How the air -cooled beetle exhaust gas used to heat its cabin – Jalopnik

We are going to avoid the low -hanging fruit here and just say that no, old beetles do not pusse hot exhaust gas directly into their huts. They trusted exhaust gases to warm up (relatively) fresh air, which was then routed in the cabin to warm up people, a method that was even used in a whole series of beetles that were lost in Antarctica.

Air is pulled into the engine compartment by a fan, so that the air then flows over the components of the hot motor to cool them. Built in beetles before 1963, the air heated by the engine was then led in the cabin to heat the passengers. After 1963, VW added heat exchangers to get the air even hotter. The heat exchanger is like a pipe in a pipe; Air that was used to cool the engine flows through the inner pipe, while hot exhaust gas flows through the outer pipe. The exhaust heat is then transferred to the inner pipe via cast metal fins on the last. Finally, the heated air to the interior of the car is channeled to keep people comfortable.

Now there was still a chance of exhaust gases and other annoying things to get through to the interior of the car, but that is because the so -called fresh air first went over the engine itself to keep it cool. If oil or exhaust leaked from the engine, it can be picked up by the air that was eventually heated by the exhaust gas in front of the cabin.

One of the most important problems related to an air -cooled bug is that even when brand new, the heating system simply did not offer enough hot air for us drivers. However, that can easily be solved, because the problem is usually in the driver’s seat, not in the Beetle’s HVAC system. According to some advice, buried deep in the manuals of the Volkswagen, “the car will heat up faster if you open a vent window, so that the fan is easier to force the warm air in the otherwise well -off interior.” In other words, unless you opened a window, it was physically difficult to force more hot air in the cabin because there was nowhere for the cold air that was already there to go. Readers of a certain age can remember the Ocean-Going VW-BEEVER that could float because the hut was so tight.

The heat exchanger can be a different source of difficulties for today’s drivers. The original OEM inside had countless metal fins to get more warmth from the exhaust gas in the cabin air. However, more recent aftermarket replacements often save money by having fewer fins, so that less heat can be exchanged. It can also be easy for the different clips, snakes and channels of the system to damage decades of use. The same applies to the control cables that leave the hot air in the cabin (or store).

All 21.5 million classic Volkswagen-Beevers, who were for sale until 2003 (in Mexico), trusted air cooling. A strange but expected Beetle prototype was developed with a water-cooled engine in 1984 for the Mexican market, but it never went into production.

On the other hand, the Nieuwe Beetle (1998-2010) and its successor, the Beetle A5 (2012-2019), contain modern water-cooled engines that heating cores instead of heat exchangers to heat the cabin. Here a coolant is led through the motor to absorb heat. The liquid then flows and heats the heating core, and fresh air blows through the core, warms up when it enters the interior of the car.

Now Front-Motor, the new Beetle of 1998 premiered with a choice of two water-cooled engines: a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder gas engine with 115 hp and 122 pound-foot torque and a 1.9-liter four-cylinder turbo diesel that produces 90 hp/149 pound-foot torque. A turbo charger with four-cylinder gas unit debuted in 1999 with 150 hp, which was later raised to 180 hp for 2002. For 2006, a 2.5-liter five-cylinder mill arrived and was the precedent for the return of five-cylinder fun for the 25th anniversary of the VW Golf R.

It was also transferred to the last generation of the beetle – at least for the time being. The power of the beetle family finally peaked when the Limited-Edition 2014 GSR was launched with 210 hp of a 2.0-liter turbo four.