Driving With the Deck Lid Open

[jazzed]

It seems that it should help with the cooling and I've certainly seen many driving that way....whaddaya y'all think?

[[email protected]]

You are joking, right? Why not take the apron off and remove the decklid altogether? That way all the hot exhauxst air can go directly up to the fan, rather than having to go around all that stuff first.

[Aussiebug]

Silly me - I just realised we are in the BUS forum here - not the same thing at all. The usual method of getting a little more cooling air into a bus engine bay is to put scoops over the air inlet slots.

Regards
Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/

[Aussiebug]

No WRX, he's not joking.

An early model bug (solid engine lid) with a doghouse cooling fan WILL run short of air at higher speeds.

On of the several fixes for this is to prop the bottom of the engine lid open a little with a half tennis ball or similar over the catch.

If that fixes the hot engine problem, you know what the cause is.

Permanent improvements in cooling to suit the larger fan in the doghouse engines are...

1. The engine lid propped open as described above.

2. Deck lid standoffs - they work but spoil the lines of the car I think.

3. Get a cabrio lid for the same year - with the 2 sets of slots.

4. Graft slots into the existing lid. I've seen the front air vent vertical slots off a Kombi/bus grafted in - looks quite good.

5. If you have a 68 or later bug, you can use the 2-slot 70-71 lid, or the 4-slot 72+ lid - they all interchange.

6. Use standoffs for the licence plate and cut hidden holes in the lid behind the plate.

7. Cut slots into the sides of the engine bay - into the rear wheel area - this works but the fan pulls in a lot of road grime, and that equals a dirty engine.

If the overheating is NOT as a result of putting a larger fanned engine into a solid lid bug, then you have to find out what's causing the overheating - missing tinware, unused holes in tinware, spark plug sealing rubbers missing, under-cylinder or under-head flat deflector plates missing, no cooling flaps (results in overcooled cylinders and undercooled heads), running lean, and so on.

Regards
Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/

[Lind]

scoops, now there is a stupid idea. (sorry to flame the previous poster here) scoops actually restrict airflow, they look like shit and you have to drill dozens of holes into your bus to mount them. I thought that stupid fad went out with the 80s.

buses generally have no problems getting enough air into the engine compartment with the stock setup. I have run a doghouse fanshroud in my splittie for over a hundred thousand miles with no problems in the air flow department.

[23window]

Since you did ask what we think...I vote against air scoops for the reasons listed above, yuck. If you have a stock engine/carb, you should have enough air in the engine compartment to run without problem. However a friend of mine is running dual carbs on his singlecab and has to open the decklid to aid airflow. I'm not promoting that but its what he does. If your bus is running hot your problem may be bigger than the volume of airflow (timing?).

[IndianaVWKid]

When we were driving my buddies '64 from Cali. to Indiana, We had the engine lid open, we found it helped...compaired to being closed, about 10 degree differnce, but we were on the highway doing 65-70...and he had a doghouse on his, the constant speed I'm sure did not allow the hot air back in. I don't wanna put scoops on, nore do I want to prop the engine lid on my bus. I've been having some trouble with overheating, and everything seems tuned right...And it wasn't rebeuilt too long ago...Any suggestions to a hot bus engine?

[jakubs_mom_says]

Scoops may look dumb but they do lower the engine temp. Nate Morse just did some testing w/ and w/o them in the central valley and has actual numbers to back it up. As for opening the deck lid, all I see is heresay. So someone w/ a temp gauge go drive for a bit with lid closed record temps, take same route w/ lid propped or removed and record temps. The theory behind just recycling your hot engine air is plausable though, would like some real numbers though.

[jakubs_mom_says]

james, you can run high octane fuel, lower compression or get a remote cooler. The remote cooler being the best.

[oilspot]

Keep the engine lid closed!
if your bus is running lean due to poor jetting? intake leaks (commonly overlooked!!!) or any other engine inbalance it will cause it to run hot. I've run a 65' bus with a 1600dp with a doghouse back and forth across the country. It took a while but I slowley found optimum jetting etc and I could run all day long without overheating.
There is no reason you shouldn't be able to get a stock engine to run well!!!