1976 crew cab - vents in the wrong place?

[hecate]

I've had this 1976 crew cab for the past 3 years, but something's always seemed a bit wrong about the vents on the rear. They look like this:

Whereas any other bay window crew cabs or single cabs I've seen have several longer rows of vents directly under the cargo bed, with no vents either side of the engine bay, like this:

Just wondering if this could impair the airflow into the engine in any way, as it's probably not the original design that VW intended.

[jtauxe]

You are correct that the vents should be as done on the green bus in your photos. Have you looked inside that compartment on the red one for evidence of hackage?
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[1967250s]

Maybe that is the European model with a 1600? What does the other side look like?

[jtauxe]

[ToolBox]

1978 from Uruguay

1986 from Brazil

Both are stock with 1600 Type I motors.

[modernbeat]

It's been a while, like twenty years, but I thought the limited, rear vents came on trucks with the desert intake option to reduce the amount of dust in the engine compartment. Look and see if the rear of the cab and the underside of the cargo area is double skinned for air to enter the engine compartment. Or, see if it has M-Code 004.

[jtauxe]

This one is originally from Ireland, in fact:

And, as far as the high air intake vent, you can see the louvers on the C-pillar in this photo:

_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[busdaddy]

The louvers on the back corner of the cab are on all later trucks to improve cabin airflow.
If it's a dusty conditions truck it'll have a solid bulkhead infront of the engine with only a single oval hole infront of the fan, like this crappy little pic:

Non dusty trucks have holes in all the depressed areas (kind of visible if you look around the engine here):

I don't know if you could get the dusty option with a type 4 engine or if it was only available for type 1 power.
_________________
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[ToolBox]

[jtauxe]

[busdaddy]

Well now I was going by what I had been told by someone years ago who (I thought) knew thier s**t, having never actually gotten under the decklid of a 72+ truck that wasn't hacked beyond recognition I had no reason to think otherwise as VW did significantly improve the heating and ventilation systems in 72 and earlier trucks are airtight when they aren't rusty and the heat doesn't work at all unless the window is open, my bad. I've seen each end of that system but never concluded they connected, there was a South Aftrican one a few years back that had a clyclonic dust extractor mounted on a tube in the RF corner of the box which further reinforced my obviously errant beliefs, I thought that duct went there, whooops.

[notchboy]

Weren't Irelands VWs CKD's? Granted if they were it should reflect German ones but I know for a fact that Australian CKD's didn't follow the rules??


?
_________________

[blue72beetle]

Split windows were like that, but not exactly.
_________________
-Andy-
-1970 Ghia-
-1971 Bus 1776 Microsquirt EFI-

[hecate]

Thanks for all the detailed information, there's not many pick ups/crew cabs left in Ireland so I've not had a chance to inspect another one up close.

So I had a closer look in the engine bay and it does look like somebody welded in some grills :/ Very surprised that I hadn't noticed this before. The van was originally used by the Belgian army (still some evidence of army green paint here and there) so I thought this might have been related, but probably not.

Underneath the bed, the wheel arches extend over where the side vents would be on a normal pick up, almost right up to the bed itself. There is a tiny bit of space behind the wheel arches, but not much. Was the air from these vents ducted into the engine bay, or did it flow freely under the bed? Will try to get some pictures of the area under the bed.

[hecate]

[busdaddy]

[eegl95]

[jtauxe]

[crukab]