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Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:00 pm

I'm building a 2 liter motor for my '59, and am looking at options to help it breathe and keep cool. I don't like the look of hinge stand offs or the prop on the bottom.
I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the wheel well behind the rear wheel and welding in a louvered panel. Something like this http://www.tlgenterprises.com/dimensions.jpg
I've never seen it done this way, and I'm not a fan of cutting the body, but this wouldn't be seen, and could easily be welded up if I changed my mind. Any thoughts?

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:06 pm

If you have not thought of it already, try a convertible decklid. Also an external oil cooler is another way to go.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:29 pm

I've considered a convertible decklid, but staying with the correct year decklid, I don't like the look of the horizontal vents on the lid with the vertical vents on the body. Visually it doesn't work for me.
I plan on running an external oil cooler. My case is already drilled and tapped. Would this be sufficient, to keep the car cool, without additional air to the engine?

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:33 pm

They sell reproduction W Vert decklids if you want one.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=640835

Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:15 pm

I would probably try a mod to the front engine tin over the transaxle. Maybe cut an extra hole in it and cover it with screenwire.

Sun Mar 21, 2010 3:29 pm

An external oil cooler will help with the oil, but won't have much of a cooling effect of the cylinders and heads. To get extra air, I heard of some people cutting a hole in the decklid in front of the license plate, or running without the front engine tin.

Sun Mar 21, 2010 4:25 pm

Humanure wrote: To get extra air, I heard of some people cutting a hole in the decklid in front of the license plate, or running without the front engine tin.

I get the decklid hole under the plate, but wouldn't running without the breastplate tin introduce more heat via the exhaust system?
Understand, I'm just asking; it seems counterproductive.

Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:26 pm

DPicasso wrote: but wouldn't running without the breastplate tin introduce more heat via the exhaust system?
Understand, I'm just asking; it seems counterproductive.

Humanure and Culito were talking about the front engine tin (remember Muir, "front is front"). They are talking about the piece between the fan shround and firewall. You mentioned the breastplate, which would be the rear engine tin.

Either way, I think it best to leave both pieces in tact to perform their job.

Also, I think holes in the fenderwells would be kinda close to the heads, and may just suck in hot air from that area, but I'm far from an expert on the cooling system.

If you absolutely can't live with propping the top or bottom of the decklid, I'd either go the vert lid route or the hole behind the license plate.

Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:58 pm

"Front is front"- right. It's easy to forget! :wink:

Mon Mar 22, 2010 8:10 am

As stated before, Ive seen guys cut slots or graft in a vent section from 68 and later front hood, under the license plate. Out of sight but allows more breathing.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:10 pm

Tennis ball standoff will help.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:02 pm

The VW cooling system has been carefully engineered to WORK with all the tin, engine and body sheet metal in place as well as all the rubber seals.

The engineers spent millions of dollars and hours doing flow tests to make things work. There isn't much you can do to improve on it and a lot of "fixes" actually introduce hotter air, or reduce the flow of cool air to the places it needs to go.

Before you go making an improvement which may only make things worse, you first need to monitor what the REAL situation is.

It may not be running at elevated temperatures and if it's not and you do things to cool it down, you arn't doing it any good!

Invest in a few gauges so you can see exactly what it's doing. Then and ONLY THEN will you know if you need to make improvements.

Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:26 pm

VW added decklid cooling slots both for added displacement and also for higher capacity fans (doghouse). I'm not sure which was the greater need, but you should mimic what VW did for best results if you aren't instrumenting things.

The trouble with a louvered panel is that at the rear of the inner fender mud and water are being flung UPward from the tire, so the louvers will scoop up crud no matter which way you angle them.

I like the hidden louver idea under the plate, assuming airflow there allows for unrestricted flow.

You don't want to mix heated air from under the tin into the upper engine bay, both for the HP of the motor and the effectiveness of cooling.