I'm with Ken on this one.  The covers for the push rod tubes are there to
protect the tubes and have nothing to do with cooling.

Even on an air-cooled motor, the tin between the heater boxes and case is
intended to protect the push rod tubes and stop road crap from getting into
the cylinder fins.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Mike S
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 3:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Push covers/enging tins

At 05:46 PM 9/10/2008, Ken Wilford wrote...
>Some people think you are talking about the rocker arm covers (valve
>covers most people call them) and are wondering why you would want to
>drill holes in them.

Try to follow the thread. I have _never_ mentioned drilling anything in
this thread. I'm wondering why you're putting words in my mouth.

>Unlike an air cooled engine, these covers do NOTHING to cool or warm
>the engine.

Of course they do. Oil flows through them, and gets cooler because
they're exposed to the air. I've _already_ said that I don't know how
important that is on a waterboxer. It's very important on an aircooled.
But the fact is, they DO cool the oil. Some people add external oil
coolers, even on water cooled engines, so there must be some importance
to that.