'74, 2L, 22K miles

All,

Man my car is hot - over the past few years took it all apart and put it back together,

Fan and cowling are all re-built and powder coated, oil cooler cleaned inside and out. flaps are working and it is fun to hear the acordian thingy release.

Last week the car got to here:

Click to view attachment

My question, is this normal? If not should I be concerned?

was she running hot prior to the recent work completed?

There's a good thread or two that will tell you temp in degrees based on needle position. Different temp gauges have different spots for temps.

Here you go:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...p;hl=temp+gauge

Also make sure you have the matched sender.

Normal on my '76. Been like that for 10+ years.

I added a capillary tube oil temp gauge last year, if my factory gauge is in this area, my added gauge is reading in the 230 range. That is the highest I have seen, 3400 rpms in 5th gear, 85 degree ambient 45 psi pressure

Different temp gauges have different spots for temps.

You need to verify whether or not you are running the proper 200c oil temp sensor before you get too worried

Click to view attachment

As you can see, it will look really hot when it’s not if the wrong 120c or 150c sensors were used

Even if you have the 200c sender, 250F oil temp in the middle of summer isn’t insane if you’re idling in traffic a lot or running sustained high load climbing hills or running high speed (let’s call that 80mph or so).

It may look hot on the gauge, but do you know the actual temp? Do you have an idea of where the needle usually runs? Has it moved up recently? That's the main use of the oil temp gauge in our cars, to give us an idea of the trend.

--DD

That is why Porsche went to the wider scale because the gauge was running next to the red line on early gauge.

I found this thread to be helpful, mainly because he actually tested the gauge and I happen to have the same part number on my gauge. That said, if your gauge and sender are the same as the components used here, then you're probably running over 250 at the red line you've indicated.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...amp;pid=3002466

I have seen references to 75 - 76 2.0 running hotter than other years. I mentioned this to a friend and he asked why. Couldn't answer him. It's not just engine size since 2.0 was available prior to 75. Enlighten me so I can look smart!

have you tried an infrared gun on the sump?

Exhaust system was supposed to be the cause. Not so sure that was true UNLESS you had the cat converter. 2 small mufflers may have been cooler than one large muffler. Another problem may have been the emission system chocking down on engine breathing.

what do we think would be most accurate - sump or taco plate? Probably the same?

I had some incompetent mechanic do the timing on my car and it almost blew up from over heating. My usual friend/mechanic re-did the timing and the temperature dropped way down and ran great....might have been 180 degrees off....anyway glad I dodged the bullet on that one. That was years ago and now I do most of the work on my car myself.
All the best,
gg

Apparently the F-shaped pipes that bolt to the exhaust ports act like thermal reactors and get extra-hot in order to break down some of the combustion products into less-harmful ones. This is even more so when fresh air gets pushed into the exhaust ports by the "smog pump".

--DD

Also the earlier 4 tube exhaust manifolds had cooling air purge the inner pipes much closer to the heads sucking heat away from them.

Was the fan powder coated or just the housing?

As the saying goes, timing is everything. Make sure it’s in spec.