Aircooled VW South Africa

Puncture DOH!

We'll its about time for an update, I managed to get Milly in the garage before the snow started last year & she's spent the winter nice & warm & dry in the garage.
After promising myself for months to pull the engine to sort out the low compression on No. 1 cylinder I finally managed it today. with the help of my daughters boyfriends Cayo & Sean. I would have struggled on my own as i hurt my shoulder snowboarding last week in Andorra. anyway here are a few pics. I'll strip the engine tomorrow & hope to have it back in by the weekend:-

Started stripping the engine, I could see as soon as I started stripping the No1 cylinder head what the problem was. A valve seat has become loose & destroyed itself.



The heads have been stripped & sent to Brandon in Swansea Auto Engine Services. & he's going to clean & refurb both of them for me. I've also sent up the barrels & pistons. to be cleaned re-ringed & horned. I'll be fitting new gaskets & pushrod tubes. I can see that the bottom end is clean inside with no wear & no leaks. I'll check the torque on the bolts & leave well alone.







I've de-greased the outside taking care not to get any inside the engine.
I've sent all the tinware off to be shotblasted, zinc primed & powder coated in satin black. The fan housing will be coated in satin light grey.
The exaust & heat exchangers are being aluminium coated on Monday to keep them looking nice & long lasting.

Got all my bits back from Swansea Auto Engine Services Yesterday, the heads have been fully rebuilt with new guides, new seats & stem seals.
Brandon welded the damaged head & machined it to accept a new seat. Its as good as new now.
The pistons have been cleaned & had new rings fitted & the barrels horned.

Fitted the pistons:-


Fitted new push-rod tubes & seals:-



Found a neat trick to compress the piston rings:-







Both heads are now on & so are the hydraulic tappets, push rods, rockers & springs

Got my alternator back from Shorts today, well chuffed it looks brand new:-



Got some engine parts from Just Kampers, new mountings, hoses & clamps, exhaust fitting kit & new new dipstick tube rubber:-



I also bought a new inside handle for the sliding door, because I broke the last on on holiday last year:-



Just waiting for my parts back now from the powder coater.

I'm hoping to get the engine back in on Wednesday, ready for a wedding I'm doing on Saturday.

We've also started plannig our July Summer holiday to Rome 1,344 Miles with a stop off on the way to European Bug-in 4.

Picked my tinware up from the powder coaters today & I must say I'm really impressed:-






Fitted my rocker covers, it was at this point I realised I'd left off the under cylinder tinware, so I had to remove the rocker covers, the rockers pushrods & tubes, fit the tinware then reassemble:-





This flap was not fitted to the engine when I stripped it down but I made sure that I fitted it this time around:-

The Fan housing has been plastic coated in silver which I think sets it off nicely, I kept the rest of the tin black as VW intended. The Exhaust & heat exchangers have been aluminium coated which stops them rusting & is more dureable than paint:-

The underside tin attached to the heat exchangers was also missing as was the dog leg pipe from the heat exchangers to the fan hosing.
Just when I thought I was doing well, I realised I'd left off the tinware down the back of No 2 cylinder so I'll have to strip some bits off tomorrow to fit this. My plan is to finish building the engine tomorrow & hopefully get it back in the van or by Wednesday at the latest.

Fitted the tinware I forgot to fit yesterday, but I've left the alternator off for now because I can't find the alternator tinware I think the shot blasters still have it I'll check tomorrow:-





Fitted the 2 flaps on the end of the fan housing, these were also missing:-

The engine is ready to go in apart from a few small jobs:-
1.) Find or buy alternator tinware
2.) Fit alternator
3.) Fit flap covers between heat exchangers & fan housing ( got to find them first
4.) Buy & fit the oval pipe rubber seal
5.) Buy & fit the center sump plug that I've lost somewhere
6.) Buy new wheel & cable for thermostat & refit

Right the engine is in I've had a busy day, first I went to FBI to purchase a few bits then I went to the powder coaters, then I came home & carried on with my engine, then back to the powder coaters, then I done some more work on the engine, then fitted the engine & then connected stuff up & now I'm out of breath lol.

My list from yesterday:-
1.) Find or buy alternator tinware (Bought one from FBI then had it powder coated)
2.) Fit alternator (done)
3.) Fit flap covers between heat exchangers & fan housing (got to find them first) (couldn't find them so bought some from FBI & now they are on)
4.) Buy & fit the oval pipe rubber seal (ordered a new one)
5.) Buy & fit the center sump plug that I've lost somewhere (forgot about this)
6.) Buy new wheel & cable for thermostat & refit (ordered new ones)

I tested my Thermostat, don't tell the wife I used her saucepan.