VW Cooling Tin in our Replicas

[Bill Gould]

I was reading Bob Stein’s Caroholic website and came across this in a posting about his BCW replica:

Turns out that the splash pans that never were on the car provided critical cooling, and not having them likely caused the premature cylinder failure. 

Can someone tell me what “splash pans” are? I’ve spent a lot of time, effort and money on getting my Lafer running and looking right, but not so much on the appearance of my engine bay. Maybe I’m missing something essential back there.
PMOSSBERG40759.6500578704

1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engine

[Paul Mossberg]

Not sure what he means by splash pans…

But all the stock VW cooling tin should be on your engine (including the pans that bolt on under the rocker arm tubes).

And as best you can, the engine compartment should be sealed to separate the exhaust form the engine.

On a stock VW, the cooling tin seals to the body sheet metal. On our cars, you will have to do lots of fabrication to seal the cooling tin to the perimeter of whatever surrounds your engine copmpartment.

 

PMOSSBERG40759.5009143519

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[Mark Hendrickson]

Amen Paul…he meant “engine tin” in VW talk.

BTW, my buddy’s Lafer has a pretty good seal around the engine compartment, almost like a real Beetle.

Pink MG40759.5181134259

[newkitman]

Pink,

Would you have a photo or link to a photo of the seal around his engine compartment?

(Thread deviation for a moment)

While on the subject of engine tin and engine compartment seals, what does everyone use in front of the motor between the fan housing and the transaxle? I was thinking of fiberglassing in some screen door screen to keep out debris and fouling out the fan.

We return you to your regularly scheduled topic.

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

[Paul Mossberg]

Even better Allen…

By asking about “splash pans”, Bill Gould started an excellent discussion on proper cooling for VW based TD replicas.

So I changed the subject to match the topic.

 

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[Bill Gould]

Happy to be of service, Paul, no matter how inadvertent it was.

I don’t think the shop that installed my new 1600cc Type 1 motor knew about sealing around the engine compartment. I don’t take it there any more, having found a much more knowledgeable guy within walking distance of my house. Now that I think about it, he may have mentioned that very thing to me awhile back when he was replacing my fuel pump. (Now, where did I put all that extra cash I had lying around . . . ?)

TexAg7140759.996087963

1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engine

[Mark Hendrickson]

Bill,  I am in NJ and my buddy moved to DE a few months ago. I am not near the car any longer.

I’ll see if he can get me some pics.

However, I can tell you that the single port VW mill had all ALL the stock tin, to include the tin that sits vertical over the “bell housing” area of the engine block.

This tin and the cylinder covers were flush up against what appeared to be stock VW rubber gaskets that line the bottom edge of the Beetle engine bay.

[Bill Gould]

Thanks, Mark. Every scrap of information I can get helps. (Although the more I learn about these little jewels, the more I realize is yet to learn.)

1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engine

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