My " GETTING HOT FIX "

LC, innovative and I like it. I do think you should spray it flat-black though...

what is the finish on your car?

Time for some rear engine lid "cutting" intervention!  That's 2 today!

It's RUST finish ..... Can't paint it flat black ! ( May put copper screen over it though ) Then it's not a filter , it's PLUG ! And I think it's rather racy , Wolfgang what's the other deck lid mod ?  'Cause I've been looking and most don't look they do anything but weaken the lid . I'm adding louvers soon on the sides of the grill as soon as I make the dies to punch some aluminum then will pop rivet them in pointing downward , MO RACY !

What are the odds for two of us to cut it up today...guess idle hands are the devils playground as they say..

The Devil and I are best friends !  James what's your post so I can check it out ?

  I had already cut that out months ago ,,, I cut the center out

L.C., so you had your car wrapped? I like it!

Thanks Will,, No I didn't have her wrapped ,,, I wrapped her .

Went to trim more off the outside edges , can't take the chance . I was able to trim about an inch off the edges before . These cars suck with overheating ! We worked on her all day yesterday with jetting and timing . ONE BIG LUMP OF FIBERGLASS INSULATION is what the engine compartment is .

"These cars suck with overheating !"

Hmmm...  I live in hot and steamy Charleston, SC, and I've never had an overheating issue even on long interstate slogs at 70-80 mph.  Could there be another issue that needs attention? 

  Thanks Lane ,, I'm not the only one with cooling problems with these things it's all over web sites ! Owned a slammed 1959 356A coupe in 1972 in Cali , it got hot but not like this thing . I travel back and forth between homes in St. Pete and Arcadia Florida , it's HOT here , been to South Carolina, (own a place in N.C. ) and it's not even close to the middle of Florida for being hot . Own 4 Air Kooled VW's right now and the only one that gets hot is this one .  Took some timing out of her and enriched the Kadrons , sealed the compartment off . First it was vapor lock , fixed that by rerouting fuel lines and insulated them .   I know that some cooling was lost when I slammed her BUT my Ghia is even lower with no problems . Engine compartment is smaller on this car and metal dissipates heat better . THAT'S WHY WE USE FIBERGLASS INSULATION IN OUR ATTICS TO KEEP IN THE HEAT AND THE COLD OUT ! I grew up with VW's , My father had 36 hp sand rails in the 60's in the Cali deserts and they never overheated like this thing. My cutting out under the grill and using the K&N Pre-filter did the trick so far ! Filter keeps the dirt out of my carbs now too !!! Temperature dropped . Next trick is to add louvers .

Do you have an oil cooler?

 These cars may be air cooled, but they are also oil cooled.

Need to resurrect the thread where someone made the rear lid rise up several inches with the touch of a dash button --- like the 911 rear spoiler. 

CMC build manual has moon shape crescent cut in front of the fan intake.  VS has a 6" round hole there with hardware cloth screen.  DrClock leaves the whole area above and to sides of flywheel ope (maybe 2" gap).  It would seem these would force air in when moving - and pull a bit when stopped.  Did you leave those open?  I could see vents in either side of inner wheel wells with hardware cloth screen to keep out sticks and stones.

@L.C. Lets see the under the hood pic

The firewall hole doesn't work. This thing LC did does. Terry Nuckels deck-lid prop does.

I'm lost why we keep going around and around about this.

Thanks, Bob and Wolfgang , I'm running a big Type 4 oil cooler .  Used them before and never had a problem . I don't like the ones with hoses , puts stress on pump . Wolfgang I tried running the car with that all sealed up to see if if made a difference , it didn't . So , everything is open now and covered with screen to keep the critters out. In Volkswagens there is no gaps , you want the area air tight to make the fan shroud do it's job. Which is to suck air in and blow it over the heads . These cars go against all the rules . I'm blowing dirt out of the compartment every time I pull her into the garage. Thus my pre-filter. I'll see this weekend when I pull her out. Next trick will be the wider fan in the housing . Thanks once again for your time and knowledge . MERRY CHRISTMAS

Bill when I get home I'll take a picture for ya !

I've done the holes. I've put fans in the holes. I've got a DTM. The DTM has a Type 4 cooler and the wider fan. I've got a 96 plate remote cooler.

The only  thing that really, really helps is getting more air into the engine compartment from the top, as LC and Terry are doing. Henry cuts out the area behind the licence plate on his 6-cyl cars, and that works well too. I hate to give up the rain-tray as much as the next guy, but somthing's got to give.

Hell , I'm thinking of a small scoop over the grill , my car isn't close to being "Original" so, why not make her "Original" in her own way , Functional. Not a big freakin' scoop but , a scoop maybe 2 inches tall 15 inches long and 12 inches wide . Anyone out there done this ?

I've put a small wedge between my deck lid hinges to lift the forward edge of the lid to allow air to scoop right on in...Works!

LC, can you post an underside pic of the cut out rain-tray? 

I've had 40 Speedsters now and still do not have an explanation for why some run hot and others don't.  In every case where one of them ran hot, I was able to bring the temps down by installing external oil coolers, oil sumps, sealing up the engine compartment and adjusting the carbs and timing.  Many of these cars had vertically the same engine configurations.  Go figure.

Bob: IM S6 posted:

Do you have an oil cooler?

 These cars may be air cooled, but they are also oil cooled.

oil coolers with fans(thermo switch or manual) is tops. The best thing to preserve car is COOL OIL.....

Stan Galat posted:

I'm lost why we keep going around and around about this.

The curse of the internet.  Why bother reading something when you can just hit the keyboard...and get all the replies you crave.  

Bob - And FREE advice is worth exactly what you pay for it! - nothing.

Bob: IM S6 posted:

Stan Galat posted:

I'm lost why we keep going around and around about this.

The curse of the internet.  Why bother reading something when you can just hit the keyboard...and get all the replies you crave.  

Sure, researching past replies and experiences is fine but what's wrong with asking again if your problem still persists. Advancements are made and new ideas come about all the time. 

There are answers that never change, like jacking points on our cars and a few others, but getting these engines to run cooler, why not ask that question if after doing previous suggestions and you still have a problem? Maybe someone came up with something that works for them and it's new. You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

Robert M posted:

Bob: IM S6 posted:

Stan Galat posted:

I'm lost why we keep going around and around about this.

The curse of the internet.  Why bother reading something when you can just hit the keyboard...and get all the replies you crave.  

Sure, researching past replies and experiences is fine but what's wrong with asking again if your problem still persists. Advancements are made and new ideas come about all the time. 

There are answers that never change, like jacking points on our cars and a few others, but getting these engines to run cooler, why not ask that question if after doing previous suggestions and you still have a problem? Maybe someone came up with something that works for them and it's new. You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

Bob: IM S6 posted:

Stan Galat posted:

I'm lost why we keep going around and around about this.

The curse of the internet.  Why bother reading something when you can just hit the keyboard...and get all the replies you crave.  

.......and a couple of those replies might be right!

So if you have a bunch of cars that are structurally the same and some run cool and some don't, maybe the problem isn't in the structure, but in the engines or their components.

I believe that there is enough variability from car to car that there isn't a single answer.

We are comparing significantly different engine sizes and setups with no controls or constants. Not exactly a scientific approach.

I think that "rain shield" can be made differently and reshaped to allow more air in than it presently does. I think I'll look around for some collapsible foam, put it in the engine compartment between the deck lid and the engine, shut it and see what clearance I have.   Anyone know where to buy foam like this ??.......Bruce

aircooled posted:

I think that "rain shield" can be made differently and reshaped to allow more air in than it presently does. I think I'll look around for some collapsible foam, put it in the engine compartment between the deck lid and the engine, shut it and see what clearance I have.   Anyone know where to buy foam like this ??.......Bruce

You could try this:

http://www.biofoamimpression.com

Buy it here:

http://www.biofoamimpression.com/biosite/where/

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1_qdExsVYo

screw all that crap ! K&N makes it in sheets , It's what I use Part number 25-3918,,,  UNI makes a great product that's 2 layers of a course and a fine . OR you can be cheap and go to Home Depot and buy a charcoal pre-filter for your home air system . 

PAN HANDLE BOB ,,,, IT"S THE CAR !!!!!! I'VE BUILT MORE VW'S THEN MOST,, THIS IS MY 46TH AIR COOLED VW ...HELL,,, I KNOW VW's

Bills here's those engine shots I took at lunch ,

I made this in 5 minutes and even polished it !!!  One nut and it comes off when not needed ....  Until I find or make a small fiberglass scoop to channel more air in her . FUNCTION OVER FORM !  maybe I'll build an actuator on a bell crank , who knows it may take me 30 minutes to do it , My job for the last 40 years has been solve problems . I was a 12 Bravo , Combat Engineer , in the most remote places in the world I've worked and played !!! Roughneck Pipefitter on rigs , this ain't crap to deal with .

I certainly didn’t mean that people suffering from high temperatures shouldn’t ask for suggestions. 

What I meant was that we really do need to stop replying with “solutions” that are pretty much universally acknowledged not to work BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY TRIED THEM. 

Bruce did some pretty exhaustive testing and determined that trimming the rain shield a bit offered a significant improvement in air getting into the engine compartment. Lots of guys from hot places have good observed data regarding just propping the decklid a couple of inches. 

I know of no one who has ever gotten good results with the firewall holes, however. I hacked up my own car, and even put some fancy blowers in the holes, without any benefit whatsoever. This has not deterred us from suggesting this every single time this topic comes up. It’s like the rising and setting of the sun, we can always count on someone suggesting holes in the firewall. It SEEMS like it should work, but it doesn’t  

LC came up with something that actually HAS worked, and he was sharing it with the rest of us. Nobody seems to be willing to accept that this is actually working, and we seem to be insisting that he do something that does not.

That seems very odd to me. 

No matter how many times the same tech question is posted on this site, for SOCers it's like a flame to a moth! 

Sharing a tech tip on this site, is like sharing your favorite recipe. Everyone will have a taste, then commence telling you how you can improve it. 

For entertainment value (and learning something new every time I log on), my $$ donations to be a part of this site is still the best bang-for-the-buck. 

In my 57 I purchased from Alan Merklin, he added a motorized rear bonnet lift that I actuate from the drivers seat.  It allows the lid to lift up and down about 5" while driving to vent.  Can open a little or a lot or close completely.  Has an emergency release cable in the left rear wheel well if I had to get in there in a hurry or a fire.  Really cools things off when needed and I don't have to get out of the car to open and close it.  I can get photos if anyone is interested.  Nd

L.C. posted:

I made this in 5 minutes and even polished it !!!  One nut and it comes off when not needed ....  Until I find or make a small fiberglass scoop to channel more air in her . FUNCTION OVER FORM !  maybe I'll build an actuator on a bell crank , who knows it may take me 30 minutes to do it , My job for the last 40 years has been solve problems . I was a 12 Bravo , Combat Engineer , in the most remote places in the world I've worked and played !!! Roughneck Pipefitter on rigs , this ain't crap to deal with .

My approach is the exact opposite...Front of lid lifted, rear sits as designed.

MusbJim posted:

No matter how many times the same tech question is posted on this site, for SOCers it's like a flame to a moth! 

Sharing a tech tip on this site, is like sharing your favorite recipe. Everyone will have a taste, then commence telling you how you can improve it. 

For entertainment value (and learning something new every time I log on), my $$ donations to be a part of this site is still the best bang-for-the-buck. 

You are so right, Jim.  And perhaps my post above (on the curse of the internet), could have been worded differently.  But, it has been known to happen...