The Mr. Ice Project

The Kuehl Center Vent

Most Porsche 911 or 930 models with factory air have a very limited amount of vent area. Though you may be able to get ice cold temperatures up to this point, you won't have enough volume of air to keep you comfortable. Porsche 911 and 930's from 1978 through 1985 have the primary dash vent above the radio, the two meager slot vents on each end of the dash and the bulkhead "bow tie"; vent located in the firewall in front your a/c floor console. This stock vent arrangement does not supply enough air movement or enough variable air direction. Around 1986 the small slotted vents were increased in size, though you still have a very limited volume of air. The stock evaporator blower fan however does have plenty of cfm. flow. The key is to tap into this air flow without greatly reducing the necessary back pressure required to allow the air to exchange in the evaporator housing. Note: if remove the bow tie cover the air will simply blow on the floor and hit the back of the AC console..... a lost cause. Below is picture of the stock bow tie vent:



We removed the stock bow tie vent louver. Then we installed the new single Kuehl 911 Vent. The Kuehl Vent replaces the original Porsche bow tie vent and it does it in a rather unique way. Installation is about 5-10 minutes, using two wrenches and a screw driver and does not require any cutting, drilling or modifications.. It is that simple.


So here you have a factory looking installation.... you have to admit, it does look OEM. We can tell you that it feels and acts like original equipment !. The Kuehl 911 Vent, which also fits the 930, is fully adjustable. You can direct the louvers up, down, left, right or closed. You can have the air directed at you or your passenger. Best of all you can control the vent with one finger on the a/c control console (keep you eyes on the road, not bending down). During our test drive it felt great to be able to have volumes of air blowing on us. We found that air temperatures form the Kuehl Vent tended to be lower than vent temperatures coming from the higher center vent which gets heat from sun baked dashes. By the way, later on we developed the Tri-Kuehl Vent system for 1978-1985 cars, you can read about it in our 911 AC Products page later.