CumminsPower59 wrote: These little mills don't generate much heat to begin with
Yeh, I wondered if that wouldn't be an issue when we started the swap.
More mpg results!
I got two more tanks through since the tire/turbo changes and got 39 on a 600 mile tank and 40.5 on the last tank of 650 miles.
About midway through the last tank I put a ball valve in and shut off the rear heater core. It warms up a bit faster now, but still takes 7-8 miles. I'm thinking about blocking part of the radiator again. Last summer and winter I blocked the entire radiator off and it never overheated except once at about 95 degrees ambient temp. (flip on the rear heat and it cooled off in about 60 seconds
)
At the rate we're putting on miles, i'll be saving about $2,000 a year in fuel.
FYI - at 40 mpg this van has a theoretical range of over 1,000 miles