Herrie- interesting post and thank you for the detail. It’s a shame that the cooling kit was so poorly designed.
I have always assumed it’s best not to mess with the flow of air through an air-cooled engine. Fluid dynamics being what they are, I think you want as much unobstructed space as possible.
The issue of under bonnet temp is of more interest as this seems to be a design weakness as there is no flow to keep heat from building. No brainer to have a fan moving air through the bonnet and no harm to have it always running. Easy fix.
Brining oil to some decent temp before staring off is an important thing to think about in terms of keeping the X-Wedge happy. Proper oil change intervals as well. Modern synthetics do a great job if they are changed often enough. Small change to pay.
