Prior to redoing the seals on the heat exchange box on my '81, I
stuffed paper etc. in the fresh air ram. It helped reduce air flow but
sealing the box up helped more.

A bit of an aside, I actually made a flap to control the amount of air
coming in the fresh air ram. I modified my heat exchange box to
recirculate cabin air so I wanted to control how much fresh air was
added to the mix.  Plus, in theory, if no fresh air coming in, then
the fan wouldn't be spinning needlessly. I'm not sure if the fan would
spin needlessly in the stock setup.

I haven't hooked up this flap yet, but FWIW, it is possible to attach
a flap with a piano hinge. Getting it to seal? Well that's another
matter. --- ;^)

Some vague pics:

http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/freshairflap

Neil.

On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 2:14 PM, Oliver Mueller-Heubach
<groundhogging@mac.com> wrote:
> I noticed on the Craig's '80 parts Westy that someone crammed cloth
> behind the screen inside the front grill. My own '80 Westy had,
> similarly, the screen closed off with layers of black tape. Is this
> something to do with non-functioning vents? Cold air in winter? Bees/
> Insects getting in? The cloth in the parts van intake made me wonder
> if pouring water into the vents onto this "sponge" would create a
> rudimentary swamp cooler- but mold would be insane (then again, the
> cloth was more dirty than moldy..).
>
> Also, I have one piece of card/chipboard heat-welded to the back of
> my grill- the other, which there appears to have been, is gone. I
> assume these are for directing air into the aforementioned intake.
> 1-how much more airflow is there with both boards in place, and 2-
> how have folks attached a new board when the plastic heat welds have
> broken off?
> Thanks!
> ollie
>
> Oliver Mueller-Heubach
> groundhogging@mac.com
>

--
Neil Nicholson '81 JettaWesty "Jaco
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/