>The heating system is based
>solely on exhaust temperature. Fresh air is blown through heat
>exchangers. The exhaust pipes pass through the heat exchangers and are
>deeply finned to transfer heat well. Of course, if it's really cold
>outside, that means that the fresh air coming in is colder and harder to
>heat. The VW heater is usually good for 35-40 degrees above ambient,
>which is fine if it's 20 degrees outside but if it gets down into the
>single digits, you may wind up with ice on the INSIDE of the windshield.
>Granted, the VW heater will never be nor never has been as good as a
>water-cooled car's heater but they did the best they could with what
>they had and it worked reasonably well in most circumstances. For those
>who lived in really cold climates, they all got nice Eberspacher
>gasoline-fired heaters. No heating problems then! :-)
>
>You must have had an old one if the top speed was 58! Even my Vanagon
>goes faster than that. The heating system also improved markedly over
>the years too. Especially in the air-cooled Vanagon.
I feel compelled to dispute this heating thing. I have a kit car (it is an=
=20
MG-TD kit) that should disgust all VW and MG owners, because it is not=20
really either VW or MG (but it is more VW by far). Anyhow it has a later=20
dual port intake manifold, and later model gearing and can do 80mph. The=20
point here, though is the heating system. My kit car maintains the stock VW=
=20
heater boxes on the exhaust, but they go directly into the cockpit of the=20
car. No big metal channels running underneath the running boards. The heat=
=20
is so hot it could easily burn a person, and no the engine isn't running=20
hotter than it should. It's hot even when it is 0=B0F outside or colder. =
It=20
does take a little time to warm up, but not much. The cockpit of the kit=20
car is so small, that I always have to turn the heat down shortly after it=
=20
warms up, and this is in a leaky lousy kit that has not been well=20
maintained. As to the defrosting capabilities, I have a separate fan system=
=20
for that, and it too performs flawlessly. So to make my dispute short, it=
=20
is not the heat exchangers, it is the ancilary ductwork that is a problem. =
=20
Further, the heater boxes probably produce 100=B0-150=B0 above ambient, but=
by=20
the time it gets in a "big" VW bug, you probably do only get 35-40=B0. I'd=
be=20
curious to see how much better a Ghia heats than a beetle.
Phil Bates
58 MGA
67 MGB
75 Jaguar XJ12C
66 Land Rover
52 MG TD replicar (VW)
86 Peugeot 505 Turbo Gle
86 Honda Accord LX-i
|