I'm Baffled

they direct air to blow past bottom of cylinders. without them the air flows past sides (betwee) cylinders and does not cool the bottom...

very important. also something that gets skipped when people put an engine back together .

"we forgot to install this" "it's just a piece of sheet metal" "oh shoot, we have to take the heads off and push rod tubes out to put this part in!" "ok, skip it"

I'm considering all the engines that I look at, that don't have the baffles, as suspect. If an engine builder forgets something like this, it makes me wonder about other shoddy craftsmanship he used in mahine work or assembly.

It seems there are a lot of crummy engine rebuilders out there. With what I've seen, it seems there are more bad than good.

" Out of about 6 or 7 sand buggies I've looked at, only 1 has had the lower cooling baffles installed. These are the little shrouds that are attached (clipped) under the cylinders, they direct the cooling air properly. I'm under the impression that these things are critcal to efficient cooling."

There are actually two 'baffles', the smaller one is on the bottom of the cylinder head and is pressed in and held in place by four metal 'fingers'. I use a small flathead screwdriver to push them into the head casting and they seem to stay put.

The other one as you noted is between the cylinders, and yes they are important. In fact if you take a look at Tom Wilson's "How to rebuild your volkswagen air-cooled engine" book on page 133, he writes "Just as soon as you get the cylinders on the engine install the lower air baffles. These are the sheet-metal pieces that snap into the cylinder head studs, covering the space between the cylinders". He then goes on to state in bold print that if you forget to install them you --must-- backtrack far enough to get them in there, and not doing so is a 'big mistake'.

Perhaps this is why the dune buggies are for sale. Mysterious chronic overheating, so the owner decides to sell and move on with life?

Believe it or not, I once saw a bug for sale with "runs great" on the windsheild. The engine had -no cylinder tin- at all. It had a fanshroud and nothing else. It blew me away that someone would assemble an engine like that. Little wonder the thing was for sale.

Chris

When I bought my bug it had no engine tin either. Not knowing better, I drove it like that for a year before I learned that it should be there and went about tracking down the pieces needed at some junk yards.

I read that same thing in Wilson's book. I thought something had changed.

I have seen the lower air baffles that go between the cylinders. I have not seen the type that go in between the heads before. After reading your message I found a picture that show them at

If this bigger one ("newer") is used, do you know if the little one between the cylinders is still required?

The big "new" thing is from a type 3 and should NOT be used in a type 1 engine.

Physically, it CAN be used. In reality, the ones sold today as new are total crap and won't "clip on" like the real thing would, so you have to safety wire them in place. Even so, that's irrelevant because you should never use them, except in a type 3 engine, in a type 3 car. And in THAT environment, you are supposed to leave the square shaped baffle plate between the cylinders OUT, I think. (But I'm no T3 expert)

Jan

"I have also seen the "newer" type baffle that goes under the cylinders. It is bigger and kinda wraps around the bottom of both cylinders.

If this bigger one ("newer") is used, do you know if the little one between the cylinders is still required? "

Both pieces are needed. I would imagine that you could make the smaller one that goes on the head with some tin snips and light gauge sheet metal. The larger deflectors that go between the cylinders would be a little more work. I'd check the local wrecking yard for those, you could probably find what you need there.

Also, if you buy one of these sand buggies and tear things down far enough to repair this problem, make sure you have the 'hoover bit' around the oil cooler if it has the doghouse style cooler. Both of my VW's were missing that piece when I got them. I was never able to find a used part, so I had to make one using Dale Mueller's diagram(search google and you can find it). You can build one out of angle aluminum and a couple pop rivets.

Chris