Aircooled VW South Africa

Had a very busy day today:-
Finished doing the fuel pipes,
Connected the gear shift rod,
Fitted the heater boxes,
Connected & adjusted the heater cables,
Connected the throttle cable, remaining wires & pipework,
Fitted a new clutch cable & re-greased the tube & mech,
Connected both batteries & clamped them down,
Fitted my fire extinguisher back in,
Connected the starter motor &
Refitted y rear wheel (the spare has been on since I had a puncture).

I've got the engine cranking over, the oil pressure light goes out, I've got the oil level right but the engine doesn't fire at all. I've given up for tonight I'll check again tomorrow to see if I have a spark & fuel.

A pic of the engine almost ready:-



Spent a few hours on the bus trying to get it starting last night, I had no joy, my timing is right, I got spark & I got fuel but no compression on any of the cylinders, I'm baffled now. I've got the right hand side rocker cover off to see if my valves are sticking open but their not.
I'm totally stumped. I got a guy called Tudor Morgan coming here Monday night to see what the problem is. He builds aircooled VW engines for a living & I'm sure he'll know what the problem is.
I'm gutted really I was hoping to get her running this weekend.

Still no joy, I got spark & fuel but she won't fire, I got a guy coming around tomorrow night, hopefully to wave his magic wand & get her running
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The guy's name is Tudor Morgan, sounds like a nice guy, I spoke to him this morning & he couldn't get to me at such short notice. I'm away for 2 days in Reading so he'll be here Thursday morning. Fingers crossed for then.

How Milly looks at the moment, all sad, lonely & broken.



She's running but sounding crap, I think the engine may need to come out again.

There is something loose in the engine block, I'm not sure what but it doesn't sound to good.
Its definitely engine out again!


Absolutely gutted, one of the con rods has come through the block & the engine is ruined. I now need to find a new engine.

How my newly installed engine now looks, looks really good from this angle, shame its now ruined:-





Got myself a new fuel filter & some more 7mm pipe, it fits much more snug than the 8mm:-

As the engine is out I thought I'd some preventitive measures, one of them is to fit a second fire extinguisher in the engine bay:-




This is how the fuel filter/pump layout should look:-



This is how mine looks at the moment:-


I didn't trust those little round plastic fuel filters & at the time I couldn't get one of the square ones so I bought as close as I could get from Halfrauds. Because it was bigger I had to run a longer pipe & make a reducer to fit the pump.
Now that I got a proper one I'm going to remove all that & put it back to standard.

Thinking of fitting mine here:-



The hose will curve nicely without kinking & the hose should reach all the fuel lines

Decided on the final position:-



It is out of the way & both extinguishers will do their job in case of an emergency.
If not I've got another 3 & a fire blanket in the van.

Ripped out my improvised fuel filter ready to fit the proper one, I just need the pipe from the filter to the pump now. Not sure if its 10 or 12mm

This joint is where my fuel pipe reducer is, look how much a jubilee clip damages the hose:-



This pipe has been on the van 18 mths, shocking!:-

Picked up some engine bits today from Custom Classics in Barry, top VW restorers. I was very impressed with their work. Give em a call on 0800 6122974 or visit the web page
http://www.southwalesmediablasting.co.uk

A mint piston & barrel:-



2 cranks that may or not be good, my engine builder will tell me:-




Picked up 2 cases:-




This one came out of a VW 412 so has the dip stick tube in the wrong place:-



It has the type 4 curse on one side but this can be welded up:-

This one came out of a Porsche 914 & at some point the engine No has been ground off:-





Dipstick tube is in the same place as the other one, its just a lot shorter:-



Not sure what this funny nut thing is for:-



Both case half's have the type 4 curse, hopefully Tudor can weld these up as well:-




Another oddity is that the oil filler/dipstick neck is not drilled out on either case, this can easily be resolved:-

My M8 Adrian came up to see me, when my 2 year old seen the van, she said Leah wana go camping, so I gave her a ride down the road:-

The guy who's going to build my new engine Tudor Morgan (He's local so I can pester him every night & take photo's) is on holidays for a week & will get on the engine as soon as he returns, he's taking it as a complete engine & will fit it back in for me when its ready. I should be back on the road in about 2 weeks.

Milly looking sad & unloved outside the garage in the rain:-

I was going to do some work on Milly today but I've decided to take the kids to Folly Farm instead:-
http://www.folly-farm.co.uk/

Its the type of place I'd normally take the bus too, but that's a bit difficult with no engine.