Date:         Wed, 7 May 2014 14:27:51 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: WBX Front Heater Core Mystery Sheet Metal
Comments: To: Cunegonde <cunegonde.van.westfalia@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <915E3B4C-1985-4450-A824-924D0B6A90AD@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 02:01 PM 5/7/2014, Cunegonde wrote:
>This part doesn't appear in Bentley, unless it's a non-pictured part
>of the heat exchanger itself.
>
>Inside the heater box, sandwiched between the core and the blower
>manifold openings, is a piece of sheet metal that doesn't quite
>cover the whole face of the core . It has one row of small holes
>along one long side, and three rows of holes along the other long
>side. It obviously blocks large debris, but also restricts airflow
>to about 50% of the core.
>
>What is it, and can I leave it out for greater heat exchange efficiency?

p/n 251 265 329.  VW call it a baffle plate.

When I see odd stuff like that I tend to suspect that it was
introduced after the initial design to solve a problem that showed up
in testing.  If I had to guess, I'd guess that they weren't getting
enough temperature rise in the air going through the core, so they
slowed it down some.

Yours,
David