Fan housing blockoff, no heat Options

[MattR]

From what I understand of the 914 heating system, the fan housing outlets have to be blocked off if I'm not running heat. Can anyone give suggestions on how to block these off? I could weld them up, but Im not sure about the material, and I'd like to be able to seperate the fan housing without grinding and rewelding.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-2-1110132454.jpg)
(those outlets at the bottom)

[lapuwali]

I've heard this "ya gotta block them off" bit from the VW crowd, too, but it makes no sense. If the full HE and heat system is in place on the 914, then air gets blown out of those ports, through the HEs, and to the flapper boxes, which then decide if that air get's blown into the cabin or out onto the ground, depending on the position of the lever next to the shifter. So, at all times, air is getting blown through those ports, removing it from cooling the engine. If you remove the heater system, you remove some restriction from the system, so MORE air can come out of the ports, but it doesn't seem like it would reduce the restriction all that much, so the additional air coming out of those ports would be fairly small.

Closing off those ports with something flat at the end of the port would very probably give you some additional turbulence inside the fan housing, which could very well mess up the airflow. If you instead went with sculpted bits that closed the ports by leaving a smooth wall inside the fan housing (curved inner surface), this would reduce this turbulence, and should push more air smoothly into the tin.