

In my case a plastic shopping bag was blown off the rear deck and into the engine bay when I wasn't looking. I closed the lid and went for a ride. About 20 minutes later I was wondering why there was smoke trailing the car. I popped the lid. The engine was so hot it was burning off the old oil gunk on the cylinder fins still smoking like crazy. I waited for it to cool holding my garden hose hoping it would not flash and burn. I was lucky. Compression test failed miserably. I replaced the 1.8 with a 2056.

When you unraveled the paper, did it say they were trying to contact you about your auto warranty?

Yep. I had a bus screen on one of my motors and got rid if it when I had to replace the alternator belt

I too have been wondering what's written on that paper.

you are not the only one.

the rear trunk lid loves to pretend its on the cutty sark in the roaring 40s.

.....after reading this thread i'm adding feeling around the fan before start up to paranoid routines like sniffing fuel lines.