I was wondering if someone who lives in a colder area could confirm for
me whether or not something around the vintage of my 83' 300D should
maintain temps even in winter?
I.e. as I recall last summer I saw temps staying around 80-100C which I
thought was about right.
The last week or so I've been driving my 300D and the outside temps are
around 20-40F. I can usually get it up to around 60C (is that the line
between 40 and 80? Or is that line only like 50C?), I never saw it
actually make it to 80, but it gets close if there's enough uphill
driving. It's definitely effected by how much heater usage and how much
flat vs. hilly terrain there is.
Also worthwhile to note that I have a greasecar kit installed, so I do
have another 15-20' of heater line, heating a 15 gallon tank of oil, and
there's probably a 6' length of those lines that runs directly under the
car out in the open, so I would imagine this all works effectively as a
second radiator to some degree.
I'm just wondering whether the 300D's are just more thermally efficient
and don't always reach their operating temp during the winter (I'm
assuming the operating temp is at or slightly above 80C?), or if this is
likely indicative that I have an open or missing thermostat? (Or if the
300D is just "on-the-edge" of generating enough heat in the winter to
maintain operating temps and my greasecar kit is sucking away enough
heat to keep it from reaching them?)
Thanks!
Levi
