# Why No Air Cooled Car Engines? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2016, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141 "2016-01-04T07:51:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/41 "2016-01-06T13:19:33Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > … I got a little older and wiser and sold it after the body had non-repairable issues. I hope those non-repairable body issues didn’t arise suddenly in conjunction with a bridge or large tree! Coulda hurt too! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/42 "2016-01-06T19:20:42Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Old Porsches and Corvairs had horsepower ratings as good or better than their water-cooled counterparts. However, their rear-mounted engines made power steering and brakes an engineering challenge since the engine was so far away from the steering box and master cylinder. I don’t think aircooled Porsches had power steering. The front end was light enough to get by without it. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/43 "2016-01-06T19:37:51Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > The simplicity of design and the ease which the average novice mechanic could work on the old air cooled VW engines led to an after-market in performance parts. You can really build your own hot rod VW with parts you can put on yourself. I used to get the old J.C. Whitney catalogs back in the 70’s. Seemed like half the catalog was devoted to VW Beetle upgrades, including the notorious Roll-Royce style trunk lid and engine lid… ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/44 "2016-01-06T19:44:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I hope those non-repairable body issues didn’t arise suddenly in conjunction with a bridge or large tree! Coulda hurt too! 🙂 No, the heater channels had rusted out so much that the body was separating from the floor pan. It was either get another body to swap everything over or get out of the VW hobby. I quit playing with VWs and moved on to V-8s. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/45 "2016-01-06T20:17:47Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I don’t think aircooled Porsches had power steering. The front end was light enough to get by without it. Correct. They didn’t. But it wasn’t lack of engine power that was the reason. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/46 "2016-01-06T20:28:05Z")
> [@PitJ](#): > > Had a VW Beetle during my university years. That was a sweet little car, but the disadvantages of its air cooling were noticeable. When trapped in a traffic jam in the heat of summer, I had to crank the heating fully up in order to prevent the engine from overheating. Sounds easy from a desk but is not so nice when trapped in a sunblasted tin box with no sufficient fan power (and, of course, no A/C). Also, the third cylinder, being the least cooled because of its position, has always been the Achilles’ heel of Beetle engines. _“We get 100 miles to the gallon, too! If the fan belt breaks we can use a rubber band!”_ ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/47 "2016-01-06T21:02:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The potential weight savings isn’t very important overall either. It does take some additional fuel to get a heavier vehicle up to speed but the overall difference isn’t as much as you may expect. The heavier vehicle also carries more momentum and will not require significantly more fuel when you are looking at a difference of a few hundred pounds or less. To put it another way, do you see your gas mileage plummet when you have someone riding in your passenger seat? The difference between air cooling and water cooling is usually less than that. Tractor trailers can weigh well over 50,000 pounds (about the same as 13 cars or SUV’s) and yet they still get about 6 miles per gallon on average. Weight and fuel economy don’t scale linearly. I can vouch for this. We took our new Honda Fit across the country from St. Louis to Burning Man in Black Rock City, NV (about a 2000 mile trip), laden with 28 gallons of water, a huge circus tent that weighed a couple hundred pounds by itself, and all the food and supplies we needed for a two week trip, 8 days of which was in the desert. The entire car was full inside, and we had a bag on the roof with another couple hundred pounds of stuff in it. We still got better gas mileage on that trip than we do driving it around empty with no passengers in the city. I’m pretty sure the weight of a radiator, pump and hoses is a lot less than what we brought on that trip, and the difference in mileage wasn’t enough to bridge the gap between city and highway mileage. It was a surprise to me, as we ended up spending a lot less on gas than I’d planned for on that trip. ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/48 "2016-01-06T21:24:45Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > In the early '90s I bought a 1800cc with a centrifugal advance distributor (vs the old vacuum advance). Leave the vac advance dizzy on your next one. The 009 is junk. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/49 "2016-01-06T21:27:32Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I don’t think aircooled Porsches had power steering. The front end was light enough to get by without it. They did starting with the 964 - that is, the 1989-1994 911 generation. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/50 "2016-01-06T21:31:14Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > _“We get 100 miles to the gallon, too! If the fan belt breaks we can use a rubber band!”_ Hey, don’t be dissin’ the Beetle, because some of that is literally true! The only roadside breakdown I ever had in my trusty old Beetle was when the throttle cable broke off at the engine, probably because I had stomped on the poor old accelerator pedal a bit too hard once too often. If something like that happened in my current car, I wouldn’t even know where to start looking in that densely packed mess under the hood. With the Beetle, I could have temporarily fixed it with a kitchen twist-tie if I’d had one, but since I didn’t, I pulled the throttle cable through the little hole in the throttle valve and tied a Boy Scout knot in it. 😃 The engine idled a bit fast but it was good to get me to a VW dealer who put in a new cable in about ten minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/51 "2016-01-08T07:25:30Z")
Had two Corvairs over the years (64 Monza and 66 Corsa). Sort of a heavier and less well assembled beetle. They never did have power steering or power brakes, didn’t really need either. They were a relatively light car with very little weight on the nose. The cabin heat issue was never really resolved (the early ones had a gasoline heater option), there was plenty of heat available but getting it to a useful place was problematic. Also had a Citroen 2CV, a front-wheel drive air-cooled two cylinder. I believe air cooling was chosen mostly for simplicity. The whole car was chosen for simplicity. No power steering, brakes, A/C, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141/52 "2016-01-08T16:07:27Z")
> [@Toledo\_Jim](#): > > Had two Corvairs over the years (64 Monza and 66 Corsa). Sort of a heavier and less well assembled beetle. They never did have power steering or power brakes, didn’t really need either. They were a relatively light car with very little weight on the nose. The cabin heat issue was never really resolved (the early ones had a gasoline heater option), there was plenty of heat available but getting it to a useful place was problematic. Later VW Squarebacks (successor to the Beetle) also offered gasoline heaters. They sometimes caught fire and burned up the car. Corvairs had numerous issues. Their lightweight front end caused handling problems. Their early unibody design caused vibration issues and, more importantly, serious injuries and deaths in crashes. Ralph Nader famously labeled it (and all cars of the time in general), _[‘Unsafe at Any Speed’.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed#.22The_Sporty_Corvair.22)_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-air-cooled-car-engines/742141.md?page=2)