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Jerod I’m really enjoying the videos, great job! Just wondering , you have what appears to be a piece of vinyl covering the front of your engine compartment. Do you have any engine temperature issues?  Mine has a hole and a screen so the engine fan gets air. I’m thinking of dressing up the engine compartment with a 3 piece louvered stainless steel firewall kit from CIP. 

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Last edited by JB356SR
JB356SR posted:

Jerod I’m really enjoying the videos, great job! Just wondering , you have what appears to be a piece of vinyl covering the front of your engine compartment. Do you have any engine temperature issues?  Mine has a hole and a screen so the engine fan gets air. I’m thinking of dressing up the engine compartment with a 3 piece louvered stainless steel firewall kit from CIP. 

I haven’t had this car long enough to know about any temp issues. But I don’t think there will be any. I had a vintage speedster in the past which didn’t have the opening in the fire wall and it never had a temp issue. 

I was originally very surprised that the engine bay in these replicas are not sealed from the exhaust and outside air like a VW or Porsche. 

I was also very shocked the first time I looked under the vintage speedster and saw all the hardware store nuts and bolts, crude welds and square tubing. But I got over it and really enjoyed that car. I drove it a lot for about a year and then sold it. 

I’m glad you like the videos, thanks for watching. 

Jerod posted:
JB356SR posted:

Jerod I’m really enjoying the videos, great job! Just wondering , you have what appears to be a piece of vinyl covering the front of your engine compartment. Do you have any engine temperature issues?  Mine has a hole and a screen so the engine fan gets air. I’m thinking of dressing up the engine compartment with a 3 piece louvered stainless steel firewall kit from CIP. 

I haven’t had this car long enough to know about any temp issues. But I don’t think there will be any. I had a vintage speedster in the past which didn’t have the opening in the fire wall and it never had a temp issue. 

I was originally very surprised that the engine bay in these replicas are not sealed from the exhaust and outside air like a VW or Porsche. 

I was also very shocked the first time I looked under the vintage speedster and saw all the hardware store nuts and bolts, crude welds and square tubing. But I got over it and really enjoyed that car. I drove it a lot for about a year and then sold it. 

I’m glad you like the videos, thanks for watching. 

The engine area IS SUPPOSED to be sealed form the exhaust heat etc. There are a number of threads regarding this issue. One of our members has a template that will allow you to make the necessary pieces to seal it off completely....almost. The final gap is closed off with a bus seal. Use the search function to locate one of the many threads regarding this. Unfortunately I can not remember at this time who has the template. Maybe @Gordon Nichols or @Alan Merklin or @WOLFGANG or ???.

Jerod posted:

Everything seems to be going quite well. Keep up the great work and I enjoy the videos.

However, I'd really like to suggest that you move the fuel filter to the area in front of the firewall and not in the engine bay area. Those plastic filters have been known to leak and cause an engine fire. Once started they go fast and these fiberglass cars hate fire.

Robert M posted:
Jerod posted:

Everything seems to be going quite well. Keep up the great work and I enjoy the videos.

However, I'd really like to suggest that you move the fuel filter to the area in front of the firewall and not in the engine bay area. Those plastic filters have been known to leak and cause an engine fire. Once started they go fast and these fiberglass cars hate fire.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Helpful tip:  If the exhaust tips hit the body the easy fix is to duct tape a small scrap piece of sheet metal to the upper side of the exhaust tip to protect it … use a radius file allow it follow the shape of the tip as you file a gap between the exhaust and the fiberglass.  You'll end up with a 1/4" - 5/16" barely noticeable radius above the exhaust tips.  Be sure to seal the raw edge of the fiberglass with paint.

 

Last edited by Alan Merklin

I have more speedster videos coming soon. 

In the meantime you guys might be interested in my newest project. It’s a 69 VW Beetle. I will not post updates each time I post a new video for the beetle since it’s not a speedster. But you can subscribe to my YouTube channel to follow all my projects. 

I will still try to update this thread each time I post a new speedster video. 

Beetle Project Part 1

https://youtu.be/djKQBwjuFiY

Gordon supplied the paper engine template trim to many here.  My CMC came with precut body-color (gelcoat) pieces of fiberglass for sides of the engine compartment and 2 pieces for rear above the muffler. Shown here in build manual.

JB356SR - mentioned hole in the firewall for air intake.  His is a VS with a round hole with hardware cloth over it.  CMC has a 1/2 moon section to be cut out - and the rest of the front has a piece of black rubber hall mat applied. Is that the piece f vinyl mentioned by JB?

 

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WOLFGANG posted:

Gordon supplied the paper engine template trim to many here.  My CMC came with precut body-color (gelcoat) pieces of fiberglass for sides of the engine compartment and 2 pieces for rear above the muffler. Shown here in build manual.

JB356SR - mentioned hole in the firewall for air intake.  His is a VS with a round hole with hardware cloth over it.  CMC has a 1/2 moon section to be cut out - and the rest of the front has a piece of black rubber hall mat applied. Is that the piece f vinyl mentioned by JB?

 

I’m thinking of covering the hole in the engine compartment. I’m thinking it will help keep the dirt out. Will this affect my engine cooling?

The firewall hole is there for a reason. If you block off that hole all the air entering the engine compartment to feed the fan and carburetor(s) will have to come through the grille on the engine lid. If you look at where the air actually comes through the engine lid you will see that there's not very much square footage for airflow- less than half (12-15 sq. in. in some Speedster engine lids compared to 30 sq. in. below the rear window on a Beetle) of a stock Beetle. When VW went to the wider 'doghouse' fan they put louvers in the engine lid itself, increasing air intake again. The Beetle engine lids with 4 sets of louvers effectively double the air intake area, so if the only air entering the engine compartment is coming through the middle of the engine lid on your Speedster you can see why people are not recommending you cover the firewall hole. Oh- and dual carbs draw even more air.

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