Door jamb query, What is that hole for? Options

[TonyH]

Good afternoon everyone,

I question if I may. I have just been watching Ian Karr's new video on Youtube on his 914/6 project and it reminded me to ask you good people a question.

Just above the door lock in the door jamb there is a hole/tube, what is that for? It appears to go up into the sail but not into the engine bay.

I have just had a look at my car, shined a torch into the entry hole but there is no light to be seen.

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon. - Tony

[StarBear]

Without a pic, I think (?) you mean the large holes. They are air vent passages and usually have a small foam disc and plastic grid cover. Yours might (?) be missing them.

[mepstein]

They didn’t have the vent covers on early cars.
There is a channel from the back of the seat near the window that lets air escape. Without it, it would be hard for fresh air or heated air to enter the cabin.

[SirAndy]

They didn’t have the vent covers on early cars.
There is a channel from the back of the seat near the window that lets air escape. Without it, it would be hard for fresh air or heated air to enter the cabin.

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They allow air to leave the inside of the car even with the doors and windows closed.
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[TonyH]

They didn’t have the vent covers on early cars.
There is a channel from the back of the seat near the window that lets air escape. Without it, it would be hard for fresh air or heated air to enter the cabin.

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They allow air to leave the inside of the car even with the doors and windows closed.
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Very many thanks all, that explains a lot.

[Rob-O]

It’s a little more involved than just letting air out of the cabin. It’s really to equalize the pressure between the cabin and outside the cabin. When you close the door to an well-sealed automobile (and all other windows are closed) you actually produce an sizable amount of pressure inside the vehicle, which can pop windows out of their tracks and cause all kinds of other issues. Automakers have combated this with some type of mechanism to equalize the pressure. Nowadays they usually have a small plastic panel located somewhere behind the left or right side of the read fascia that has a one way seal. When you close the door the pressure gets pushed through this seal, which closes when the pressure equalizes. Some manufacturers (including Porsche) have resorted to a method where when you open the door to your car the driver or passenger window opens slightly (inch or so) and then stays open until you close the door. Once you close the door the open window has allowed the pressure to equalize and the window rolls back up that one inch.

[Jgilliam914]

Here all this time I thought it was to allow moisture in to enhance the rust to gain a foothold under the sail panel (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[StarBear]

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[SirAndy]

It’s a little more involved than just letting air out of the cabin. It’s really to equalize the pressure between the cabin and outside the cabin. When you close the door to an well-sealed automobile (and all other windows are closed) you actually produce an sizable amount of pressure inside the vehicle, which can pop windows out of their tracks and cause all kinds of other issues. Automakers have combated this with some type of mechanism to equalize the pressure. Nowadays they usually have a small plastic panel located somewhere behind the left or right side of the read fascia that has a one way seal. When you close the door the pressure gets pushed through this seal, which closes when the pressure equalizes. Some manufacturers (including Porsche) have resorted to a method where when you open the door to your car the driver or passenger window opens slightly (inch or so) and then stays open until you close the door. Once you close the door the open window has allowed the pressure to equalize and the window rolls back up that one inch.

Isn't equalizing pressure when closing doors still just letting air out of the cabin?
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[davep]

You are correct Andy, the fresh air blower and heat air both introduce air into the cabin. Without the vent the airflow from either source would be negligible unless a window was opened.

[wonkipop]

They didn’t have the vent covers on early cars.
There is a channel from the back of the seat near the window that lets air escape. Without it, it would be hard for fresh air or heated air to enter the cabin.

here is an interesting one for the general rule of early cars don't have the plastic vent covers.

dr. marchart's personal 74 1.8 (german domestic market).
base spec (non appearance group).
held in the porsche museum collection.
said to be not restored. original condition. very low mileage. less than 20,000 kms showing and also quoted by museum director.



i'm not sure what to make of this.
certainly 74 USA spec cars definitely had the plastic vent covers.
mine does. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
i guess they could have been removed from the marchart car.
but it seems unlikely as the rest of the car is in fairly amazing original condition.
right down to retaining mock ups (adhesive stickers) for 75 model year EGR/CAT lights on the instrument binnacle - interesting artefacts from its time as the personal car of a porsche engineer working the development of the 914 as it progressed.

a possibility is that the euro spec cars did not get the covers, at least in base form.
i have seen a 75 german spec car here in aus, appearance group, that is completely intact and original and been owned by the same retired mechanic since the early 80s. it has the plastic covers.

but i dunno. its just of interest that the museum car does not have them and its a late model. another one of those mysteries.

i notice that the original poster tonyh is in france.
could be certain of late year euro cars maybe did not have the covers?
but not enough data/info to really know.

[wonkipop]

for fun - here is the instrument binnacle on the marchart car.
with the EGR light mockup - adhesive sticker (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .

indication car is pretty original i would say - virtually untouched from its time with marchart and his work at porsche as an engineer. marchart was of course one of the prime managing engineers of the boxster (and as it turns out a big fan of the 914).

engine bay is schmick too - but not restored.
museum director sent me some shots of that for 1.8 research work.

[chmillman]

Mine is a Euro car (originally delivered in France), no plastic covers - but who knows if that is original or not.

[wonkipop]

Mine is a Euro car (originally delivered in France), no plastic covers - but who knows if that is original or not.

what model year?

[chmillman]

Mine is a Euro car (originally delivered in France), no plastic covers - but who knows if that is original or not.

what model year?

74

[mepstein]

Mine is a Euro car (originally delivered in France), no plastic covers - but who knows if that is original or not.

what model year?

74

The plastic vents just pop in and out. If you like them, use them. If not, no harm, no foul.

[JeffBowlsby]

Extractor Ducts

[wonkipop]

Mine is a Euro car (originally delivered in France), no plastic covers - but who knows if that is original or not.

what model year?

74

ok.
same as dr. marcharts then.

do you know if it was a base spec or did it have the appearance group package?

[wonkipop]

Mine is a Euro car (originally delivered in France), no plastic covers - but who knows if that is original or not.

what model year?

74

The plastic vents just pop in and out. If you like them, use them. If not, no harm, no foul.

thats for sure. look good either in or out.
and given that by and large most surviving cars have had a repaint at this point in time,
they probably got taken out for repaints and either put back in or got lost and were not reinstalled.

i was just curious about which cars got them and which did not.
have found a few interesting differences between the 74s re ROW spec and USA spec that might indicate the general rule on the vent covers might not be so simple as early did not have and late cars did.

i just went and looked into spare parts catalogue.





if i am reading this right it seems to be saying that all the 6s were fitted with the vent covers from the start, but not the 4s.

then in 72 MY they were fitted to the 4s.

these are two 1970 6s that have been for sale on BAT that were fairly original condition.
but i think both have had external repaints.




seems like the 6s might have always been fitted with them.
the 4 might have been subject to bean counters keeping its price down. a penny here and a penny there? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

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the same documents imply the euro cars (ie 1.8V is definitely the euro spec 74 1.8, v = carburretors) got the vent covers.

so........im not sure.
but that museum 1.8 is not a repaint or restored car according to the museum director.
also in delving into 1.8s for the L jet research we got a lot of data including some on the euro spec 1.8s and 1974 is the first year where they start differentiating in terms of materials and finishes between the base models depending on whether ROW or USA.
they take the base 1.8s and base 2.0s further up market in terms of carpet and exterior finish items (vinyl on sail cloth etc) for the USA and they leave ROW in its more stripped form for base models similar to earlier years.

so they could have done a vent cover delete in ROW for base spec cars.
similar to what they did with differences between 6 and 4 in 70-71.
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but the general rule that early cars do not have them would not seem to be necessarily true as it looks to me like the 6s did get them and the vent covers were there from the start as a part of the design. just only on the more expensive versions.

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[wonkipop]

here is a bit more stuff that indicates something is going on with ROW base spec cars and USA base spec cars from 73 through to 75.

its subtle but there are different specs going down.


by the time you get to 75 the marketing brochures are reflecting the differences in cars.
this is the german (and rest of europe are similar apart from language).
the base spec and appearance group are shown side by side.
the base spec follows earlier years. body paint sail panels and black trim.



this is USA version of same brochure.
they by this stage update photos to reflect spec particular to USA cars.
base spec in 74-75 USA is an upgrade over ROW models.
most obvious externally in vinyl sail panels and chrome trim.
there is no body color sail panel version of either 1.8 or 2.0 in base form sold new in 74 or 75 (whatever the condition of the cars is these days after 50 years).




and this is from the german brochure for the 74 model year.
its a base spec version of either 1.8 or 2.0 non appearance group.
no vent cover.



and from 73 brochure. much harder to tell. but this base spec also appears to not have a vent cover. there would be a black dot there at least in this image.




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i think there is something going on there with the vent covers that is not as simple as early cars (70-71) did not have them.

i have a feeling that base spec ROW cars right through production did not have them.
and become distinctly different from USA base spec cars from 73 on. esp in 74.

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