Cowling the Hapy Radiator

Brief post today. Before I begin, you'll notice that the advertisements are gone. I never made a penny on having them there, and I think we get bombarded with too much advertisement anyway, so now we will all enjoy a less cluttered, advertisement-free experience. On to the new radiator fan shroud...

Fan Shroud or Cowling

as pulled from shipping box

Modern cars and many older cars, have something on the rear side of the radiator surrounding the fan. This shroud or cowling helps pull air through the radiator when the fan is on. Since auto makers don't spend a penny where they need not, I have come to the conclusion that the shroud helps keep temperatures down. Initially, I thought it was to protect fingers when the fan snapped on, but I've since learned from reading articles that these shrouds do help pull air through the radiator and can reduce temperatures by up to 40%.

Hapy Rad Background
Since I did the engine swap on Hapy, he had been running without a tailored shroud. I put a cowling of sorts around the outer edge, but that was mostly to help keep the waste hot air from re-circulating into the radiator intake. I'm not sure how well that worked, but let's assume it worked okay. I had 2 fans on the bottom, with the intent to pull air through the radiator, but it is entirely possible that lots of air leaked around the edges of the fan, greatly reducing their cooling capability. So, I went to eBarf looking for an aftermarket shroud, in hopes of finding something that could bolt onto the new Mishimoto radiator. While I could have fabricated one, if I could find one inexpensive enough, I'd go with a bolt-on.

Found

front p-side corner

The radiator size I have is from a Jetta3, and fortunately, there are many of these still on the road, creating a market for things like an aftermarket shroud. I had to try a few sources, though, as the supply is drying up, or those who manufacture and import them have been carefully managing their inventory due to the new import tariffs. Anyway, I found a seller and $90US on eBarf later, I have a direct-replacement shroud with fans.

Install
The mounting holes lined up perfectly with the mount holes on the Mishimoto radiator. This made the install crazy easy. I cut the cable-ties (zip-ties) which held on the old fans, unplugged the wires and set them aside. I cut the plastic bag off the new shroud and slid it between the radiator and the metal strap which holds the sides together (see the bottom picture). I removed the 10mm bolts which held the radiator to the support frame, fit the radiator mounting tabs into place and re-threaded the bolts into their respective holes. Once the wires were plugged back in (black to ground, blue to switched 12V from the relay), the install was complete. I flipped the fan switch on the dash to confirm everything was good (both fans spinning, and both in the right direction).

I have set the old fans aside, planning to reuse one of

them for the MGB. With the new cowling and fans, I hope the days of watching my temperature gauge are over. We could have a few nice days ahead, but rains are pretty much upon us now, so the likelihood of getting a hardy test before spring is unlikely. Regardless, I expect that it is no worse than it was. If so, I can easily revert back, but that would be quite a surprise.

With the conclusion of this effort, Hapy is back "in the bag": covered with the BusDepot bus cover for the winter. It is always a sad day when we cover him up, knowing that the summer didn't quite have as many camping or festival adventures as we wished. I sincerely hope that I can get him uncovered and out for drives early enough next season to shake out the issues so we can have an adventure-filled summer.

That's it for today. For my US readers, Hapy Election Day. Whatever your politics, please express them at the polls. One day, I hope, we can return to discussing political opinions as rational people without raising voices, alarms, or threats. Yes, my non-US friends, it has become that dire here. Thanks for following along-

Radiator Installed

Yes, you read that right. The radiator is in. I had a couple of hours today between chasing kids from a sleepover and a pinewood derby car building event with my son's cub scout den. So, I popped another fan on the radiator, made a minor alteration to the cowling, got the rad installed under the bus and took measurements for the coolant lines.

Two fans
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had planned on getting another fan eventually. Well, eventually became immediately when I thought about the prospect of putting the radiator in only to have to remove it to put in the second fan. That seemed penny-wise but time-stupid. So, I contacted Absolute Radiator for a 11" Maradyne fan to match the 12" Maradyne fan I already had. Between the 2 fans, I'll have 2265CFM (1155 for the 12" + 1100 for the 11") of air-pulling power. I have to think though the electrical requirements (7.4amp for the 11", 7.7amp for the 12"), but I have the fan relays from the electrical harness I got with the engine, so I may be able to just use those relays (with some new fuses). In the pictures to the right here you can see the foam spacers and the lock nuts. Like the front side, where there is a foam spacer between the radiator core and the fans, these foam spacers should be on the lock-nut side too to protect the core.

Cowling Final Alteration
After adding the second fan, I made a sight modification to the cowling to hold the sides together. I had intended to add the grate from my old furnace, but its heavy, oversized for the job, and I think it would have partially blocked the airflow. The simple strap will hold the sides together. It won't protect the fans from debris bouncing up from the pavement, of course. I'll worry about that later (I hope those aren't famous last words).

Radiator Install
The rear end of the "final" install was as easy as the test install. The chains hooked up very easily. The front end was a different matter. The passenger side went up fine, but the driver side wouldn't go all the way in. Near the rear, the cowling got hung up and the front corner got caught as well. Turned out the front corner was the hang-up. A little bending, and it fit. In the picture to the right, you can see what the ground clearance is like: 9-1/2"

Coolant Lines
Using a length of leftover vinyl tubing, I set to measuring the distance from the radiator inlet / outlet to the engine inlet / outlet. For reference, I'm considering the inlet on the driver side of the radiator point "A" and the outlet on the passenger side point "B". I drew a chalk line on the underside of the rear beam (point "C") and another line on the curved sidewall ("D") where the transaxle passes into the engine compartment. The Bentley guide for the ALH engine shows that the flange on the head is the outlet ("E") and that routes directly to the "top" of the radiator. The flange on the block where the thermostat is ("F") is the coolant inlet that routes to the "bottom" of the radiator. The drawing on the right here should help that make sense. The measurements follow. I'll be searching online for flexible hoses that will meet these requirements. I know Goodyear makes lines that would work, so I think it will just be a matter of selecting the closest ones size-wise, and finding an online vendor. I haven't been able to find a local source with the variety I need.

incremental lengths:
A to C: 24"
B to C: 19-1/2"
C to D: 24"
D to E: 18-1/2"
D to F: 20-12"

net total lengths:
A to E: 66-12"
B to F: 64"

That's it for now. Next up I think is getting the coolant lines and hooking them up. I should probably get looking into the cabin heat lines and the overflow bottle too. I need to think on the electrical for the fans and getting the sensor into the computer network. Seems like there's always a "next"...

Radiator test-fitted

Lots of stuff going on. First off, I got a request to quote from my blog, but the requester didn't leave me an email address or a way to contact him/her. If you want to quote from here, that's totally fine, but please leave a link to the original post when you do. Anyway, today's post covers the progress over the last 10 days. I got the holes drilled, the radiator test-hung and started working on the radiator cowl / shroud.

Drillin' holes
The 1972 Westfalia is a little unusual in how the underside is arranged. Unlike the later years, there are belly pans along the sides, running from front to rear wheel between the mid rails and the edges. The center section between the rails is (mostly) exposed to the floor. Within this center space is where we're playing.
After first looking at off-setting the radiator to the driver side of that middle space, I discovered that I couldn't make it fit. Between the tubes that carry the emergency cables,the clutch cable tube, the accelerator tube, etc, there's a lot of junk in there. I was only able to get it up high enough in the center, so after some wrestling, I marked spots with some chalk and bored 1/4" holes in the rear beam. The picture here shows the right side hole.

Chain of Fools
I tried to hang the radiator to the holes I drilled, but I had to reverse the brackets to make a test fit happen. I want the holes to be parallel to the floor and had initially thought that they would be much closer to the floor, but the thickness of the drill made that impossible. I discovered, after I got the brackets reversed, that I had to flip the radiator over because of junk tubes blocked access to the coolant inlet / outlets. Argh. So, now the inlet / outlet point down as does the temperature sensor on the front. This is the orientation that TurboBus uses, and he doesn't have issues with air in the system (my biggest concern with the in/out pointing down).
I was able to get the rear end suspended from the holes with the use of simple eye-hooks, and a few links of 600lb-test chain. For the front end, I was able to use a couple of holes that were already in the cross-beam. Each is next to a hole that is used by the emergency brake cables. The picture here shows the eye hook / washer / nut combination that I used. Suspended from that eye hook is 8" of chain to the front edge of the radiator bracket. The net resulting install leaves the front lip just 4" below the belly pans. That's better than I planned, in terms of clearance, but I'll be copying the TurboBus model for "scraping" air with a down-pointing lip. I think his install grabs as much air as hanging the radiator, but without the risks.
The picture to the right, here, shows the test fit hanging by the chain. I am able to move the radiator a few inches side to side and slightly front to back. In theory, this should help prevent damage to the radiator if something pops up. Since the front lip is now only 4 inches below the belly, the front beam and front axle are both lower to the ground.

Cowling Corner
After the clearance picture above was taken, I grabbed a cardboard box and started cutting a template for the cowling. It took a few times of test fitting, but I was able to make a decent template that worked for both sides. At least it seems that way. From the template, I marked cut lines on sheets of HVAC zinc-coated steel. Some quick work with some tin snips, and then back to test fitting. The picture to the right, here, shows one side cut, riveted together and in-place. I was able to get to the same point with the other side, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Next...
I'll be finishing up the cowling / shroud next. The riveted steel sides need to be bolted to the radiator brackets (bolts so they can be removed for maintenance). Then, I'll be test-fitting the radiator again. If it fits well, I'll run some kind of closed-cell foam insulation along the top of the shroud - to reduce the possibility of the edge cutting one of the junk tubes as well as reduce the air leakage over the top. After that, the cabin heater will get installed and routed, and the coolant lines will be run. Lots left to do just on the coolant system, but I can feel the wheels moving. I should get more time to work this next week. We'll see.

pictures:
top - drilled hole for rear mount.
middle top - eye hooks with fender washers, lock washers and nuts for front body-side mount
middle bottom - radiator hanging on mounts
bottom - left-side shroud fab'd, in-place, ready for bolting to bracket