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Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:24 pm

Okay, I've got two rectangles of tin on the bottom edges of my crankcase that seem to have only been attatched by huge amounts of gunk, which has now been cleaned off. Here is a picture of where the pieces I'm talking about are supposed to be attatched.

there are four holes on the corners of the case that look like they might be places to attatch this, but three of them are broken, and therefore impossible to attatch anything to. there are also places where it looks like there used to be little pegs or something holding them on that are now broken off.
So I'm guessing these are fairly important or they wouldn't be there, so how do I get them to stay on? I was thinking about just gluing them on, but wasn't sure if that would be effective...
I'll take my camera out and try to get a less generic picture if that seems neccessary.

Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:28 pm

They are very important. The sheet metal you speak of is to protect your pushrod tubes from road debris. Mas importante. Secondly, they are screwed into the case and also to your heater boxes.

Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:46 pm

As a future rule of thumb, there is no such thing as an unnecessary tin.

Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:49 pm

Krautski wrote: As a future rule of thumb, there is no such thing as an unnecessary tin.
Agreed... if you didn't need it the factory would of left it off.

Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:54 pm

I don't mean the tin that protects the pushrod tubes, I mean the small rectangles of sheet metal that are flat against the sides of the bottom of the crankcase. My problem is that I cant find any way to attach them to the crankcase, there are no screw holes, just little stubs of broken off looking material. I will try to get a better picture of what I'm talking about.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:07 am

perhaps the stubs you refer to are broken off screws/bolts?

ETA: remove type 4 assumption pic

Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:15 am

Okay, I found a picture that shows it. The piece of tin is circled, the arrows point to the screw holes that hold it on. Three out of four of these projecting holes are broken off of my crankcase, so I can't attatch it there. Anyone have any ideas of what I can do instead?

Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:30 am

I don't think that is a piece of tin. I certaintly don't have them on my Type 1 motor!

Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:51 am

Sounds really strange, we demand actual pics. Could be remnants of a sump mount or some buggy cooling hack. Or perhaps the metal was added to provide susbstitute mounts for the pushrod tins because the sump ears were knocked off. Still sounds hokey.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:03 am

Uvula wrote: Okay, I found a picture that shows it. The piece of tin is circled, the arrows point to the screw holes that hold it on. Three out of four of these projecting holes are broken off of my crankcase, so I can't attatch it there. Anyone have any ideas of what I can do instead?

I don't see a piece of tin in that circle. It looks like the side of the bottom of the crankcase. :?

If you're talking about the piece of tin that would go between there and the heat exchanger, yes you need it, and it's better to attach it with one screw on the crankcase side than to leave it off.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:27 pm

Find a good diagram of the complete bunch of tins on the engine. They are here every once in a while but I don't have a link to them. Check the VW parts suppliers listings. Some have a real complete diagram. What you describe is not part of anything original. Some kind of hack addition. As far as the bottom horizontal tins that span between the bottom case lugs and the HE's they are curved up in front and also attach to the bottom front of the cylinder tins. They are for the air flow underneath the engine and duct the air in conjunction with the cooling flaps for better control of the engine warm up and cooling. They prevent any road air from getting anywhere near the bottom of the cylinders. In the southwest deserts very few people have or want those bottom tins. They hinder summer engine cooling. A lot of people undoubtably will argue that point but they are just blowing smoke. :lol:

Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:35 pm

Alright I took a camera out and got some actual pictures.

Here is the crankcase with the tin laying in the foreground:

Here is the same part of the crankcase with the tin up on it:

Here is the other side of the crankcase without it's tin, showing the little stubs that I believe used to hold it on.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:41 pm

busdaddy wrote: Or perhaps the metal was added to provide susbstitute mounts for the pushrod tins because the sump ears were knocked off. Still sounds hokey.

I'm pretty sure that's what they're for, now that you mention it. So, how should I attatch them? Do you think it would be okay if I just glued it on?

Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:41 pm

That is not original. It seems to have been made up to protect the sump.
With that, if you want to reattach it, you may have to drill out the broken off studs/bolts and replace with new ones. If you are able to drill thru with a slightly smaller bit, you may be able to back them out with an easy out.
Good luck! :D

Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:48 pm

Looks like they were pop rivets holding that on, I'm still going with some sort of substitute for the ears or a sump brace as the purpose.
I'd leave them off and JB weld some thin tabs over the OG tab locations to attach the tin to.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:20 pm

busdaddy wrote: Looks like they were pop rivets holding that on, I'm still going with some sort of substitute for the ears or a sump brace as the purpose.

After looking closer, I agree it is rivets.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:53 pm

Yeah, that's not a "tin" that's some kind of home-made bracket for holding your pushrod tube tin on, judging by the strangely missing original cast tabs (ears) where it would have attached to. I can't imagine what would happen to those, unless there was an off-road incident.

Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:45 pm

JB weld it is! I love solving problems with JB weld. Thanks guys!