Ditcherman
SILVER Star
Interesting idea on the bib, I may copy that.
Concerning overheating, has your hood always been insulated? I thought about it but would rather let the heat transfer out. Not sure if that’s solid logic or not.
Builds Meet Ivy, 1976 FJ40 w/VW TDI, 2.8 CRD, OM606
- Thread starter fjdiesel
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Concerning overheating, has your hood always been insulated? I thought about it but would rather let the heat transfer out. Not sure if that’s solid logic or not.
- Thread starter
- #522
Yes, I insulated it years ago. I have often wondered the same thing. I may take it off and check it out. But first I am going to build baffles between the radiator and the bib. Probably some aluminum ones with a short rubber flap to seal it up... we did some testing at SAS(@DangerNoodle and I) (we used CAD. Cardboard Assisted Drafting) and we found that open wheel wells and sealing up the radiator to force the air through the radiator made a HUGE difference. I am also gonna put a aluminum pan (so to speak) between the crossmember that the bib mounts on to the radiator to seal that as well.
When I got home and started to do some work on the motorhome I seen they did the same thing. And to be completely honest, I kinda felt like an idiot when I saw the motorhome. I have worked on cars for 35 years and have seen a million of these baffles on every car made.... they are there for a reason..... not sure why it had to click the hard way with a motor running hot...
You and I should have drove together. My 606 smoked terrible as well in the high elevation. Get back to camp and it was fine. lol.
- Thread starter
- #523
@Ditcherman I did the Aqualu because I didn't want to cut up a good bib..... in the end, I am glad I used the Aqualu, it was really easy to modify.
Ditcherman
SILVER Star
That's the kind of CAD I can get into! I can just imagine DJ has a saying for whatever he is doing with cardboard, to make the acronym work
I don't want to open up my wheel wells but I will. I was about yesterday years old when I learned the air goes in those vents in front of the windshield, not out towards the windshield, due to the pressures created. I wonder how it works in the wheel well?
Meh. Forest for the trees and all that. Fresh eyes, fresh ideas.
I would like that very much. Next SAS if not sooner hopefully.
We're going to Missouri end of the month to hang out with the tornado alley cruiser gang.
Smorr?
OlYellr
SILVER Star
Yep - I won't be able to make it this year - Sept 28th I think
Correct
I’m going to see if I can slip up there one day and just hang out with everyone. It’s 75 miles from home for me.
Mike Shull
Let’s go…
Hood insulation is supposed to help maintain constant engine compartment temperature. One use is to prevent hotter temperatures in the hot summer days from reaching the compartment when the sun is beaming down on the hood. I don’t know if this is relevant on a hot-running Cruiser but I plan to give it a go.
Update: I should mention that I have the opposite problem. My engine runs too cold in the winter or when the ambient temperature is below 60°F and hood insulation is also supposed to keep the engine compartment regulated and hopefully warmer for me in the winter. I am planning to use the DEI hood insulation. What brand did you use, @fjdiesel ?
I don’t know if this company makes insulation for the 40 though they seem to have some good literature on the topic. The literature is written to promote their product so I will do additional research, or see if Matt swaps hoods to see if there is any difference.
Update: I should mention that I have the opposite problem. My engine runs too cold in the winter or when the ambient temperature is below 60°F and hood insulation is also supposed to keep the engine compartment regulated and hopefully warmer for me in the winter. I am planning to use the DEI hood insulation. What brand did you use, @fjdiesel ?
I don’t know if this company makes insulation for the 40 though they seem to have some good literature on the topic. The literature is written to promote their product so I will do additional research, or see if Matt swaps hoods to see if there is any difference.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #534
IIRC it was dynamat self adhesive foil backed underhood insulation.
- Thread starter
- #535
After getting the motor in and test driving, it would run warmer than I liked... one thing that I thought of was when I had did the TDI and NV3550 swap, the transmission was very compact. So I made my transmission tunnel as small as I could. But with the auto trans it was tight and would get really hot. So I decided to try making a bigger tunnel and see if that would let more air out of the engine compartment and hopefully cool off the tunnel some.
I do believe it helped. But not as much as I was hoping. It did help more on the temperature of the tunnel but not so much on the engine running temp..
So then I built an air dam below the radiator out of a 2x6 and held it in place with a ratchet strap... That seemed like it made it run hotter. I was surprised about that... So then I decided to remove the front bumper to see if maybe that was causing a problem. Here is the bumper I had.
To me, it looked like I could get plenty of air around this. But, I was surprised when I removed it. It didn't run hot anymore. The temps were cool enough that I was comfortable taking it to SAS. Which was in a week when I took the bumper off... So I cut off the top hoop and left the bar with the led light on it. Stayed under 210f even when I was really getting after it..
I do believe it helped. But not as much as I was hoping. It did help more on the temperature of the tunnel but not so much on the engine running temp..
So then I built an air dam below the radiator out of a 2x6 and held it in place with a ratchet strap... That seemed like it made it run hotter. I was surprised about that... So then I decided to remove the front bumper to see if maybe that was causing a problem. Here is the bumper I had.
To me, it looked like I could get plenty of air around this. But, I was surprised when I removed it. It didn't run hot anymore. The temps were cool enough that I was comfortable taking it to SAS. Which was in a week when I took the bumper off... So I cut off the top hoop and left the bar with the led light on it. Stayed under 210f even when I was really getting after it..
