Aircooled VW South Africa

Those missing cooling ducting parts and tinware:

Did you source and install them in the meantime?

Not the bellows no but all the tinware yes

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Advantage of this car (for this purpose), is... traction. Good weight distribution towards the rear driven wheels.

The bellows and ducting are not optional, it simply must be used. It was used to prevent prevent overheating in this application. Engine seal was only intended to keep dust out of engine compartment. The 412's drivetrain is on different rubbers than a kombi. Main mountings on top of gearbox are softer. So engine is rocking around/moving more. Think gap between body and engine is also more. Seal falls out more easily than with a kombi, but bellows is what matters. Also confirm that the air seals around the plug wires are in place where it passes through tinware.
By the way, the type three only use the bellows, it's engine compartment is open.

Also make sure air filter's inlet is connected to the body where it was from the factory.
There is a special ducting for this in the bodywork. This draws from the upper forward part of the air intakes, near the front of the rear side windows. Can be seen through the air intakes.

Driving without bellows is like driving a watercooled car with a partially blocked or half full radiator all the time. Damage will be permanent. (Loose valve seats, collapsed piston skirts).

Blow by/breather pressure on an aircooled engine- often caused by collapsed piston skirts. (When overheated, aluminium piston over-expanded but was squeezed by the steel barrel. Once cooled down, the piston shrinks and ends up smaller.) But this should'nt happen if cooling setup is still the way it was intended.