Updates on the '71 411

justinshelton · Post by **justinshelton** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:38 pm

I'll get some pics post soon, but here's a quick list of improvements I've made to the 411 in the past two weeks:

1. built my own package shelf for the storage area behind the rear seat. It's 51.5" wide at the front and 48" wide at the back. This rear area is slightly tapered as you get to to rear windscreen. I then cut 4" holes in the 1/2" plywood equidistant from the rear corners and under-mounted speakers. I then covered the whole thing with black auto carpet. I still have the run speaker wire to my fancy Sapphire XIX AM/FM radio.

2. Installed an external oil cooler. Since my 411 is a driver, I'll not park it for the winter. Thus, I put the oil cooler in the rear package area below my new package shelf. I snaked the oil lines from the spin-on adaptor, then up thru the foam engine seal, and finally drilled two holes in the firewall to get them into the package area. I am going to pull the shelf back out and install a small fan to suck warmed air over the cooling fins and blow up into the passenger area. I'm thinking to wire this off of my non-working rear-window defogger since the wiring's all in place. (In case your worried about it getting too hot in the car in the summer, I have a second finned cooler that I'll mount under the car so that I can re-route the hot oil thru it rather than into the cabin.) I have to admit that I really wanted the oil cooler under the dash somehow, but couldn't figure out how to fit it in there, plus I was worried about running the oil lines that far.

3. I'm tired of frozen feet in air-cooled VWs! I pulled the hot air 60 mm defroster hose from below the dash put put in a Y shaped PCV pipe. I think reconnect it to the dash on one fork of the Y and will add a second piece of hose to direct warm air onto my feet.

4. I put new intake runner boots on and then installed hose clamps at each end, so 8 clamps total. I also replaced all all vacuum hose.

5. Spent a rainy Saturday in the garage with a hack saw and tin snips cutting the original, clamped-on fuel injection hose off of my injectors, then replaced all fuel injection lines in the car. Still have to replace fuel use from tank to fuel pump.

Future projects: Check/adjust fuel pressure. Grease all wheel bearings. Change front brake pads. Figure out why my speedo cable is noisy and wiggly between 1 and 30 MPH.

- Justin

vonkr · Post by **vonkr** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:41 pm

3. I'm tired of frozen feet in air-cooled VWs! I pulled the hot air 60 mm defroster hose from below the dash put put in a Y shaped PCV pipe. I think reconnect it to the dash on one fork of the Y and will add a second piece of hose to direct warm air onto my feet.

You never read your instruction book?

Ever heard of the Eberspacher heater which is installed in your car, and how it works?

Also aware of the fact that there IS a ventilation below?

When I put that heater on, the car is like a sauna in about 10 minutes

even if it's 10 degrees below zero

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:50 am

Yes, I'm wondering the same thing. The gas heater that came in the car works great. It could use an extra fan to bring more air to the front defroster vents...but the floor heaters work great. I had a bad thermostat once and actually melted one of the large boots coming from the gas furnace to the body....heat should not be an issue.
The other worry is....what is all of this extra hose doing for your oil pressure? Ray

vonkr · Post by **vonkr** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:36 am

Ray,

I use the cold air fan together with the warm air, that works great for a condensed window!

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 1:25 pm

Yes it works better....but the absolute best overall improvemnet I got was (a) installing an extra fan in the rear that pushes air through the heat exchangers...identical to the one thats there and attached to my air intake. I just cut an extra hole in the plastic intake and installed them side by side and plugged the inner outlet on each fan. So the left fan feeds the left exhcanger only and the right fan feeds the right.

(b) I did that before I had the dash out and realized that the method in which they connected the dustpan shaped scoops to the dash vents was really messed up and blocks half the air. That alone really helped.

The problem in my area in the winter with using the outer fresh air vent fan is during cold weather with rain. The humidity is so high that if you open the vent you will never clear things up. Having more hot air from the extra fan helped alot. Ray

justinshelton · Post by **justinshelton** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:38 pm

Yes, I'm terrified of the gas heater . . . I know they have their fans, and one day I'll run through it to make sure that it works out okay.

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:02 am

There is no reason to be terrified of the gas heater. At one point I was as well.
A couple points to keep in mind. People sleep soundly at night with a gas furnace down the hall in the back of the linen closet

. Thats a live flame!

The gist here is that as far as design goes....the gas furnace is excellent. As long as you have not moved ANY of the wiring around to get it to run when it is not running....all will be well. Even then....if you do like I did on my first 411.....and not understand why the heater was not running....so I wired teh contacts shut on teh relay to see if it would work.

Yeah...worked great. But I could not turn it off!.
No worries! it has a high limit cut-off switch.
Its a very safe design. If it runs too long trying to pump gas (like when you have a broken line)...it cuts itself off. If it gets too hot...cuts itself off.

The thing that will really make you feel safe is to replace the rubber fuel line with a 3/16" stainless steel tube and a pair of steel compression unions. Then you will never have to worry about the only thing that will ever cause a fire. Ray

wildthings · Post by **wildthings** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:40 am

Its my intention to install bus heater boxes on my 411 this year. I will leave the gas heater for now at least to use during cold start ups. Ray you mentioned a problem up under the dash that restricts air flow, how obvious is this and now hard to improve on?

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:28 pm

Its a bit of a pain...only because anything under the dash will be a bit of time on your back..and all of the defroster/fresh air ducts out of the way. The thing is...that the defroster vents ...going off memory now....so bear with me....have the hose coming in the bottom..and a dustpan shaped flat diffuser to spread te hair out to the width of the defroster vent. That dustpan shaped defroster diffuser enters the bottom edge of the bezel that you see on top of the dash...that has the grill that you see from above.

If memory serves...its just attached with a couple of screws...or may even be glued in...can't remember. I just know that its not solidly mounted and the angle of the diffuser on most that I have found is such that a decent amount of the very thin portion of the open edge of the diffuser...is blocked by the entry angle to the bezel......and there is a screen wire grill in each one...that really blocks things...and is unecessary.

Part of the blockage was also due to the fact that the thin open edge of the diffuser is ususally deforemd from heat....because this is a polyethylene molding with thin walls. It distorts and closes up a bit.

When you pull them loose...if you have problems...all of this immediatley becomes visible. I removed the useless screen wire, reshaped the funnel a little....and attached it properly with a slight change in angle. It was a pretty good change to volume and proper angle. I would say 30-40% better. It was worth it.