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Heater box / heat exchanger Meltdown pics
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hippiepilot
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:25 pm    Post subject: Heater box / heat exchanger Meltdown pics Reply with quote

Hello Samba scientists I'm in the process of rebuilding my 2.0 and ran across this melted heater box / heat exchanger. I currently live in FL and don't really have need for heat and was thinking I could possibly get away without the right side heater box having the aluminum innards. My concern was proper air cooling of course, I wasn't sure if this setup would cause a "hotspot" back in the engine bay. The left side heater box, of course, looks new. Thoughts, suggestions, any advice would be appreciated.

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I was able to cut, grind, pry, tap, hammer all of the melted aluminum out.
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I was hoping I could just seal her back up so I could get the van back out on the road until I found a heater box to replace the damaged one.
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Wildthings
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would guess that someone ran the engine with no air flowing through the heater box. Maybe one of the plastic hoses that moves air from the alternator to the heater box was left off for some reason. After all none of this stuff is really necessary Rolling Eyes at least in some peoples minds. I am not sure what affect not having the aluminium fins on the one side would have on head temperatures. Maybe none, but maybe enough to be of concern.
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hippiepilot
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The engine was leaking oil when I purchased it, but I didn't know the extent until I starting driving her and the heat that was radiating from the back was not normal. This is my second air-cooled, shame on me.

When I finally had the time I started working on the van I noticed that this part was non-existent. Uh kinda important.

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I have spent a lot of money for parts for the rebuild, including AMC heads, and I don't want to fry them. So that was my concern as well. Will the lack of the aluminum fins affect the head temp? How much do they disperse the heat? Are they there the help heat the van?
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GreenMachineVW
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are about to do a rebuild, and live in Florida, I would hope that you would be very prudent and reassemble the heating/cooling system with the utmost attention to return it to new, stock configuration ... Thanks for the photos of the heat exchanger: I always wondered exactly what they look like inside.

I believe that there is a recycled parts vendor in Georgia, or near there, that often lists air-cooled parts, including heat exchangers.
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SCM
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I might be way off base as far as Vanagons go but it's VERY common to swap the heater boxes for "J-Pipes" on Beetle engines. Since you live in Florida, maybe there is a similar option for you.
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hippiepilot
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What are "J" pipes?
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Wildthings
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

On a Type 1 engine a "J" pipe is a j shaped pipe that replaces the heat exchanger. The "J" pipe for a Type 4 really isn't j shaped at all, in fact it looks just like the stripped guts to your heat exchanger, pretty much because that is what many actually are, T4 heat exchangers with no fins or covers. Don't actually know if running J pipes affects head temperatures, this topic gets debated from time to time and few have really done any testing.
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