Swapped out the old radiator for a new one, as folks had suggested (thanks
for all the emails!). The old radiator was seriously about 30 pounds. It
was full of gunk, and was the original radiator. My guess is that it had
been a little clogged for a while (the car used to always overheat after
sitting in traffic for a long time), and the extra gunk from the leaking
headgasket as well as things getting shuffled around when the new
headgasket was installed really plugged it up. With the new radiator, the
car runs about 20-30 degrees cooler- it stays right at about 200 on the oil
temp gauge all of the time, with the water gauge around halfway. Doesn't
really budge much at all, and I tried running with max A/C in stop-and-go
traffic with the outside air temp around 95, with no problems. Made a huge
difference. Having the Passat dual-fan must help as well!
The other thing- I was talking with a few friends of mine this weekend, and
one was saying "why would you want a car that you have to fix?" He buys a
new car every few years, and although he is in debt up to his eyeballs,
never really has to fix his cars, since they don't get old enough to break
down. Now, my 16v has never stranded me- I do preventative maintenance so
that it doesn't happen, but I do have to do work on it every so often. I'm
sure that if I got a new car, I wouldn't have to worry about all of the
little things that I have to do with my 16v, but man, it's just so much
more fun to drive! My dad got a 2003 Saab, with the turbo motor (forget the
model), and I drove it this weekend. Super quiet, lots of bells and
whistles, supposedly has about 200HP. Was also super boring! No road feel,
motor felt weak, not a lot of fun. This is now my 4th Jetta GLI (I've had
an 84, 87, 89, and now a 92), and my first 16v. I've had it about 5 years,
and still love to walk out and drive it, which I'm not sure how many folks
would say about a new car! Plus- it's got history. I got it out of a barn
in Vermont, with 67K original miles. That's a much better story than saying
that I picked it up at the dealer!
Anyways, just my .02. With the new radiator, the car runs amazingly. I'm
going to put a GIAC chip that I had lying around in this week, just out of
curiosity. I had taken it out, since it seemed like it made the car knock
pretty bad. See how it works now.
Andrew
........................................................................
PGP public key available from:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x82D3E4A0
26 + 6 = 1
