[T3] Old Type IIIs (cooling)

[Dave Hall]

I'm trying to find photos to check, but I can't find any that have the
louvres facing anything other than leaning forwards.  What years would that
have been?  The forming of the slots changed - the later ones are folded
inwards on both edges, while the earlier ones were only folded inwards on
the leading edge.  There's no clear indication in the part book of a change,
but maybe they only supply the 'normal' way.

I'll have to keep my eyes more open!

Dave.
UK VW Type 3&4 Club
===================

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org
[mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org] On Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: 24 February 2011 04:28
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Old Type IIIs (cooling)

On 23 Feb 2011 at 20:24, Daniel K. Du Vall wrote:

> Could the air flow be one reason that VW changed the direction of the 
> intake lovers on the sides from the early to late models?

I can never keep track of this. Didn't they change it twice?

I thought they faced "forward" in the early years, then switched to
"rearward" around '67-8, and finally back to "forward" in ~'70.

This is a complete guess, but here how I suspect it went:

In the beginning they faced forward because that seemed the reasonable way
to go for best airflow. Later on, with more experience, they discovered that
the forward facing louvers picked up a lot of snow, dirt and insects so they
did some testing and discovered that the boundary layer air there wasn't
moving very fast, so there was little airflow disadvantage and a large
debris advantage to facing "backwards" so they changed.

But people noticed the "backwards" louvers and assumed the German engineers
had done a stupid thing, so every engine failure suddenly got blamed on poor
airflow. To stem this PR reaction, VW had a recall program where they would
replace those louver sections with ones that faced forwards, if you
complained.

Finally, VW relented and faced the louvers "forward" again just to minimize
nusance warrantee claims.

Again, that's just my guess at what went on behind the scenes. My '68, with
backward louvers, got driven hard but never had a cooling problem.

Someone else may have a better memory of when these changes occurred.

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

_______________________________________________
VWType3.Org mailing list - type3 at vwtype3.org
http://lists.vwtype3.org/listinfo.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org
Contact gregm at vwtype3.org if you need help with the list.