Aircooled VW South Africa

Waterboxer with the radiator in fan shroud

I have seen that pic before.... but cant help but wonder about all that heat staying in the engine bay

remember on a T1 all the heat from the heads, barrels and cooler are routed outside, but if you are missing engine tin, you end up with cooling problems.
Now you are taking all of that heat and keeping ALL of it (except the exhaust radiation) in the engine bay and recirculating it.

Great idea in general, I really like the look and the idea behind it. But I think the practicality makes it a bad idea.
I am happy to be proven wrong....

Looks good. It could work in a buggy or baja but I can't see it working in a closed engine compartment.

I do agree with you guys but shit it looks good. You will be the talk of the town if you can make it work.

It might work better if you build a shroud at the back of the radiator to channel the hot air up and out of the air intake below the rear window
But then you might have to modify the intake so that it creates a vacume to help suck the hot air out as well.

If i look closely at the fan at the back and the way the engine will turn "clockwise"
then the fan is blowing air not sucking air
i might be wrong maybe just the angle of the foto but a brilliant idea none the less !

Very original thinking! I hate when people mount on the front or cut holes but agree that heat in the engine bay.....

I've always wondered why bother or why not mount underneath a bus with air scoop below and above....

Other option on a bay, mount in the rear quarter are vents and cut out vents in the rear side for air to flow freely through.

Thats thinking out of the box and into the doghouse , i like

Slak, I think you have it.
by the fan design, the fan sucks air from the engine compartment, and blows it forward.

Opposite to the norm.

This means they have ducts to push this air into the wheel arches, which will create its own low pressure area, allowing the hot air to dissipate.

The clever side of this system, is that the engine bay itself will always be vented, getting ride of more heat, before it has a negative effect.

The down side is you need a very good air filter on the engine to prevent road dirt and dust into the internals

Herman

2 things.... 1) fans are supposed to pull air through a cooler, not blow it onto a cooler. So if this setup is correct, it will be blowing hot air over the alternator.
2) wheel arches are high pressure areas, not low pressure.

Dutch_Diver wrote:Very original thinking! I hate when people mount on the front or cut holes but agree that heat in the engine bay.....

I've always wondered why bother or why not mount underneath a bus with air scoop below and above....

Other option on a bay, mount in the rear quarter are vents and cut out vents in the rear side for air to flow freely through.

I'd crap myself every time I'd come to a speed hump or uneven road.. Really kak idea in my opinion..
I recall when I was growing up in JHB, the really in thing then was to do the 1.9 watercool conversions into the busses and cars.. At one big VW gathering in Waterkloof I think, I saw a Bus with the Radiator mounted in the rear quarter panel, and the oil cooler in the other side, essentially above the motor, bet allowing cool air in through the side of the bus where they had mounted cooling vents, and then hat air was channeled out the back door via vents. Although a little un-conventional, and the fact you lost the rear door accessability slightly, it was still one of the better conversions, and I believe it never overheated.

I also remember one with Radiators standing at a slight angle on the roof at the back of the bus, but camoflaged as a kind of roof "wing" cowling from the side.. Also impractical as it raised the height profile of the bus for sure. Otherwise, nothing like a front mounted radiator to keep things cool, and look terrible..

I mounted my Rad flat between the frame rails of my bus , this is the 1st version of the cover i made , this has since been changed with only two scoops to funnel air up and thru , there are also two fans pulling at the top. So far I have not had any heating issues with this setup.

Wow.. well that's a lot better and less intrusive as the previous Pic.. Cleaver thinking here..

Now that's what I was thinking, really good execution