1974 1600 project ., new motor in and it ran today

[VW0007]

F AAAAAAAAAA R........K
Today I got the clutch sorted, moved on to single carb..
she idled like a dream... clutch worked ..
took her out for a test run
6 blocks and all was sweet .. idling nicely .. running fine .. pulling OK as a std Beetle does..
turned a corner

a loud knock and tuk tuk tuk
switched her off , luckily my old man and I were on a down hill to his house
free wheeled back .. BIG END on no 1 done for...
WE next ?? ?????????
$$$$ So now I need to drop the motor and split it or do an exchange on the sub assembly, but I don't know if these are still available..
Any one with suggestions ?

[Tony Z]

bad news... hard luck
hope you end up with a much better result next time.

[Tony Z]

open it up and see what went wrong. Maybe the damage is repairable and you can fix it yourself?

[VW0007]

Thanks Tony...
I am going to drop her motor and will open her up when I'm back ..
From what I know of BIG Ends going I'm sure the crank will need doing and probably the con rod .........
And if I do one con rod ... might as well go all out and do a decent rebuild or find a decent recon / service exchange unit ...
I think the previous owner ran without oil change for A long period.. as every thing I've had to do on her shows signs that servicing was never done .....
maybe it's a blessing judging from the way the poor bug was not maintained ...
Now I have a open page and can maybe go up in size and do a balanced engine
This bug is now officially never going to be sold ..its eating money
I will pm you re carbs when I'm back in 10 days ..

[Tony Z]

cool, I'll be home in 10 days...

Take your time with things and do it properly.
Hopefully it was just a rod bolt that wasnt torqued up and is now a little loose and there is no damage

[retrovan]

Hey !!, Thats s#it luck, But if said, better here and now, then on a long trip, or in a bad area.

Always say, things happen for a reason, and now you will have a better bug.

Please post pic's of the striped engine, as it is always a learning curve for all of us.

Best of luck, and keep on posting.

Herman

[VW0007]

Had an hour spare this afternoon
So my old man and I dropped the motor
took off the heads .....
I win moron of the year award
somehow I must have dropped a washer into the no 3 cylinder
So it's not a bearing
I need to replace the piston And sleeve probably get a good one from Volkspares
clean the head..
luckily the washer didn't stick in the valves it just bounced around then jammed into the piston..
so its not a serious issue just a moron mistake by me ......

[VW0007]

So after finding the errand washer ..
we split the case just to check the bearings etc to be safe..
I think the washer was a blessing.
The big end on no 2 was about a km from total destruction
stripped the lot
Got new Big ends, Mains , small ends, new welsh plus , gaskets et.. etc.
Took the crank and con rods and oil pump plate to engineering .
The crank will only need a polish and the rest is normal fitting of small ends onto ..pins and resurfacing of oil pump cover..
So next week we pop in all the new bearings , new rings etc.. and reassemble ..
Engineer said if I had not stopped .. The crank would have needed real work.. luckily I stopped and it will just need a polish
So soon the motor will be "overhauled" ..
Off topic ..don't know how the dudes in PTA are selling recon subs at 3800 or 4550...
The cost of parts is almost 80% more than that then the engineering and then labour .. can't understand what they will be selling ..
That's why we decided to do our own work and at least we know what's wrong and what we are doing to the motor...
ANYWAY here are pis of the motor all split up

[slak]

Did U let them have a look at the con rods as well ?
clean them up torq them up and let them measure the big end housing size just for piece of mind
and before U assemble make sure the oil gallery's are clean in the crank and in the block

[VW0007]

To be safe I took split case to the engineer..
Took the heads as well
Short story .. I am putting in new crank, line boring the case,
rebuilding or reconditioning the heads... with new valves and guides.. etc..
Con rods will be checked and small ends fitted with new balanced gudgeon pins ..
so in the end..
New crankshaft..
All new bearings ..Mains ..BIG ends.. Small ends...
Reconditioned heads..
New rings on cleaned and polished pistons..
Basically a reconditioned motor..
Should have split the case when I had the motor out first time...
But at least now I will know what I have and it's basically new ( recon) so with proper maintainance
I should get 40 more years out of the motor...

[VW0007]

Sorry have not posted in a while ..been a kak month
BEEN retrenched, and my merc popped a water pipe..

I have the motor back from engineering..
we have assembled, and are now making adjustments to a centre mount 36DCD with manifolds ..THANKS TONY Z
The new bearings , crank, rings , heads, etc.. All fit like gloves..
been working on the bug in between searching for jobs, or business opportunities..
I will post pics of the progress so far...
BUT I can't wait to start the BUG ... The motor is basically new...
and just an off topic comment..
I'd like to know how dudes in PTA sell reconditioned subs for R4500?
Just engineering is R4000 and I supplied all parts which were R 2500 excluding new crank..
THEN add recon Heads ... man the dude must be pushing some serious junk ..

Well I'll post pics by the weekend but the engine is ready to fit within the next day or so...

[Tony Z]

and people look at me like I am mad when I say a properly reconditioned engine should cost around 12K...

I hope the carb works out well for you. BTW, that piece of flat bar goes between the manifold and the fuel pump mounts to hold the manifold steady.

[merlinpta]

Well I can add to the "cost" question:

Engineering on motor and recon of heads cost me around R 6 000.00

This is with me supplying all the spares like bearings ect. So what Tony said, if you reconn a motor you are looking at around R11K to R13K

[VW0007]

and people look at me like I am mad when I say a properly reconditioned engine should cost around 12K...

I hope the carb works out well for you. BTW, that piece of flat bar goes between the manifold and the fuel pump mounts to hold the manifold steady.

..
Howzit Toni
Thanks ..I have had to cut the bore of the manifolds on the Beetle, with a steel cutting tool, as the tubes on the DCD manifold has 2 mm bigger diam, I also took the heater tube off the bottom to get a nice fit,
we are installing the carb tomorrow, I managed to get a new washable air cleaner
will post pics soon
thanks again carb cleaned up very well

[VW0007]

Some pics which are progress made until Monday
I will post the weeks progress sometime in the next day or so..