Thanks for all the advice guys. Here is what happened.

Fully reconditioned motor in Dec 04 New everything...
Drove in 40oc from Adelaid to Melbourne. Full load. Ran up to 115oc on big hills and good road.

Spent till 3 weeks ago putting around Melbourne working my ass off to drive up here. Never got over 105oc.

Left Melbourne and noticed within half hour heat was a bit up. in 5oc on straight road at 80ks got to 105oc in 5ks.

in 20oc got to 125 almost 130oc in 10ks. Flat as road. on dirt road got to 110oc doing 40ks in third.

Nothing else changed. The guage reads by lazer thermometer 115 oc when the thermo reads 115.

It runs just as well, no smoke no nothing but the overnight change was very noticable.

I use the best oil, drive at 80, service by good mechanic as if my life depended on it. The mechanic who races vws here in Alice said that it is heating up very fast. He has stripped it down to removing the oil cooler. EVERYTHING is in good working order, he is very impressed with the previous work by the guy who fitted the motor. GHR in Adelaide, Motor from Conti Engines in Brisbane. He recons something is wrong and it can only be comming from the block. But what? The motor is free and makes no odd noise.

Conti says if there is a problem they will look at it but we just cant drive to Brissy and hope he finds something. He recons it would be good if it had blown up.

The dipstick has not moved but what if it was reading low for six months and then actualy now reads what it always should have read? Just thought of that and boy, $600 just wasted on no repair? What do you make of VDO?

The motor has done 11,000ks in 8 months.

I came over here with my wife to travel have done so 6 weeks out of 10 months, the rest has been to work to pay for the Kombi. We could have traveld the world by now with the time and cash. ONLY a vw could do this to you. Be warned. IT MORE ADICTIVE THAN ANY KNOWN DRUG!!! we plan to carry on to Darwin and will keep you posted

To end it all, we had RACV cover $160. Do not leave home without it. The have towed us 300ks, Given us taxis, a new rental car and accomodation while this was being sorted. Up to 10 days. Also they would tow our van anywhere in Ozz the van needed to go and get us there. $160 think about it. I think this would have been about $2000 for the three days. Just cant rave about it enough.

Regards

Philip

ps is there a directory of VW mechs in Ozz?

That's good news that things don't look too bad. Have a great trip, and my only advice is don't put your head under water nor put the spring water in your mouth a Mataranka Springs....I ended up with giardia. :P:P:P.

hmmmmm...better news. Still not "shut the motor down" territory.

Just dont know if it enough to worry about??

Either dont worry and drive...or....

Would broken rings cause it to heat up???

On a full recon motor, full service and no noise?seems unlikly.

might find out soon

Hope things improve!
What's oil pressure at idle at those temps?
Also be nice to test exhaust to see if it runs lean/rich.

Broken rings should be evident from excessive blowby and drop in compression.

my 2L will sit on 110 degrees at 110 km/h with no problem i only get worried after it gets above 120 degrees

dont 4 get the car probally weight bout 2 ton ... and looks like a brick and yr trying to PUSH it fast something has gotto give

Just back off a bit and let the car cruise it may add another 30 mins onto your journey but you wont overheat or blow the engine

Did you use new cylinder heads or Conti Reco heads??
I would be taking them off and checking the compression ratio if the engine, especially if they are reco heads.nn[ Edited on 3-9-2005 by Dave Becker ]