Well, my experience has shown that not to be the case.  I've driven and
seen others drive around with astoundingly little air seal rubber on hot
days with no overheating.  The fresh air scoops force in so much air that
those small gaps in the rubber would let in a negligable amount of hot air,
especially at highway speeds.

Of course, Gene Berg experimented and found that even opening the vent
windows on his splittie would change the air flow to the air vents and
effect the cylinder/head temps.

Of course the best way to find out is to glue or at least temporarily seal
the gaps and see if that solves the problem.  If it does...great.  But, if
as I suspect, it doesn't it's time to look elsewhere.

But let me be clear, there should be NO air gaps in the engine seal, it
can't be good for the cooling process.  I just have my doubts about whether
that is really the root cause of the overheating.

James

>That 'little gap' is more than enough to produce the symptoms of overheating
>described in the original post.  Indeed, your own response says as much with
>reference to warped cylinders and heads.
>
>The air under the vehicle is at a much higher pressure than the air along the
>sides or top, especially when the vehicle is moving.  The higher the
>pressure, the greater the flow.  It's quite possible the engine was trying to
>cool itself with air as hot as 140 degrees, more when the vehicle was not
>moving.

>-Bob

Red '93 SLC
Red '87 GTI
   and
'67 deluxe
'71,81,'85 Westies