Mid-Engine Cooling

[flaps10]

Some good discussion going here.

I'll double check the flow direction of my engine compartment fan. I remember hearing it running when I was standing next to the car once and put my fingers over it because I was curious about the flow direction, and thinking the result was odd.

Moving on..

I refer to the oil cooler in quotes below because it is technically just a heat exchanger. It is exchanging heat from the oil into the coolant which carries it forward and attempts to get rid of it. Sure, some heat radiates off the exchanger but most is carried off in the coolant. Truth is, we really don't want it just radiating into the engine compartment. We want it pumped overboard.

The oil cooled cars I've owned rammed massive amounts of air through the oil cooler at all times using the engine fan. And they worked damn good even in hot weather in the desert - assuming all of the cooling tins were in place. The quickest way to make me walk away from a prospective air cooled car is to see any tin shrouds missing. The air flow is intended to be very directional and with missing shrouds it tends to recirculate very hot air.

And to answer an early question, yes they ran a bit rich and that is what killed the air cooled vehicles in this country.

First I've heard of a tranny cooler on a manual transmission car. Do you have a transmission temp gauge? Are all three of the scoops attached to your triangular shaped belly pan, which serve to direct air at the transmission?