Itinerant Air-Cooled

Hello,

I have an 81 Vanagon, with an aftermarket exhaust (CSP headers to vintage speed muffler) - and as a result no more heater boxes.

It slipped my mind until the other day that I removed the 2 pieces of cooling tin that were between the heater boxes and the case - to repair them - but never attempted to put them back on with the new exhaust ... as I assumed they would not longer fit.

I have read somewhat conflicting reports as to how critical these are in cooling - but with their removal, and the removal of the heater boxes ... I am thinking I need something in there to:

---- A. Re-direct the cooling air up and along the bottom of the cylinders, and
---- B. Shield everything from the heat coming off the headers

It would not be too hard to make some brackets (to replace where they attached onto the heater boxes) to mount the existing ones in place ... but that could just trap more exhaust hear up there.

Anyone done this? Is it worth the effort? Any non-stock exhaust I have seen does not have them anymore. CHT's are fine right now ... but the original tin was there for a reason ..

slow.bus wrote: A. Direct the cooling air past the thermostat
B. Shield push rod tubes from rocks

the original tin was there for a reason ..

Indeed it was . . .
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:

slow.bus wrote: A. Direct the cooling air past the thermostat
B. Shield push rod tubes from rocks

the original tin was there for a reason ..

Indeed it was . . .
Colin

thank you

obviously all set-ups are different, but any examples of people's work on this - with no heater boxes ... any tips / learnings?

.... are all stock pre-drilled holes in the heads etc around there 6X12 mm?

For what its worth, I went and made 2 new tin pieces to protect the underside.

One was made from the existing tin - by hacking it up and adding metal where needed (it had rusted / rotted in places). This was a lot of work - mostly due to the mounting holes no longer lining up - and ultimately looks quite gross - but works

Next one was made from scratch (but used existing one as a template) - was faster and end product looks much nicer - still obviously an amateur job - but lines look good.

If anyone else tackles this - just make one from scratch - hammer, tin snips, drill

slow.bus wrote:For what its worth, I went and made 2 new tin pieces to protect the underside.

One was made from the existing tin - by hacking it up and adding metal where needed (it had rusted / rotted in places). This was a lot of work - mostly due to the mounting holes no longer lining up - and ultimately looks quite gross - but works

Next one was made from scratch (but used existing one as a template) - was faster and end product looks much nicer - still obviously an amateur job - but lines look good.

If anyone else tackles this - just make one from scratch - hammer, tin snips, drill

Aw don't worry about "looks". Got pictures?
Colin

Amskeptic wrote: Aw don't worry about "looks". Got pictures?
Colin

slow.bus wrote:[attachment]

Looks serviceable . . . =D>