Overheat an aircooled car?
- Thread starter raaizin
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Or a Corvair
Heck yes you can overheat an air cooled engine! To begin with it cooks the oil.
Scott
Scott
Most common was a broken fan belt. 2nd slow traffic in 110° heat
The #3 exhaust valve on my '64 Squareback snapped when the oil cooler gummed up and stopped cooling.
# 3 exhaust valve would break and in a few rotations pound through the piston crown. Then it lodged on the crank throw and tore the case to pieces. Right around 100k miles
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Yeah that's why they sell offset hinges for the deck lids on the old Beetles, forces air in the cool it better.
With no air conditioning I don't drive the 70' Beetle in the summer much anyways
With no air conditioning I don't drive the 70' Beetle in the summer much anyways
Originally Posted by andyd
# 3 exhaust valve would break and in a few rotations pound through the piston crown. Then it lodged on the crank throw and tore the case to pieces. Right around 100k miles
Like this one?
![[Linked Image from ratwell.com]](https://ratwell.com/dotmac/Pictures/Parts72Bus1/24-PistonDamage.jpg "[Linked Image from ratwell.com]")
# 3 exhaust valve would break and in a few rotations pound through the piston crown. Then it lodged on the crank throw and tore the case to pieces. Right around 100k miles
Like this one?
Originally Posted by Donald
Or a Corvair
Wife insisted I buy her a Corvair in the early seventies-- second generation. It would regularly throw fan belts. Finally engine cooked from constant overheating. One of two engine failures in about forty cars that I've owned. Sat in my driveway in Atlanta for a couple of years. Actually sold it inoperable for more than I paid for it. I guess they were beginning to take off as a collectors item at that time. Remember my phone ringing off the hook when I placed a newspaper ad, guess I could have gotten more than the asking price.
Or a Corvair
Wife insisted I buy her a Corvair in the early seventies-- second generation. It would regularly throw fan belts. Finally engine cooked from constant overheating. One of two engine failures in about forty cars that I've owned. Sat in my driveway in Atlanta for a couple of years. Actually sold it inoperable for more than I paid for it. I guess they were beginning to take off as a collectors item at that time. Remember my phone ringing off the hook when I placed a newspaper ad, guess I could have gotten more than the asking price.
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As a kid in the 70's my dad would take me from Ca to Tx every summer in a beetle. First was a 70. The next was a 74. I remember us boiling while driving across Az and Nm. The air cooled engines never gave any trouble.
My dad. Ran pennzoil 10w40 in them and never had a belt break. Both went well over 100k before being retired due to accidents. I remember that the 74 had 145 k on its all original drive train when it was totaled.
My dad. Ran pennzoil 10w40 in them and never had a belt break. Both went well over 100k before being retired due to accidents. I remember that the 74 had 145 k on its all original drive train when it was totaled.
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Originally Posted by andyd
# 3 exhaust valve would break and in a few rotations pound through the piston crown. Then it lodged on the crank throw and tore the case to pieces. Right around 100k miles
Most of that was on the older, single port engines with the oil cooler in line with #3 piston.When the dog-house shroud with the offset cooler was introduced, that problem pretty much went away.
# 3 exhaust valve would break and in a few rotations pound through the piston crown. Then it lodged on the crank throw and tore the case to pieces. Right around 100k miles
Most of that was on the older, single port engines with the oil cooler in line with #3 piston.When the dog-house shroud with the offset cooler was introduced, that problem pretty much went away.
Here's an air-cooled beauty for ya. 1996 Tatra T700. Rear-mounted, air-cooled, DOHC, 235 HP, 4.4L V8. It's a fairly large 4-door sedan. 5-speed manual with quoted top speed of 155 mph.
This is the last Tatra passenger car model, and only 75 were made. This is the only one in the USA.
With my fiancée at Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, 2-13-2020.
Car & Driver review of this exact car:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cu...ttersweet-joy-of-driving-the-last-tatra/
This is the last Tatra passenger car model, and only 75 were made. This is the only one in the USA.
With my fiancée at Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, 2-13-2020.
Car & Driver review of this exact car:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cu...ttersweet-joy-of-driving-the-last-tatra/
I had VW's as a teenager in the early '70's, and gave them a really, really hard time. Heard a belt go once on the motorway, so floored it and thrashed the engine as hard as I could, got off near home, drove around the streets thrashing it....got bored and drove home a bit disappointed it was still running. I did the offset hinges trick, until the engine cover ripped out the hinges, then took it off....dropped valves of course, seized them from lack of oil ( and lack of checking), just abuse of every sort...clutchless shifts all the time, sidestepping the clutch in reverse until it had no reverse. I was relentless in my cruelty.
When I first got my '54 the tin ware at the back of the engine was missing, and it would recycle the hot air until the fuel boiled in the fuel pump and the engine cut out. With all this abuse I guess the oil must've over heated, but not enough to kill an engine.This is it when the cops finally put it off the road...and took my license for 3 months.
I've ridden aircooled bikes off road so hard that when I checked how hot the engine was with my hand, my palm went shiny and all finger prints disappeared - without a temp gauge, I think that is pretty hot. Again, no engine damage.
![[Linked Image]](https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/usergals/2020/02/full-1914-41310-vw_54.jpg "[Linked Image]")
When I first got my '54 the tin ware at the back of the engine was missing, and it would recycle the hot air until the fuel boiled in the fuel pump and the engine cut out. With all this abuse I guess the oil must've over heated, but not enough to kill an engine.This is it when the cops finally put it off the road...and took my license for 3 months.
I've ridden aircooled bikes off road so hard that when I checked how hot the engine was with my hand, my palm went shiny and all finger prints disappeared - without a temp gauge, I think that is pretty hot. Again, no engine damage.
I almost bought a Tatra 603 when the borders were first opened, 2.5 air cooled V8, very unusual and cool but parts were already scarce for the thing.
Originally Posted by Trav
I almost bought a Tatra 603 when the borders were first opened, 2.5 air cooled V8, very unusual and cool but parts were already scarce for the thing.
Oh, man. I can't even imagine trying to source parts for that car!
I almost bought a Tatra 603 when the borders were first opened, 2.5 air cooled V8, very unusual and cool but parts were already scarce for the thing.
Oh, man. I can't even imagine trying to source parts for that car!
At that time you could find a few OE spares in the former Czechoslovakia but those sources have mostly been bought up by western European and UK companies and the parts are sold at a premium, there is nothing like a captured market.
In some ways I regret not buying it (it was certainly cheap enough and in good shape for its age) and keeping it as another toy, a rear mounted air cooled 2.5 ltr V8 hemi has a cool factor of its own.
Tatra 2.5 air cooled V8
![[Linked Image]](https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/usergals/2020/02/full-14074-41345-tatra_v8.jpg "[Linked Image]")
In some ways I regret not buying it (it was certainly cheap enough and in good shape for its age) and keeping it as another toy, a rear mounted air cooled 2.5 ltr V8 hemi has a cool factor of its own.
Tatra 2.5 air cooled V8
Originally Posted by Silk
I've ridden aircooled bikes off road so hard that when I checked how hot the engine was with my hand, my palm went shiny and all finger prints disappeared - without a temp gauge, I think that is pretty hot. Again, no engine damage.
Depending on ambient temperature I would imagine you would struggle to seriously overheat the R65 with the cylinders stuck out in the breeze. Can there be a more efficiently cooled air cooled twin.
For me the biggest weakness of an air cooled engine is not overheating but running too cool for at least half the year.
I've ridden aircooled bikes off road so hard that when I checked how hot the engine was with my hand, my palm went shiny and all finger prints disappeared - without a temp gauge, I think that is pretty hot. Again, no engine damage.
Depending on ambient temperature I would imagine you would struggle to seriously overheat the R65 with the cylinders stuck out in the breeze. Can there be a more efficiently cooled air cooled twin.
For me the biggest weakness of an air cooled engine is not overheating but running too cool for at least half the year.
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