IM cool air flow?

I am still debating aboiut whether to install an oil cooler in my IM b4 it goes to the new owner. On a standard 356 the cool air is sucked into the engine compartment thru the grill on top of the decklid. IT is my belief that this is not adequate for a VW motor which for a number of reasons tend to run hotter. I understand from VS owners that there is a 6 inch hole in the firewall right in front of the fan which draws in cold air and uses the grill as a vent. When I posted regarding external oil coolers a lot of the IM guys were running them which of course is understandable. So I am debating whether to cut a hole like you VS guys or go with hte oil cooler.
Thanks in advance.

Hey, Ralph. I have a VS and it didn't have a hole in the firewall in front of the fan intake. I ended up drilling some holes in the firewall to help with the cooling (I run an A/C compressor so my engine used to get a little warm here in miami). The holes in the firewall brought the tempature down substantially (I'd say about 20-30 degrees based on my dipstick thermometer).

I had an intake hole and the aux oil cooler put on my IM. The engine has ran 12k since last year after these two additions. It was a 2L engine.

Ralph,

My IM does not have a hole in the firewall in front of the fan. When I put in the new engine I added both an external oil cooler in the left rear wheel well and I added a vent for each carb in the inner rear fenders. The combination dropped the engine temps from about 225 to 215 on the hottest of days. I would add the oil cooler first then go for the carb vents. I did it the other way around and still needed the oil cooler. Hope that this helps.

Attached are the pictures of the carb vents.

Karl

Karl et al:
I poked a couple of holes in the engine compartment and directed air flow inside. Saw no difference. I already have the oil cooler so I guess I will put it on.

My CMC, as with all of them I think, has a "mouse hole" in the firewall in front of the fan. Draws a lot of air through the hole. I also have an external oil cooler w/fan that is mounted between the firewall and passenger comartment. Probably not the best place. With the cooler fan on the hot air from it comes through the hole and is ingested for engine cooling. On hot days run with the hood propped up a bit to allow more air entrance to help with cooling and under hood temps. I am going to install a vent/hose (like air cleaner hose for v8's) from the mouse hole and under the car leaving whatever space is left around the mouse hole to move "less" air from the cooler to the engine. Hopefully this gap will relieve a potential dead air space around the cooler that may exist if the hole were completely blocked. Right now I don't have any oil temp problems, just trying to make the air cooled side happier.

Hope this rambling helps somewhat.
Bill