Ventilation

[Darrell]

I have an idea for my Air cooled 126.

I have noticed when it rains the engine gets wet, starts all sorts of issues for me like corrosion etc.
And washing the car water goes in through the vent bit of the engine cover leaving what was a shiny engine dirtyish.

What if I covered these vent bits over, nice and smooth look for the back and placed an electric fan to draw extra air in through the tunnel.

It would be fairly easy to cut a hole in the tunnel and place the fan blowing strait down at the exhast which would help the whole engine keep cool.

And thoughts?

[126dave]

why not fit some polish tat?....axel has nice plastic covers for those vents,if you get them,do as i did,trim off the dodgy moulding flash,flat them with 800 grade then re spray with satin black........

[fiatfsm]

the vents in the engine lid are there to let hot air OUT not cool in! the side vents do that. If you totally cover them up the engine will get hot and stuff will melt like wiring I have some plastic covers that stop rain getting in and the like, got them in Poland for around a pound.

[Darrell]

As I said, the electric fan would push the hot air out.

[bis13]

how would the hot air escape?

[126dave]

what ever you do be carefull,if you google 126 pics,you will see some people in europe for sustained summer running have a neat little wire bracket to prop open the boot....thats how crucial the cooling is......in standard form in hot weather and traffic cooling is marginal,my old buzzbomb ran as hot as hell with a few mods and hard driving,i ended up cutting the rear boot in half for extra cooling.....this car is going to have extended bottom hinges to release more air (less boy racer looks).

as a point of interest,the italian 126 has bigger air vents,the fsm still has the pressing in place but the vents are not punched....polish weather conditions???

[bis13]

i have made a bracket out of some bits i had lying around that can hold my rear door open about 4 inches to aid cooling when its hot , i dont think filling in the vents is a good idea , darrel if you need some covers i have a set of plain ones you can have.

[Darrell]

Thanks Mick,

Yes keen on those.

But I dont know, the Idea I have is to blow the hot air down through the gap next to the exhaust.

That is after all where the heat is coming from in the main.

Air is blown through the head and barrels, it is then expelled just above the exhaust.

At low revs the air is not very much.

Thus the thought was to take air from the tunnel and blow the air down, hopefully picking-up the aire which has gone though the barrels etc, and then blowing the hot air out which will be coming off the exhaust.

I am going to run a trial with a good strong fan.

In winter simply switching off the fan would warm the engine up quicker.

In summer the exhaust gasses will not be added to the engine bay.

I dont think anyone is understanding me..lol

[bis13]

but the problem you will have is that you are going to drain off electricity from the system that is already lacking , i really dont think you will achieve anything as the system is already good enough . the only thing you need to do is make sure the exhaust heat deflector is in place and if you need fix the rear door open slightly to allow better ventilation .

[Darrell]

Yeah maybe best to run the car first.

All weekend got one wheel arch welded as I was playing run out with welder, run back in with welder coz of the rain.

With a bit of luck I'll finnish it next month...

[bis13]

this is what i meant its all you need to keep it cool on long runs and summer days.