Puma fan shroud

Photo not clear - but flip the hinge from side to side that will give you another inch plus clearance on either side.  Worked on mine. This photo shows how it should be installed - perhaps yours is reversed?

Yup, I did mess up the hinges. But the bigger problem is the fiberglass bottom of the hatch is hitting the cooling shroud.

Thanks

Mark

Here's what an OEM '71 dual port doghouse shroud looks like.  It is wider but not as high in the center.  Like I said at first my hinges clipped the very edges until I discovered I needed to flip them.

That's a bit weird.  I understand what Wolfgang is saying - that if the hinges are too close together on the body then they might interfere with the fan shroud and that is what the cover would look like if they hit.

OTOH, there is a big part of the cover inside top that sticks down into the engine bay and that part, at the top of the cover, might be hitting if it isn't the hinges.  If so, enough of it could be trimmed away to allow clearance.  We don't see that too often on here, but I haven't seen too many Puma fan shrouds, either.  Mine is a 1971 VW and looks just like the one in Wolfgang's photos - a lot like yours, too.

From your second photo, though, I would think everything should fit.  I'll go snap a photo of mine for comparison.  Stay tuned.

I have ran into this on a couple on past speedster projects I've bought. Whomever shortened the pan chassis screwed up and didn't keep both the front and rear sections on a perfect horizontal plan so what is happening is the the rear section is slightly upward and that is the cause of the engine to be a bit higher than normal ( I can clearly see this) and the shroud contacts the underside of deck lid. As Wolfgang said sometimes the straight top shroud may work ...not sure though.  If not , what you will need to do is mark for the 36HP shroud clearance and reshape the underside of the deck lid to form a cavity for the shroud to fit into, this involves a bit of glassing, top coat with a skim coat of Bondo and repaint.

To my recollection, a Puma or Thing shroud is just like a dog house shroud, just no heater holes.  

I believe Alan has hit on the cause.  When I put my pan together, I made sure it was level and square eight ways to Sunday, only because I am OCD, not because I thought it would make a difference in where the engine sat.  Here is my engine bay for comparison, and I have more room between the cover and fan shroud:

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. I think the best thing to do is to put my support brackets on correctly and re-construct the bottom of the hatch. I am also going to need to notch the back of the car due to an exhaust pipe clearance issue as well.

Regards to all

Mark

How far off is exhaust pipe and which exhaust brand?  I was able to heat (Mapp gas torch) the stock Ansa Quad tips and bend down about 1/2".  (I want new performance exhaust but stock 1641 cc engine). I could have gone further.  Any muffler place can bend and add a different tip.  Wonder how your tin surrounding the engine will seal?  That may take some work to but the VW bus H foam is pretty forgiving. 

On both Speedsters that had this , I used a Hideaway exhaust that makes a 180 along the right valve cover  and terminates below the right taillight... this way you don't have to do the body notch

I had the same issues with mine a long time ago before the interweb so the book was the  source. I'm using a Puma shroud ( I believe ) which I purchased from CB back in the 80'S and I still had to notch hinges.

I'm running a Monza exhaust and had to cut out the rear apron.

Many many moons later I found and joined this forum, learned about Butt Sag and after attending to this condition my clearance issues had decreased by a lot.

Thanks Mikelb. I will keep my eyes open for the shroud, and if I can’t find one, I’ll get the grinder and fiberglass out. Stunning car, by the way, 👍 I would love to see the interior. Any chance you could post a pic or 2? 

Thanks

Mark

IMHO based on my experience with this issue I don't think the Puma shroud is the fix because the engine is so high in the engine bay.   Happy glassing  ( It's not that difficult :~)

WOLFGANG posted:

How far off is exhaust pipe and which exhaust brand?  I was able to heat (Mapp gas torch) the stock Ansa Quad tips and bend down about 1/2".  (I want new performance exhaust but stock 1641 cc engine). I could have gone further.  Any muffler place can bend and add a different tip.  Wonder how your tin surrounding the engine will seal?  That may take some work to but the VW bus H foam is pretty forgiving. 

My muffler is a custom Vintage from Taiwan and I am going to leave the pipes the way they are. Not sure about the rear bumper clearance.....I guess that will have to be looked at soon. Thanks for the h-foam tip...I will look into it.

Followup on the measurements I found. Hope this helps and if the last measurement, apron to deck lid opening is shorter then I would think Alan is correct in that the rear section is tilted up out of plane from the front.

Thanks

I will check it out....