Itinerant Air-Cooled

How adversely is engine cooling affected on open-engined Bajas and dune buggies? Just curious.

This is timely. I saw a guy with one yesterday and was wondering the same thing.

run full cooling system.
I have a buggy with a chico performance built 2276 cc type 1. chicos engine is now 6 years old. i beat it up on a regular basis. head temp runs around 280*- 350* , oil runs 180* to 220*. I have both the stock oil cooler and an external cooler with a thermostat and temp switched fan. fan only runs on surface roads after an extended highway run, which is when my oil temps hit 220* oil temp is more closely related to rpm than work.

I know a guy that bought a buggy with an engine installed with the shroud and fan, i knew the guy he bought it from. the first guy drove it rarely and the second guy couldn't stop driving it. both had been sternly warned by more than a few people that this was a really bad idea. Its a smoke pig now, runs smoothly but lacks power. second guy put full tin on it and is now saving money for a long block.

But I thought the engine seal is the line of demarcation which is not to be compromised, lest cooling suffer. I guess I assumed that the body and hood were part of that.

I have a baja project still a project, but my assumption was that yes, the tin would be there. But the issue has been a concern nagging at the back of my mind.


neal

you don't need the breast plate under the crank pulley. i even have the little deflector plates that attach to the cylinder tins at the cooling air exhaust above the rear of the sled tins.
the body and seal are important when the engine is enclosed in an engine compartment, otherwise muffler heat and hot cooling air exhaust would find it's way into the engine compartment. in an open to the weather application it's not needed.

"Cool Tins" are NEEDED when opening up the engine compartment. They fit under the cylinders barrels to aid in directing the cool air around the walls better. I drove mine everyday last week and it was HOT here. 72 miles one way downhill...72 miles home uphill. Stock 1600DP/Kaddie Shack Kadrons/Bosch 034 SVDA.
Im putting one together now and will take some pics of the "cool tins" as I get there.

Had to lay on back in the garage for this one ;)


Just got done painting this one. Shows what they look like better.


I have no thermostat either and no overheating issues.

My Thing engine had a set of those on it.

Never seen anything like those. What about the standard tin, sleds and deflectors?


neal

I actually saw a pimped out bug the other day, something that was heading towards baja land with a Typ1. It also had really nice looking tins, however it was obvious that it's a machine that's used.

I've never had a street bug so I'm not familiar with the other tins. Other than the cool tins and the top cylinder covers, nothing else is used. There is alot more airflow back there in a baja than in a street car, so the concern to route air out of the engine compartment is non existant.

Gonna have to scare me up a couple of those.


neal

I dont have a spare set, but they are pretty cheap. Like 13 bucks from a VW parts house.

bajaman72 wrote:

Would it make sense to put these on a Bus engine in a Bus?