On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 20:39:43 +0200, "Alfistagj"
> wrote:

>That's one of the reasons why diesel cars often come with an auxilary
>interior heater.
>The engines are so fuel efficient that they heat up very slowly, even that
>slow that they can only very limited heat up the interior in winter.

That's exactly what I thought before I got mine. But it heats up more
or less just the same as my petrol cars have so no worries.

You are correct to point out that they're 'fuel efficient' but you
don't mention the Diesel secret which is that it's a more calorific
(more energy per litre) fuel than petrol. This should all balance out
(more or less) and result in a similar engine temperature profile to
petrol. It wouldn't surprise me if heat loss due to inefficiency of
combustion was pretty close between petrol and diesel these days too.

The only reason I've seen cars with aux cabin heaters is to provide
instant heat on startup or for cars that might be expected to visit or
come from Scandinavia (or other such cold countries) frequently. I've
seen them as options on cars for the UK (petrol ones mostly!) but,
it's a bit of a luxury as we very rarely go below -10C and rarely
below -5C. These days we rarely even see decent snow either (ask the
Scottish Ski companies!).

The most significant engine cooler on a faultless 156, especially in
cooler weather, is the aircon. It is entirely capable of making a warm
engine cool. If you leave it on Auto fan control all year round (as I
do) you might not realise what's really going on temperature wise
unless you check the engine water temp. The 156 A/C (on Auto fan
control) ramps up slowly on cold mornings to give the engine some
chance to heat up but it's not perfect and can be overcome by setting
a large demand on the temperature control. I've seen me drive for tens
of miles and the water temp stay low then turn down the A/C and watch
it rise to a more normal temp. Switch it on again and it drops.
Depends how hot you want the cabin to be. It also depends on how hard
you are driving!

Wouldn't surprise me if this thread always pops up at the start of
Autumn with a converse thread at the start of Summer!!

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject are auto-deleted..sorry!)