At temperatures under 55 my car almost never hits its proper running temp unless It's on a long run at highway speeds. Around town it never really warms up.
Is there something that can be plugged up, changed or modified to run warmer?
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Need some engine info. Larger engines generally run hotter. Does it have a stock cooling shroud with OEM thermostatically controlled flaps? Add them. Do you have external oil cooler or oil filter? Does it have a thermostatically controlled by pass valve? Add one or by pass the coller for winter. Does it have a thermostatically controlled cooling fan? Add thermostat if it runs all the time. Heat exchangers or J-tubes?
Pull the rear sheetmetal over the exhaust if it won't get to proper operating temps.
Just joining; as I may face the same set of questions. Where are you, Wombat? I'm in Boston...
He's your neighbor in NY.
WOLFGANG posted:Need some engine info. Larger engines generally run hotter. Does it have a stock cooling shroud with OEM thermostatically controlled flaps? Add them. Do you have external oil cooler or oil filter? Does it have a thermostatically controlled by pass valve? Add one or by pass the coller for winter. Does it have a thermostatically controlled cooling fan? Add thermostat if it runs all the time. Heat exchangers or J-tubes?
I'll do some research and get back. Thanks
Glad you brought this up. I made a similar observation yesterday as I took about a 60 mile cruise in the afternoon. Temps were about 55 F max. and the car ran beautifully, except it took about 10 or 15min. to get to the oil temp needle to move at all, and when it did move it wasn't much.
The engine is a 1904 with remote oil filter , no oil cooler and J tubes. Engine compartment is sealed up except for the front seal at the fire wall and a 6" hole in front of the fan. The oil temp on the hottest day here has never been to 190 degrees , usually well below that.
I think I'll remove the plugs in the floor of the engine compartment where air ducts from the doghouse would go and see if that makes any difference. I just need another nice day before the weather turns , so I can find out.
You're all beginning to worry me. I'm not even sure my temp gauge works. It is always locked in the frigid zone. I just start the car and, when it sounds good, I drive. As Dr Evil might say "I don't know engines..." Am I killing my car??
Al (and others): It's not that the engine is running hot, it's that it is not warming up properly after a cold start.
See my thread on sled tins - especially apropos for J-tube engines.
If you can get under the car when it's cold, see if the thermostat bellows (you have one in there, right? ) is compressed or extended when cold - you can peek up under the passenger side from the rear and see it with a flashlight, half way along the engine sump. There is also a short (4" X 4" ) section of the sled tin that is removable just for the purpose of thermostat service. If the bellows is extended all the way to the top of the bracket when cold, it's dead and not allowing the engine to warm up (it's keeping the flaps wide open all the time).
You should also remove the thermostat bracket mounting nut and see if you can get 3/4"-1-1/4" up and down movement of the actuator shaft without binding anywhere, to prove that the air flaps are working ok. I assume Dana checks this out when he built the engine, but'cha nevah know. I had one flap that had worn a groove in the housing and would lock there, keeping the flaps open all the time. The re-assembly adjustment is to remove the bellows mounting bolt, put the bellows bracket onto the stud, adjust it so that the top of the bellows touches the top of the bracket when the flaps are fully open (bellows pushed up) and tighten the nut, then install the bellows bolt which should pull the bellows down onto the bracket bottom (it's keyed into the base - just turn it to fit). Most VW service manuals detail how to do this.
The only other thing I might add is a pair of sled tins from Awesome Powdercoat ($36 delivered and worth it). Their price on a new, USA-built thermo-bellows is good, too.
Both bellows and sled tins can be changed/added without pulling the engine or the exhaust off.
Good reference mentioned by Gordon on thermostats -
German stat for type I carb engine, starts to open at 65-70C (149-158F)
You are right, Gordon; the engine should be complete, with all the sheetmetal, thermostat and flaps (and industrial tins with J tubes). But if it's running cold for extended lengths of time (you'll know it is when you take off the oil filler cap and discover the engine's making mayonaise), taking off the rear sheetmetal (the piece that separates the exhaust from the engine compartment) will let enough heat in to prevent the carb(s) from icing and allow the engine to get to proper operating temps much quicker. I know someone locally with a 2 liter (FK44, Webers or Dels) in a beetle that he drives year round, and for 4 or 5 months of the year he runs around without the rear breastplate installed. It warms up much quicker, never overheats, and doesn't produce the filler cap mung. He keeps it in the car and when it warms up re-installs it and away he goes. It's kind of a backyard way of doing it, but it works.
Hey - If it works and doesn't break anything else, I'm all for it. Never thought about the carbs icing up til now. That will surely keep me awake for a few nights, but my rear, top, heat shield is removable from inside the engine bay, and now, with the engine out, it would be simple to make an easily removable panel back there.
For a car that was never intended to see cold weather, the changes these past two years have made it pretty much a year-round (although never in salt) car. Decent heat, oil cooler thermostat switch, truly working warm-up flaps, industrial sled tins and a few other mods have made it a wholly different car. Now, all I have to do is GET IT BACK ON THE FRIGGIN ROAD!
You're carbs won't ice if you are running duals. They sit 6" from the heads, and the intake manifolds transfer a lot of heat.
Center-mount guys need to thing about it.
^ so this was a "talk to text" reply on my phone. Clearly, it ought to read:
Your carbs won't ice if you are running duals. They sit 6" from the heads, and the intake manifolds transfer a lot of heat.
Center-mount guys need to think about it.
I hate to appear to be illiterate.
What.....The only thing I see different is the "you're" and the Italics.
The You're grammatical error was overlooked as just another Internet response.
Your not illiterate. 
And my Carbs won't ice up.
H. VAC Plumberbutt is supposed to be illiterate. Just like Feyman McJournalist is supposed to not know how to change a frickin' flat tire.
Stay in yer lane!
Do you guys know what VW's solution was for environments where it was so cold that the engines never reached proper operating temps? Chrome plated valve covers (I don't know if there was anything else).
Oh, they did a lot! And it always depended to the country, the beetle was delivered (Sibiria or Afrika...)
F.e. Thermo elements with editional flaps in the Air Filter to breath warm Air; Sealings in different sizes for the exhaust gas into the air-intake-manifoilt; double pre heater for exhaust gas into the air-intake-manifoilt; different oil specifications for all the countries; Carburetor with aditional thermo elements for better warming up; Different jettings for the carburetors in different countries.
And very important: the original beetle engines had thermo controled the air flaps in the dog house (we mostly don´t have) and they had no aditional oil cooler (like we mostly have).