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Braukuche Sun Dec 12, 2021 12:27 pm

Trylon wrote: Braukuche wrote: I learned a long time ago that if you use these over half century old vehicles daily you become the servant and they the master. From a philosophical perspective it proves the maxim that nothing worth having is obtained easily.

Ah, so Sting had Karmann Ghia Fever as well?



Don’t you feel like your car has you wrapped around it’s figurative finger?

calexican Mon Dec 13, 2021 5:09 pm

Some wise words gents. I am definitely rethinking the daily driver mode for this car. Either that or just take head a little better with suspicious noises.

I actually had a pretty good day. The engine removal went smooth, everything is pretty clean and I have all the proper tools out. The seal removal was challenging, I had success with the screw method.



I knew the clutch cable was too tight on the test drive, so when I went to loosen that I noticed I had put the arm the cable goes through on backwards when I did the cross shaft… ouch… so I fixed that. I also replaced the throw out bearing retaining clips with the heavy duty ones, that little job made much easier with needle nose vice grips. Thanks Doug.

Now here is the clincher… when I went to top off the transmission fluid, thinking I had at least lost a quart, it was completely full!!!

So what we have here is a problem with the rear main seal (or front)



I don’t see anything wrong with it… I went ahead and ordered a new one….
I have to wonder if because there was so much pressure from that arm being on backwards if that’s what caused the leak…

Tomorrow I’ll put the new seal in, put the engine in, give it some oil and a splash of Marvel Mystery for luck… see what happens.

I’m definitely feeling more zen and chill about the whole thing.

One of my heroes was Charlie Watts. He had a few cars and didn’t drive, just liked to sit in them and look at the dashboard. I figure I can always do that, and listen to music now that I got my radio back with auxiliary input for my phone and FM.

Again thanks to everyone for the encouragement and advice.

calexican Mon Dec 13, 2021 5:30 pm

Has anyone else used National Seals? I noticed the one I installed today was considerably thinner than the one I took out. It fits really tight, I used PVC to set it in, but it sits further back than the old one.

Trylon Mon Dec 13, 2021 6:43 pm

Zen.
Your mantra is ghia.

kgj Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 am

From despair to repair.
I wait with bated breath for the test drive.

On the main seal. Trying to remember. Isn’t there a gasket between flywheel and crankshaft? I’ve done the main seal on a later engine that was leaking and the flywheel also had an o ring on the inside (post 66?) I just Google’s it and early cars have a paper gasket of some kind?
Just thinking out loud….

Doug914 Tue Dec 14, 2021 4:26 am

For the flywheel seal i only use the brown Viton seals from wolfsburg west.
https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=111105245
This is modern tech materials and have had great luck for years with these. I dont think its worth second guessing if a national seal is correct or good enough, honestly.
For the gasket between the flywheel and crank, i stopped using those years ago and instead use again modern tech silicone sealer but a very light coat. German Dirko from Elring is a great one to use. I also use it on case halves, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Elring-Replacement-Rocker-G...amp;sr=8-1
The caveat here is the original gasket thickness is figured into the flywheel endplay so you have to redo the shimming to compensate. From the picture john posted, it looks as though his isnt using one?
Glad the needle nose vise grips helped 😌

bobnorman Tue Dec 14, 2021 5:56 am

Are you sure the oil you lost wasn't gear oil and was indeed engine oil? You can easily tell by the strong unique smell that gear oil has if you can still find a few drops from where it was leaking initially. Either way it looks like you've already replaced both seals, so you should have no more troubles in that department now.

calexican Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:39 am

Here’s a picture of the garage/studio… behind the curtain are all my instruments…



I’m reminded of Loren’s thread ‘Will She Make It Doc?’

I had a thought this morning that maybe the oil dripping out was from when I tilt the engine up to get it on my jack…just a thought…

The paper gasket was there, but after removing and putting back on the flywheel a million times to get the correct endplay, it got trashed… I read a few posts that stated it wasn’t necessary… so I let it go. I will definitely use that stuff you mentioned Doug in the future, and I always trust WW with their parts, I’m trying to get this done before tomorrow, because I’m going out of town and then it’s the holiday… so I’m gonna roll with what I can get here locally.
Thanks for all the comments and advice.

calexican Wed Dec 15, 2021 7:52 pm

Well it’s been a hell of a couple days, I’m in good practice now on pulling and putting in the engine. She didn’t make it Doc… something is deeply wrong and my Ghia does not want that engine in her. She seems to love the old one though, and with new throw out bearing, cross shaft and original pressure plate she’s driving really nice. I’m really surprised what a difference the pressure plate makes, it’s much smoother than the new one.
I get the feeling I must have messed up on the crank assembly… I had the perfect endplay, but now there is enough play that I can move it and make the clicking sound. Not good. Didn’t sound good when it started. At some point I’ll tear it down again, hopefully I’ll get another few years of trouble free driving from this engine I have now. Definitely have had enough wrenching time to last me a while.
Thanks again everyone for the encouragement and advice.

kgj Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:56 pm

Glad to hear.

Doug914 Thu Dec 16, 2021 2:36 pm

Ditto John. Good luck with her.

sputnick60 Fri Dec 17, 2021 5:29 am

Learning is hard…till you know.
Glad you have the old girl rolling once again

Nicholas

calexican Sat Dec 18, 2021 8:13 am

Thanks Gents, I got lucky with my first build, I really like this engine because I essentially just tore it down, cleaned it, changed the bearings and rings and put it back together. All the parts are original VW, actually the piston heads have Porsche stamped on them and the year 1950. Cylinder heads are deeper too. Just one of those things as your driving along and can see that in your head. I have about 20,000 miles on it now and still feeling strong. I think what I will do with this other troublesome motor is tear it down, see what I did wrong, then build back better with a WW dual carburetor set up, and maybe a counterweighted crank. Would be fun to have some more speed.

Braukuche Sat Dec 18, 2021 8:24 am

calexican wrote: Thanks Gents, I got lucky with my first build, I really like this engine because I essentially just tore it down, cleaned it, changed the bearings and rings and put it back together. All the parts are original VW, actually the piston heads have Porsche stamped on them and the year 1950. Cylinder heads are deeper too. Just one of those things as your driving along and can see that in your head. I have about 20,000 miles on it now and still feeling strong. I think what I will do with this other troublesome motor is tear it down, see what I did wrong, then build back better with a WW dual carburetor set up, and maybe a counterweighted crank. Would be fun to have some more speed.

The Okrasa kit is the way to go. Get the stroker crank and the big bore pistons and cylinders. I have that set up in my 56 and the car will do 75 easily.

calexican Sat Dec 18, 2021 8:44 am

Thanks Braukuche, I may have some questions for you when I get into it… it will be a while, but I think it’s the way to go.

Rome Sat Dec 18, 2021 5:03 pm

Quote: build back better with a WW dual carburetor set up
WW's dual carburetors for the 36 hp engine seem to only be sold together with their OKRASA-style repro heads. I wonder if WW ever considered selling a less expensive kit consisting of the dual carbs, linkage and intake manifolds to fit stock 36 hp heads? You would not get the full power potential of the OKRASA heads but it would be a slightly simpler installation.

WW offers the OKRASA manifolds separately- https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=111129701OK. To fit those carbs onto a manifold for stock heads, you'd take the upper section of the manifold, use either the same diameter manifold pipe all the way down to the head, make a "diamond"-shaped thick metal plate for the head flange, and weld that flange to the manifold pipe. Dietz in USA made a conversion kit for 36 hp engines and stock heads; you'd use your original 28 PCI carb from the engine and the kit came with a 2nd matching one. If WW could manufacture/sell such a pair of steel manifolds even for $10-20 more than their OKRASAs, it might be worthwhile for them because many of the other components are already there from the OKRASA kit.

And if they can do this for the 36 hp engine with stock heads, then just use a slightly different head flange to make a 40 hp stock head kit! On that, they'd probably need to have a slightly more tilted intake manifold angle to clear the fresh air shroud width.

calexican Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:45 am



Nice cold morning in El Paso… I see this ragtop around town and always admire it, so I thought I would take a few photos of it with Gigi…yep I named her…after that last bout we had, I needed to give her a name…



I’ve already torn down the engine and found the brass distributor gear on the crank is pretty badly damaged, hence the brass flecks in the oil…there was some trouble getting the distributor shaft to mesh up, I know better now than to force it. I’ve determined with the help of braukuche that the problem with the leak was not enough torque on the gland nut….so I’m seeing about a OEM gear today and will start the reassembling process soon. Third times a charm.

John Moxon Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:55 am

Nice pictures John. Looks like the temperature in El Paso is the same as we have in the UK at the moment...and that's unseasonably mild for us. The only difference is you have blue skies and we have grey.

Looks like Wednesday is going to be clear for a few hours so I'm getting out my '58 for its first airing of the year. :)

calexican Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:58 am

Nice!! Post a photo!! Always love seeing Betty, rain or shine.

calexican Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:47 pm



On my way back from the shop with my crank shaft serviced with a OEM distributor gear. Now the assembly begins….again.



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