Interesting cooling setup, ...does it work? Options

[richardL]

spyderman, who owns the really pretty gulf blue car that was in the 914 International pictures earlier has a very interesting cooling setup.

The engine is a 2.3 4 cylinder, and it has been modified to use a 911 fan and shroud. Whats interesting is that it has a duct up from underneath the car to feed air from below, that exits right in front of the fan and is then ducted over the engine.

Here is a picture showing the engine bay:

[richardL]

My understanding (from prior threads) is that the flaps under the bulkhead reduce air pressure under the car and then air is sucked through the grill, down through the fan, over the engine and expelled underneath into the low pressure area. Is this correct?

If so, wouldn't this setup tend to remove the pressure difference and likely actually reduce cooling efficiency.

spyderman has been seeing some high oil temps when running hard (the car hasn't been running for long). Perhaps he should blank off the duct and see if that actually helps?

Whats the collective wisdom?

Richard