Aircooled VW South Africa

Good work so far Gary the speedy is gonna go like stink with that 1.8 in the back ! Can we talk about the panels you made for cooling your a/c engine for my wife's speedster ?

Nice work! Custom fabrication is so rewarding when everything comes together...

splitfan wrote:Good work so far Gary the speedy is gonna go like stink with that 1.8 in the back ! Can we talk about the panels you made for cooling your a/c engine for my wife's speedster ?

We can indeed.......I was thinking of keeping them, but they are just going to be stored and forgotten about as I won't go back to air cooled and if I part with the car, it'll be sold as is.

I made a set for Kevin (rabid ant) on mates rates for R400 about a year or so ago. I'll be happy with getting the same amount for the set that I have if that's okay with you?

Yeah blitz..........custom fab that will allow me to go into pretty much any spares shop and buy parts for my car.........

That sounds like a plan , you can add R400 bucks to your watercooled fund , I will give you a call to arrange pickup you still on holiday or back at work ?

splitfan wrote:That sounds like a plan , you can add R400 bucks to your watercooled fund , I will give you a call to arrange pickup you still on holiday or back at work ?

I'm back at work........but can bring it into work with me if you want, I work in hatfield and it would be easier for you if you're still on leave?

Hi Gary , nope back at work but Hatfield wont be a problem I will give you a call to arrange the day , just have to check when is my next "Pretoria run", please keep it for me I wont let you down , thanks !

cool beans man, just let me know when and I'll load it up and take it to work with me.

So, the exhaust is pretty much done. I say pretty much as the downpipe has to be redone as the mandrel bend didn't pitch up in time and I only had today to do the mock up as this weekend the radiator has to be in place, But they were more than willing to mock up a test pipe so that I could get the spacing right.

My request was simple..........totally tucked up, totally stealth and I wanted a big box at the back as I wanted it quiet.





The exhaust tip points down like a diesel car as I want everything hidden and also I want the rear of the car down in the weeds.

There will be four vent sections cut out behind the rear bumper so that some of the exhaust heat can escape through there, it'll be hidden once the bumper is mounted on. The best part about the exhaust set up is that even in the engine bay, you can't see anything.

A set back of sorts............The radiator will not get enough flow in the back. Managed to contact a few people who've tried it in a speedster and they all come back with the same line.

It don't work and getting it to work half as good as if it were in front would take a serious amount of work and a lot of chopping on the car. I know that Hannes Shcnetler has done it in his beetle, but there was a lot of body modding going on.

I'm a bit depro now because of the news, my buddy says that we can make it work, but I'm a bit nervous about doing the whole swap, mounting everything out back and end up with a car that runs hot or worse yet.........blows a head gasket and then just having to do it all over again.

So, a reorganisation of sorts. Radiator upfront, still staying with the Dual core civic radiator because of it's size, but I'm going to have a custom fuel tank made that will allow me to move it against the firewall and then allowing me to mount my spare on top and in front of the tank. Allowing the space where the spare wheel was, to be used for the radiator. I want it inclosed properly, I don't want to half ass this.

I'm going to build everything similar to the PGO Speedster. That will allow a clean look, with minimal mods. At the end of the day, it's just fibreglass. My scoop will be a bit smaller as I'm using a half size radiator.



Copper pipes for the coolant lines incased in black rubber tubes will run the length of the car in the sills as there is loads of space in the speedster. With the fuel lines on the opposite side.

Bit of a set back, but this will now give me some more space to mount the air filter set up as well as the expansion tank. I also found out that the body at the back was not mounted to the frame in places and this was no doubt a source of some rattles that was bugging me, so at least I'm going forward.

2 FANS, 1 blowing, 1 sucking as long as fresh air can be drawn, problem solved.

calooker wrote:2 FANS, 1 blowing, 1 sucking as long as fresh air can be drawn, problem solved.

Did think of that, but at speed I don't want the fans on.

Have you thought about naca ducts underneath the car feeding air up to the radiator?

You can do the intake any way you like, just don't do this !
The worst thing about this picture is that the intakes are not even functional, it has an air cooled engine in the back !!

flatfourfan wrote:

calooker wrote:2 FANS, 1 blowing, 1 sucking as long as fresh air can be drawn, problem solved.

Did think of that, but at speed I don't want the fans on.

You must fit thermostats switches to the motor which will bring in the fans when needed, else the motor will be too hot or too cold.

You can not run without Thermostats..........

Firstly, that speedster looks like shit.........my scoop will go underneath the car, you will hardly even see it.

lol.........retro, there will be a thermostat switch on it, but I'm saying that there must be enough air flowing in the ducts in order to cool the radiator without the fans even being on, aka, like a normal car at normal driving speeds and only come on when neede, (traffic, heavy load conditions etc)

The cooling system will be bone stock VW with the exception of the actual radiator.

Pheeeeew......... you had me worried there for a second.......

My input would be to have a under car scoop, long and narrow, over the full width for intake.

Then a rear facing scoop the same size and shape to DRAW out air by means of vacuum, for the outlet.

By engineering the bottom of the car, you will create so much vacuum under the car, that the fan will only come on during start / stop traffic driving.