airflow

[elbundi]

On some of the later classics (86,87 onwards) I see airflow 'gills' to front sides.
Does this help in cooling the engine any, should I carefully cut through the aluminum and install some exhaust vents on my older 345? I get the theory but wonder if any owners with them notice any significant heat dissipation around the vent area?

[deltatango]

Those don't look like they would let much air out. But I guess every bit helps.

[IPM]

I replace and relocated the engine oil cooler to the right hand side of the radiator. Oil temps dropped. Put an electric fan on it as well. Installed an aftermarket trans oil cooler also located to the side rather than in front of radiator. Headers in place of cast iron exhaust maniolds cooled compartment down also. It now takes a baking hot miserable day and much foot in the throttle to get my engine temps high.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by elbundi

On some of the later classics (86,87 onwards) I see airflow 'gills' to front sides.
Does this help in cooling the engine any, should I carefully cut through the aluminum and install some exhaust vents on my older 345? I get the theory but wonder if any owners with them notice any significant heat dissipation around the vent area?

Andy,

Our 1984 310 doesn't have those cooling vents either. We don't have a lot of problems with cooling but we managed to find a scrapped later model 345 that had the vents so I liberated them. I haven't gotten around to installing them as yet. I hope to do that some time this winter. It will be interesting to see if we notice any difference in engine temps. At the moment my gauge isn't 100% accurate due to ground and low voltage condition issues under the dash. I want to fix those and get a baseline reading of temperatures before putting in the vents.

I figure Airstream installed them for a reason.

Brad

[345bill]

If anyone is trying to find very similar vents to those pictured in elbundi's post above, I spotted these today on a boat. The boat is a 1973 Glastron and the fine print in pic says: A Conroy Co., Austin Texas.

Don't know if they available from this boat outfit or not but it's a start if you're trying to locate similar vents to add to a MH.

[GlenCoombe]

I've looked at the photos a few times and have wondered if this is actually a functional setup.

On my 28' FC the wheel well shirts would be about half way to where this vent is placed. Unless ducted, with minimum surface area to draw from, I'm not certain you would be doing anything but relieving pressure in the wheel well area unless the inner wheel well skirts are missing.

[elbundi]

I have inspected the wheel wells at a pit stops and it does get hot in that area, a vent would certainly help, the original engineers wouldn't have put them there for aesthetics alone.

Without a suitable vehicle to liberate the original parts from, the closest looking I've found so far online are marine inboard side vents, much like the ones seen on the glastron, but these vents fiberglass! There's lots of 'stick ons' which would be ok if I wasn't looking for functionality, or vents for an escalade, ford f series and land rover, but none for a AS classic. Maybe its time to customize. Just venting | Cartype
I think the one they put on the Cadillac would like good on my 345

[GlenCoombe]

Andy makes a good case for venting....but. The original setup on most of the coaches had a drape that closed off the air pass over the top of the radiator. This I believe was to increase the efficiency of the rad, so that air couldn't pass as easy over the top.

I'm running so cool now with the new electric fan up front and the clutch fan behind that I'm tempted to do away with the drape. It's about time to change the thermostat to a hotter one for winter driving so a little over the top air flow won't hurt.

I still contend that if your wheel well liners are in place these side vents are moot items and won't move air out of the engine compartment with any appreciable amount. Just MHO.