1967 1500cc engine removal, evaluation and rebuild

[a.marscapone]

[VW_Jimbo]

Just 2 shims. Out of the thousand or so engines I tore down and rebuilt.....every one of them was 2 shims.

Never ever had an issue with that area of the case or distributor from that.
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[TheRide]

I had a 1976 Plymouth Fury with the original 318 that wore one of the cam lobes round....the bearings looked just like that when I replaced the cam. I let it ride. Engine was full of gunk, I suspect oil starvation caused it.

[Rome]

[a.marscapone]

[a.marscapone]

[a.marscapone]

[a.marscapone]

"First" engine mockup done. I now see why you may need to do more than one. Some things I need to correct:

The distributor drive gear was riding too high due to the bendy clamp. Will fix and remeasure the play and fuel pump rod height.

I put the cam gear on wrong. When looking at the instructions - which are very simple - it was like I was reading them for the first time. So I don't now where my head was at when I installed it. I did not use locktite yet, so it will be an easy fix. I will also see if my local hardware store has something better than the grade 5 bolts.

I will be redoing the solid rocker shafts and swivel feet adjusters when I get the rocker arms back from the machinist. It should also be easier with the cam gear on correctly

The super duper good news is that the cam, crank, rods and oil pump all rotate smoothly. Yay! Cam endplay is also on spec at .002" according to the instructions.

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[Busstom]

Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is that a nyloc nut installed upside-down on the sump stud? If it is, I'm impressed, they're normally very difficult to install nylon-first.

[a.marscapone]

[a.marscapone]

After reading just about every oil pickup tube thread I could find, the consensus is to replace the one that came with the case with a German-made one. Although way out of my comfort zone (like cutting bolts) it seems a common practice so I forged ahead. Happy to report:

Air-freakin'-tight.

And fitting the oil strainer/screen is much less fiddly. I heated up the case a bit and used locktite 518. It is not perfectly centered, but way better than the one the case came with.

Most of this locktite ended up squeezed out of the hole and I was able to clean it out of the case. The end of the tube is a tight fit all the way in. The original pickup tube had a gap around where it exited the hole.

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

Honed cylinders and heads with valve grinding compound (ala John Muir), then thorough scrub and clean.

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

Bought grade 8 bolts and washers for the cam gear. Could not find the correct length so I used my newly-aquired bolt-cutting skills.

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

Went with bugguy1967's services - https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1925154 - and had my rocker arms, blocks and spacers machined. Tabari is awesome to work with and had great advice. For example it was hard to get the proper spacing with the shims and the rocker blocks and he advised me to insert feeler guages on each side of the block as I torqued down the rocker arms. Worked brilliantly!

I did three complete longblock mockups. I had screwed up installing the distributor drive shaft, it was 180 degrees off. I know how to install it and have done it many times, but when checking the valves, I could tell it was completely off. I marked it with a dab of white paint on the small end so will be more careful on final assembly.
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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

Not happy with the big gap between the pully tin and the case. It is about twice as big as with the original 1500 case. With the old engine I would get exhaust smell at idle even tho I replaced all the seals and had all the tin in place. So I thought I'd make a gasket out of a silicone sheet meant for a bbq grill. This is intended to be one piece for the top flat part of the tin and down behind the pully.

Gappy pully tin

Making the template

Fitting to the case and final trimming

Mocked up with tin in place

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

Final mantling (fingers crossed!) has begun.

Intereir case componets in place

Case sealed with Permatex 3H, 1970 oil cooler mounted with 10mm gaskets

Assembled pistons and cylinders prior to installation

CB performance stainlesss windage tubes, very sturdy

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

Had some issues with the intake manifold. While it looked like it seated ok, I as paranoid that the metal intake gasket did not crush all the way. Thought I should undo it and check the gaskets since I had another pair. Also the threads on one of the heads stripped at the top, so I cut a bolt with threads about 4mm longer to get a better grip on the nut.

Intake gasket with decent crush compared to unuse

Longer stud on the rigtht. If and when the heads come out I will replace the rest with slightly longer ones

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[a.marscapone]

I scored an NOS Leistritz muffler, bracket and gasket kits from Dave at Bugcity.com. I also had in my stash two stainless steel brackets from vintagespeed, the quality is excellent and comparable to NOS, these also have a larger side and smaller side for mounting, like NOS.

The NOS muffler weighs 11 lbs. The aftermarket muffler it is replacing weighs 10 lbs. The peashooter mounts are beefier and the crimped flanges are thicker. the manifold vacuum port or whatever it is called is clearly visiblie in the peashooter hole, but not in the aftermarke version.

While I did not have issues with the aftermarke fit, probably because the PO installed it, I did have to widen the mounting holes on the NOS muffler to fit the engine. This engine is slightly slimmer, and the aftermarket muffler would have needed adjusting as well. However the manifold connections lined up nicely as did the pre-heater boxes to the heater boxes.

I also stripped the factory primer off and did 3 coats of POR 15 high heat paint.

NOS front

No visible vacuum tube in aftermaket

Tube visible in NOS version

Stripped and ready for paint

And mounted

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73 Westy
67 Zenith Blue Beetle Sedan
73 Beetle Sedan
67 Lotus White Beetle Sedan - current

[tasb]

Those are manifold heat risers and they are frequently blocked and if re-using the manifold should be checked as they become carbon blocked with use.

The distributor clamp only needs ten foot pounds of torque. Excessive tightening bends the clamp preventing the distributor from fully seating.
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Roads Scholar &
1957 Kombi low mileage 36 hp governor equipped M 178 Slow Drag Winner 2014, 2015, 2018

1965 hardtop Deluxe Microbus owned since 1990 M 620 factory 12 v 1500cc

1961 (October)Single Cab- Road Trip Workhorse

[Pruneman99]

You might want to chamfer the top threads just a little so its easier to get the nut started on that longer stud you cut for the intake.