Overheating, Engine / Cooling Options

[ash00]

Hi All,

After a month and a half of business trips, I finally got to drive my the 1970 914 that I'm still learning about.

One thing is clear, that the restoration was half-assed, and rather than blaming the PO, I have to figure things out the hard way. Hopefully before the fact. I'm trying to not let this leave a bad taste in my mouth of the 914 experience.

The recent issue is overheating. This is my first car in the aircooled world, and the car was equipped with a rebuilt 2.0L with the weber downdraft setup in place of the FI. It runs well when warmed up, but during driving, I can't drive it for more than 10 minutes without the gauge being pegged to the red. I'm hearing things of "false air" and such.

Pardon my ignorance, but I need a place to start looking for info. Is there any documentation or info out there on how the air cooling is managed, and what hardware is there for me to test / check? Any tips are appreciated.

Thanks,
Ash

[era vulgaris]

And this is the thermostatic bellows that controls the flaps. Likely missing since it sounds like you don't have flaps.

[ash00]

Wow, thanks for the great photos! I'm loving this forum already!

Looks like I have a busy weekend ahead of me, but I guess this is one step closer to solving all of the issues of a half-assed restoration. This is why I never trust anybody but myself!

[ash00]

Well, the news gets better.

I just texted the PO:

"as far as I could see the flaps we permanently closed and thermostat removed. A common warm climate (california) modification to help with cooling"

So...doesn't look like its helping much.

I guess the options are:
1) Source out the necessary hardware to get that thermostat / linkage in place

2) Remove the restriction and open the flaps permanently?

[era vulgaris]

I just texted the PO:

"as far as I could see the flaps we permanently closed and thermostat removed. A common warm climate (california) modification to help with cooling"

You should tell the PO that that is pure misinformation. Removing the thermostat and disabling the flaps will accelerate wear on your engine as it takes longer for the engine to warm up and get to operating temp. There is no benefit to cooling. Once the flaps are open, cooling is the same whether they are fixed in the open position or whether they opened via the thermostat.
It's more likely that he couldn't find a thermostat during the restoration, as it's not a readily available part.

I'm assuming that's a typo about the flaps being closed...or he doesn't know what he's talking about. No one would permanently close the flaps. If he did, that's your problem right there.

[ash00]

First off, thanks you all for all the help. Its all making sense now.

I'm definitely going to take some pictures after work and hopefully get more feedback.

Just in my walk over to the shop at lunch, I took a peek and couldn't find the oil pressure switch, instead there is a EMPI oil breather kit, which is tapped from the center oil reservoir on the middle of the cylinder bank. The output of that is looped back into the breather box.

The PO was a vintage car racer, so I assumed he knew what he was doing. I can only assume the worst, and after texting him- he said the flaps were closed permanently. I can't trust anymore after everything else that has gone wrong. I'm trying to understand if there is anyway of inspecting visually, other than no flap shaft between the banks. No thermostat either based on pictures, and I found one on Ebay I might get. It just doesn't sound right when I heard that comment that the flaps were closed.

First off, let me get some pictures.