My woods rail/bug out build.

[dustymojave]

You COULD make that cold weather warm intake so it's not quite so automatic.

In my '58 Baja Bug,I eliminated the unreliable thermostat on the lower side of the oil sump that operates the flaps in the bottom of the fan shroud to reduce cooling air to the cylinders and heads in cold weather. If it had been reliable, I'd have left it. But it wasn't. So I connected the original choke cable (carb was updated to an electric choke) to the cross link bar of the fan shroud flaps and watched my oil temp gauge. Put a throttle return spring on it so it would close when I pulled the knob out. Mounted the engine end of the cable to the boss on the top case seam for lifting the engine with a bracket made of aluminum angle stock and a cable clamp. Start the engine with the flaps closed (knob out) just like a choke. Then open the flaps as the oil temp rises. Even in sub-freezing weather, I pushed the knob in to open the flaps fully by about 3 miles from the house. It worked even when the morning low temp outside my house was -6F. YES...it HAS been that cold here in the SoCal desert! Not often though.

So I'm thinking a similar system for air cleaner intake air control flap between the exhaust pre-heat and the air cleaner inlet. It would require an air box around the air cleaner with 2 inlets, one warmed by exhaust, the other fresh and cool unheated air. The air box could maybe be made from an aluminum pot. The air box can also be remote mounted.

Or even use a 2-snorkle stock VW oil bath air cleaner with a paper filter replacing the oil. Some years have a warm air riser from the muffler to the snout that is automatically thermally operated. Also available from some older American/Canadian cars (Chevy/Ford) that used a thermally operated heat riser from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner intake snout . I know the problem with that concept is that in the Rust Belt, such old cars are not so readily available.

I also know that you won't find a listing at the FLAPS for a paper air filter element to fit the VW oval shaped air cleaner. But if you take out the oil bath filter from the underside of the lid, then measure the height, then measure the length and width, you can find a round filter that can be hand re-shaped into an ellipse to fit.

Say the space is 4" front to back, and 7" left to right, and 3" high.
7" + 4" /2 = 5.5"
So you look for a filter that's 3" high x 5.5" round.

Paper or gauze or foam element, your choice.

If you design the flap so it opens one side and closes the other at the same time like the ones on factory air cleaner intakes did...there ya go!
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[oprn]

Yes a manual one like you describe is going to happen but it would be nicer to have it automatic.

Interesting that you did a manual engine cooling flaps, most just throw it all in the bush without further thought. In the 30 years our family have owned and driven air cooled VWs there has been a couple that have failed open but the failure rate has been lower than the thermostats in water pumpers in the family. I would not have called them unreliable based on our experiance. Maybe they fail oftener in warm climates?
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[dustymojave]

https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/43EF30_AS01?hei=1000&wid=1000

This air compressor air filter has tubes into the bottom (don't know what they're intended for) that might be used for warm air.

This link shows several such air cleaners with warm air for Ford F-Series and Broncos from the 1980s.
http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/hot-air-shroud.html

Here are the images from that link:

These are all from Ford light trucks of the 1980s. The flaps are operated by a vacuum pot that PROBABLY will let hot air in when the manifold vacuum is VERY high, like when the choke is closed. There may be some way to replace that vacuum pot with a cable, like I described in my previous post. Or maybe some other sort of actuator, like an electric servo, as used to steer a radio control car/plane.

These shown are all Ford, but most ALL American and Canadian cars of the 1970s-80s era used this sort of intake pre-heat. You might be able to adapt an entire air cleaner, or just use the snout or even 2 of them to an air filter in a box.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Aerindel]

Honestly I think a warm air intake would have to work VERY WELL to need to worry about control flaps for it.

Even with mine, the carb is noticeably cool to the touch even on a 90º day.

The real difference is that it no longer gets covered in frost the way it used to.
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[oprn]

Thanks for the ideas dustymojave, yes a bit of time spend at a wreckers could well yield a fairly easy solution.

[Aerindel]

Yep, and regardless of the temperature of the carb body, the air passing through it has to have a certain amount of heat energy in it to vaporize the gasoline properly.

But really, all this comes from aircooled.nets article on making a progressive 32/3 carb work properly. They seem to know what they are talking about in general and they harp on carb heat and intake heat with this carb.
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[oprn]

In reality it applies to all carbs, it's just that the longer the intake runner the more it matters. FI just bypasses all that intake stuff and puts the fuel right dead on the hot valve, direct injection puts it in the hot combustion chamber so really it matters there too.

It all comes down to the fact that raw liquid fuel does not burn and heat is needed to turn it into a vapor.
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[dustymojave]

Which is why you get better fuel economy using fuel injectors that spray a finer mist. But OTOH, have more trouble with clogged injectors.

Yet...Don't forget how N2O works...Cool the incoming charge to reduce its volume so more fuel and air can be packed into the combustion chamber for more hp.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[oprn]

Like many things in life there is a trade off. To get maximum power you waste some gas, to get maximum efficiency in fuel burn you loose some power...
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Aerindel]

Here is a pic of the air warmer with it taken apart.

And tonights progress on fenders with a cargo shelf:

The shelf is narrower than the fender because I built it very light and don't want it to be the first thing I hit a tree with so its a couple inches narrower than the tire is.
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[oprn]

[Aerindel]

[quote="oprn"]

[Aerindel]

Well, I got the other one done today.

Now I really have to figure out what I am going to do with the front bumper and front fenders. I'd like to narrow it to avoid the getting bent into the wheel problem...but worry that it won't qualify if its not full width. The state website is unhelpful and does not define what a bumper is.

They've never given me any trouble for the OTHER bumper I built:

_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[Aerindel]

Well, that was frustrating.....

I had to replace a lower ball joint, so I did that, which wasn't too hard.

But while doing that, I found out the front torsion tubes where not full of grease. Just 'greasy' around the bearings and the springs where greasy...but nobody has used the grease fittings for a long time.

Well, I started pumping grease in, had a hell of a time with my grease gun, and the pretty quickly, I just couldn't get any more in. As I understand it, you pump until you see grease coming out the seals at the end of the tubes...but after pumping a couple tubes in, the grease gun just got rock hard with still no sign of grease at the seals.

So I had the bright idea to pull the front suspension arms out a little bit to see if maybe I could get the grease moving again. Well, I pulled one out too far, so it came off the springs, and had a hell of a time getting back on.

Finally got it all back together three hours later....still can't get anymore grease in. Never thought this would be that hard of a job.
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[Wulfthang]

Try replacing the Zerk fittings. Sometimes, they get so gummed up, they won't open for new grease.

[Aerindel]

New mystery! at least to me.

I found a huge pile of grease today when I was looking at it in the light.

There are small holes in the top tube, on the bottom, behind what I assume is the stock frame mounts. The vertical crossmembers with bolt holes in them, about a foot inboard of the trailing arms on both sides.

I haven't noticed them before, and you can't even see them without taking something apart, but I can feel them on both sides, and on one side, about a cup of new grease has pumped out of the hole instead of coming out the seal.

Anybody know what these are?
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[Aerindel]

Stuck my phone down there and got a picture of the mystery holes in my front tubes.

Anyone know what these are and why?

_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[oobleck]

Aerindel, coincidentally I was working on a carb preheat setup for my baja. Mine uses an aircleaner from a 1980 Toyota Corolla, with a vacuum/thermo controlled flap. I booty fabbed some piece of factory tin to collect warm air from the head area. still working out where to pick up vacuum to actuate the valve

[Aerindel]

Nice. Looks like it should work well.
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046

[Aerindel]

Well, crap.

Front disc brakes installed.

Proportioning valve installed.

Front wheels still lock up way too easily.

Looks like I have to throw a bunch more $$$ into this to make it work and be street legal. Or just discreetly pinch off the front brakes completely.
_________________
Homemade woods/street, bug out rail. IRS, Balljoint front end. 1967 1600cc DP, Weber 32/36 progressive, tri-mil quiet pack. Rear only cutting brakes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630046