Heat in a VW - Fact or Fiction?

[wayne1230cars]

I have been thinking about this lately as colder temperatures are upon us. The question evokes all kinds of opinions from" VW's don't have heat" to "My VW will cook you out in the dead of winter." I thought of some of the variables that might affect your opinion.
1) Obviously where you live has a lot to do with your opinion. Having survived 60+ cold Canadian winters, my definition of adequate heat might be different than some others. 2) What year VW you drive and its overall condition. I was recently driving my stock 1960 bug with perfect heater channels, freshly installed NOS heater boxes and thermostat working and even at that, there is heat but not really adequate for a Canadian winter. My 1970, on the other hand produces a lot more heat and that is with aftermarket heater boxes that are not as good as factory boxes were. My 1967, which I no longer own, had heat that was quite adequate for temperatures well below 0 F.
3) Improvements in heater box construction - a) Looking at an old 36 hp box, it is literally just a pipe running through some sheet metal with an exposed outside pipe. b) 40 hp stale air box - a little larger oval outlet with enclosed pipe c) 40 hp fresh air box -getting better d) heater box with fins that dramatically improved heater function on the fresh air heating systems. Factory boxes were definitely better than aftermarket are. There were many other changes that the VW engineers made to improve the system over the years.
Just some observations then about VW air cooled heating systems. These 2 pics show a 36 hp box and a later finned box. Little wonder that the finned box transferred heat much more efficiently than the early style.

[Maddog209]

I am in my mid-40's and have owned several Bugs, all of which had functioning heaters, and lived in many different climates. On short drives I will admit the heaters leave a lot to be desired but when traveling 20 minutes or longer, I have never felt like I didn't have enough heat. As a child my father had several Bugs as well and we lived in New England. Again, I don't recall being cold in the winters while riding in a Bug. I guess I have been lucky.

I look at it this way, the Bug was born in Germany. I assume the Germans wnated to be arm while traveling. Seems like they would have made huge improvements if the systems weren't working. My 45 yr old Bug still has a wonderful working heater and defroster.
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Current VW's= 2013 Tiguan, 1968 Bug

[eluu]

My first bug was a '60 bought in '74 that had been riddin' hard, had far too many engine changes by hackers ... and needless to say, the heater boxes were non-funtioning
Did have an awesome gas fired heater up front though, and it worked without the engine running. slept in that car a few times

then in the 62 ... while driving through a blizzard in NH, the candles came through well ... hot waxed to the dash

explain that first pic will you please?
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67 Java Green Beetle - originally sold in Middletown, NY.
69 Microbus Westfalia
75 Microbus Westfalia

[67type0ne]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=491112

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[wayne1230cars]

[wayne1230cars]

[Maddog209]

[crvc]

I have a '67 that I did a body-off restoration on. I started with having a new floor welded in. I didn't think about measuring where the holes needed to be for meeting the threaded nuts in the body so they didn't match up once I was ready to put the body back on. I cut larger holes and eventually was able to bolt the body back on. But the holes were big enought that they let all the heat escape before reaching the front of the car. I welded sheetmetal panels over the holes to keep ice and snow from splashing up into the car but that didn't improve the heat at all.

Then I put in the bilge pump style of boosters under the back seat. Everything else that a brand new 1973 DP 1600 engine has for heat I put into the '67 car. So all the heat comes from the back seat. If it's below zero outside it takes 20 minutes for the car to feel truly warm.

The only thing left for me would be to connect a gas heater to the driver side defroster. My dad moonlighted as a mechanic in a VW garage when he was stationed in Germany so he knows a lot about bugs. He's working on turning an old 6 volt gas heater into 12 volts.

I only need to drive 15 minute to get to work so I'm not that enthused about igniting gasoline with a spark plug to be able to have immediate defrost heat. I'd rather wear my coat, wool hat and gloves for the 15 minute drive.

Last winter I was taking a class at the college an hour's drive on the interstate. Dealing with semis passing me and kicking up snow the entire drive kept me from noticing the cold inside the bug.

I'd hoped to buy a new Ford F250 by now (0% interest!!!) but both of my daughters decided to go to a private college so there's no money for a pickup and I'm stuck driving the old bug for at least three more winters.

crvc

[billy270]

Well heat on these cars are exclent.... warm up quite fast...actuly ..... the only thing that will give u good heat well great heat is the factory heater boxes the after market are junk....but i plan to change that.... i am working on casting the orginal internals and working on a externel heater box that wont rust.... but as of right now the only way ur going to get good heat is if u throw the danks trash out and bolt on a set of oem boxes.....

[Snort]

I have been driving my 36hp Bug in 30F weather lately, and it is warm and toasty. Don't forget when you are looking at the stale air heat exchanger boxes, that the air is coming from the cylinder heads where it picks up most of the heat so they don't need much from the exhaust pipe, whereas the fresh air exchangers get their air supply straight from the fan. I agree that they got better with later models, but I've owned and driven many different air cooled VWs and my 57 Bug compares well with all of them for heat in the winter here in the Northwest.

[drscope]

With most of the 36 horse stuff I had, there were 2 ways to tell if the heat was on.

One, there was the smell of burning oil inside the car and an oil slick at the lower corners of the windshield.

Two, your left tennis shoe was on fire, while your right foot had frost bite.

But when I advanced to the fresh air heaters of the 40 horse stuff, we discovered the bilge pump blowers could be adapted under the back seat!

That gave you plenty of heat! I had a 63 with 2 of those and you couldn't run them both at the same time because it just got way too hot in the car.
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Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

[Helfen]

I have a stock Type 113 64 beetle 1200 40hp and it's heat is about the same as my 65 Type 111 standard fresh air 36hp when all vents are open. The part I like with the 65 Standard is the control to shut off heat to the rear, because the added flow goes to the front foot areas and more importantly to the defrosters where I can defrost the windscreen as well as warm my fingers. I would imagine because of that feature the 66 model had enough air/heat flow to add the center defroster.

Don

[gt1953]

Thermostat and flaps are needed for proper heat. The 73 out heats my 68.
For added defrost on the windsheild I have added a peice of plexiglass 4"X 5" near the corner vents. This aids in more hot air going on the windsheild. Works great for me.
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Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

[MinamiKotaro]

Mom's Squarebacks both had excellent heat. Never been in a Beetle that would do anything but set the foot next to the heat vent on fire while the rest of me was coated with frost.
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1967 VW Beetle
2276cc
MegaSquirt-extra v3.57
Check out my ongoing story.

[wayne1230cars]

[jzjames]

what about the heater boxes in the FI bugs? Thats what I have in my 75 standard, (converted to carb). Those heater boxes are substantially different than the pre-75 heater boxes. Ive heard people say they were better at putting out heat, but I dont think so. They seem to put out less heat than the older style.

[Helfen]

[wayne1230cars]

[wayne1230cars]

Another observation about stale air vs. clean air heating systems would be that with stale air, your car pretty well has to be moving to get heat. With a fresh air system you actually can get "some" heat at idle. Not a lot mind you, but some. Cracking a vent window just a bit also encouraged heat flow.

[glutamodo]

I still have stale air in my 62 bug... it's not great but it's not horrible either. I wouldn't want to drive in stop/start traffic in a blizzard though. I do have an assist blower inline on the driver side which helps keep the windshield clearer in such conditions. I did notice a noticable improvement once I put the original style throttle ring thermostat system back in. However I do remember one highway trip I made one night in the late 90s in eastern Montana, it was -25 degrees outside and in the car it was only like 20 above, I had to bundle up pretty tight there! But I don't drive my bugs in those conditions very much anymore though, that's what my 85 Golf is for.

I've been able to let my stale air idle though and still get some heat inside, I did it just yesterday evening. You need to have a thick bump-stop on the throttle ring if you run the thermostat though! A missing or thin bumper cuts off too much air to get much out of the heater.