Since the engine is out and I’m waiting on parts, tonight was a good opportunity to double-check the cooling system. I found a few problems:
#1 – Cooling air could leak out of the fan shroud near the base of the oil cooler, before going through it. The gap is normally bridged by a piece that’s enigmatically called the “Hoover bit”; I fabricated the missing part of the “Hoover bit” and the gap is now closed.
#2 – Air could leak past the cooler on the sides. To fix this I added foam rubber weatherstripping between the cooler and fan shroud as it would have been done originally.
#3 – Even with everything sealed, the hot oil cooler exhaust would exit a few inches away from the fan inlet. With the extreme lengths that VW went through to keep hot/cold air separated this didn’t make any sense. So I did some research and found that a few pieces were missing that move the oil cooler exhaust air over to the hot side of the engine cooling tins; these pieces are now on order.
