Delete Heat, What can I take out? Options

[BPic]

I'm getting my engine ready for install and since I won't have heat, headers and no tubes in longs, what should I shouldn't I leave or bock off on the engine? Do I remove the flaps on the fan cowl? Bolch the holes at the bottom of the fan cowl? Remove the controller that moves the flaps? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)
This is a 2056 with Carbs..

Thanks,

Brad

[bbrock]

I don't know much about fluid dynamics but I'm not sure cooling efficiency is determined solely by volume of air. IIRC, a laminar flow of air across a hot surface will transfer heat more efficiently than turbulent air. If that's correct, I could see where bleeding off a bit of air to reduce pressure flowing across heads might be a benefit.

I'm not arguing for or against blocking the outlets because I'm not qualified. I'm just suggesting there might be more to the equation than air volume. It does make me wonder why the heater flapper valves were designed to dump air through those outlets regardless of whether you were calling for heat inside the car. Seems like it would have been cheaper to design those flappers to just block air flow when heat was not needed in the cabin.

It would be interesting to see a comparison of head and oil temps with those outlets blocked vs. open. That would be more definitive than any theoretical benefits of one configuration or the other.

[Superhawk996]

It would be interesting to see a comparison of head and oil temps with those outlets blocked vs. open. That would be more definitive than any theoretical benefits of one configuration or the other.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I disagree with the premise of the fan graphic referened previously that states where the airflow is going and in what proportion. This is graphic is based on an over simplification.

"As Blown Air Is Delivered Circumferentially From A Centrifugal Fan We Can Simply Draw Lines From The Origin Of The Fan Circle To Cover The Outlet Zones Of The Blown Air Outlets. We Can Then Take Measurements And Use Some Trigonometry Calculations To Work Out The Percentages In The Below Graphic."

Air flow is like water, it prefers to take the past of least resistance but at the very same time requires a pressure delta to drive the airflow. You cannot simply say that because a particular outlet occupies 10% of the area that it will get 10% of the airflow.

Without knowing the exact fan curve for the Type4 cooling fan and what the relative delta pressure is between the fan housing and the respective outlets (Cyl. 1/2, Cyl 3/4, alternator, heater outlets) you cannot say for sure where the air is going to flow and in what proportion.

However, I can say with certainty on my 1st 914, I stripped off the heat exhangers and blocked the fan housing heater outlets with absolutely no cooling issues in Michigan's environmental conditions that include 98-100F temps (summer) +80-90% relative humidity. OP is from Miami and like MI it is flat with few grades. I don't think OP will have any issues whatsoever blocking the heater outlets.

As a reiteration of previous posts. DO NOT remove the thermostat and/or cooling flaps. This will lead to extended warm up times and overheating. Whoever started that rumor that removing cooling flaps helps improve engine cooling clearly had no idea what they were talking about. My 2nd car is rumored to have been a Florida car. It had the thermostat and the cooling flaps removed.

There was a massive amount of rust in the sump and in the oil breather housing. I completely believe that this rust likely came about from excessive case water condensation due to extended warm up times and/or short driving cycles that never got the oil hot enough to drive the condensation out of the system. See my build thread in my signature if you want pictures of that rust in the sump and the oil breather (pages 5 & 6).