Hill Climb overheating

[dieselwagen]

my car is non-turbo. and on certain portion of a mountain, i have to downshift to fourth gear to get over the peak, and during these moments the engine temp gauge on the dashboard shows very high temps. (but not to the point of flashing red, only 3/4 on its way up to max. temp.)
how dangerous is this condition and what is the corelation between climbing a hill on 4th gear and engine overheating.

[Dakotakid]

3/4's doesn't seem so bad. You can downshift sooner, I suppose, and tend to lessen the heat build-up in the engine.
Everyone is going to remind you to make sure the cooling system is in good shape....like engine flushes, making sure the temp sending units are properly wired up and that the fan cycles as it should.

I've heard of guys wiring up an "override" on the fan to give you the opportunity to turn it on when you like.....like earlier.

You can turn the air conditioner on to activate the fan earlier (hillbilly cheating)...provided you don't end up generating more heat by struggling to run the air conditioning compressor......I've done this for short periods of time to help cool.

Your water pump may have been replaced at some point in time, and the replacement pump has the dreaded steel impeller blades(......I think my GTI 16 valve has one of these. I need to check this out someday when I have the time).

New anti-freeze probably would help with thermodynamic heat exchange.
....my 2 cents....I'd like to go now............

[clbanman]

My 91 NA normally runs between 1/2 and 3/4 on the guage (stock VW thermostat), and on steeper hills (no mountains locally) where I have to downshift to maintain speed it will do the same thing - 3/4 or a touch above but no light.  I don't have an accurate gauge to tell me true coolant temp and I don't know how consistent or accurate the stock gauge is.  I think as long as it doesn't keep climbing but just steps up and then stays there it shouldn't be a problem.  If it keeps climbing until you back off, then there may be cooling system issues.

[dieselwagen]

changed coolant today. its been 2 years since last time i did it after the reservoir cracked at the seams (first exposure to the flashing red), replacement i got from the boneyard is still holding up.
maybe "boost" is what i need, to fill in this area where my car is lacking.
but the NA is so good in other areas that it serves it's purpose well enough, and thankfully it is built to handle lots of stress on those hillclimbs.

i hear the cooling fans cycle themselves thru rush hour traffic while watching the temp needle go down, and i think i have stock 185*F?? thermostat. besides the hillclimb overheat, engine performs strong specially with "lots" of airflow thru the radiator. majority of warm operating temp is from 1/4 to 1/2 on the gauge, i also don't trust the accuracy of the oem dials.
i may consider a cheap 3-in-1 gauge from local parts store so i can monitor some vital engine info.
and the manual override switch is something i should think about, it would be nice to have fans operational on demand.

[lord_verminaard]

On my gasser Scirocco, the dash gauge will go up to about 7/8ths to max, but no light.  That's usually the place where the fans will kick on.  On my VDO coolant temp gauge, that area is at about 85c, which is the hottest I have ever seen it, and that's only about 185 F, which is still quite cool as far as an engine is concerned.  My Jeep runs at 210 F which is considered normal.  

Brendan