1954 engine build-up

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Inspired by LT's engine build, I have decided to tackle a little project myself...

My workbench as I organize everything preparing for assembly. This engine will be a dogs breakfast of parts from I don't know how many other motors. Everything carefully selected to work together tho...

Don

[EMPIFLAKE]

Cant waite!! Is it for a bus or bug?? Noticed the 54 barn door in your gallery

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Did a little more on the build-up. Installed the gears:

This is a little crank holder I fabbed out of a piece of exhaust and a gland nut:

I had 8 con rods to choose from and was glad to find 4 that rotated freely on the crank when they were torqued, the other 4 go back in the bin. I will disassemble it again and get out the scale to try and balance them as closely as I can without taking too much material off.

This is what I use for prelube. I've had this bottle for 20 years. Shows how many engines I build-up!

Here's a picture of the block being align-bored:

Don

[ARTIFACT]

awesome! ill be following your progress.
I'd love to rebuild a 36 hp on my own to learn one day
_________________
L331 Horizon Blue January 1957 Canadian Deluxe Oval Beetle

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Finally got around to doing a little work on it. I assembled the crank and dropped it into the left hand case:

I need to do a little last minute clean-up on the right case before I drop it on. I will be using Locktite 518 for the case glue, I have heard good things about it. Wish me luck, I have never yet assembled an engine that didn't leak from somewhere.

This is a '54 case so the siphon is longer than in later cases and lacks the bell.

I will modify it according to the manual to accomodate more modern screens.

Coming soon: Mating!

Don

Don

[Last Triumph]

Watching with interest....

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Thanks, LT. I'll get back to it any minute now...

Don

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I got the short block together, I didn't take any pics of the process since one wants to move swiftly and not miss any steps while things are setting up.I was very satisfied with the way things went together. My next step is to set the end play and drop in the distributor drive. I promise I will take more pictures of this.

[808OvalGreasemonkey]

I just want to add something,take it for what it's worth which is just opinion. My case had teh exact same corrosion on the inside (the white growths on the internal surfaces).Iscraped some off with my fingernail and it was very gritty,like dirt/small pebbles.I used a coupe of small,rounded tip scrapers and scraped every last bit of that stuff out,since I did not want any to dislodge and get into the bearings.It was tedious,but worth it in my opinion.
I wish I saw pics of your case before you bolted it together!I wouyld have posted this sooner.That corrosion is bad news.

[808OvalGreasemonkey]

BTW,if you do re-split the case and clean all that corrosion rubbish out,try some Elring Dirko grey and permatex avaiation for the bolts/nuts/pushrod tube seals.
I just did 100 miles on my rebuild and NOT ONE DROP OF OIL ANYWHERE!!!

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You're probably right about the oxidation. I started to clean it off but kept cutting my hands on the sharp edges in the case. This is a "hand grenade" motor built almost entirely out of used parts. The only new stuff so far are the bearings which I got for a couple of bucks at a garage sale and the gasket set. I swapped a one year only fuel pump for the align bore so I'm into this motor for ~ $100 so far. I might have to pay for head work but I'm trying to figure a way out of that too. I'll probably put this motor in my current car to see how it runs and then maybe sell it for a couple of hundred dollars to someone who needs a beater motor. I built one of these about 10 years ago and sold it to a friend for $250 to run while he built his numbers matching motor. Well, that was 10 years ago now and he's put somewhere between 20 and 30,000 miles on it, the bastard. I don't know how accurate his speedomoter is but he sent me a picture of the needle past 80 MPH last summer. I want my motor back.

Don

[808OvalGreasemonkey]

In the grand scheme of things,it will more than likely be just fine and run forever.........I am being a alarmist,but I just wanted to make sure it was cleaned on my build. My motor is the original one to the car so I did everything I could think of to "make sure" it was going to be long lasting/trouble free.
Yuo have more experience than I do with these things,so I am glad you did not take offense,I was just sharing my experience.
Aloha,and nice work!

[sunroof]

There is no doubt you did the Right Thing by your motor. If I was going to do a proper rebuild/restoration I would never let the oxidation go either.

I am running a motor in my '59 that I rebuilt in 1990, it has been in 5 cars so far. I had it apart 3 times before I was satisfied with it. It is now 20 years later and it is a champion, every time I drive the car i get a thrill at how good the motor still sounds after all these years. I just love a 36 Hp.

Don

[808OvalGreasemonkey]

Right on Don,there is a lot of 36hp/VW love behind your words,you are a true enthusiast.....I hope my motor lasts a long time,like yours do!
Mine was my first 36hp build and am very glad I kept it,I too love the sound of a 36 horse!

[sunroof]

Did a little more work on the motor today. Dropped in the distributor drive gear and started cleaning the flywheel and clutch.

I have a new friction disk and a bunch of used end play shims. I am just waiting for that torque multiplying tool to bolt up the flywheel and set the end play. Then: the pistons and cylinders!

Don

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When last we heard from our intrepid rebuilder, he was heading inside for a little drinky-poo. Some weeks later: I assembled the tools for todays work.

I looked at the flywheel and pressure plate and concluded they could not be assembled in their present condition. I asked an expert about abrasive options that would enable me to resurface the two devices. The pressure plate was easy as it just needed to be cleaned and deglazed. For that I used a wheel on my die grinder that had a Scotch brite like surface on it. (The one on the left)

It was surprisingly aggressive and I think I may have taken too much off. Considering the condition of the pressure plate going in, I'm not going to worry. Take it as an experiment.

[808OvalGreasemonkey]

I used the same abrasive disc to deglazed mine as well.So far so good no chatter at all.
I used the tq. multiplier on mine,and it does not actually "fit" in my case.The small pinion only engages about "1/2 the tooth area" on the flywheel and will slip unless you really move slowly and focus on keeping the pinion engaged. When you do yours,what I say will make sense.
It worked well enough@30ft. lbs. to tq. it to 250+ftat the gland nut,verified by a big ass tq. wrench.(I did this since I did not think the multiplier worked due to the slippage of tyhe pinion).
Mele Kalikimaka braddahs!

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This flywheel was quite badly abused; whoever drove that car loved to ride the clutch as witnessed by the deep grooving and the discoloured back side.

For this I used the sanding disk. It was perfect for the job, taking off just enough at each pass to be effective but not too much so as to score it even worse.

Again in the nature of an experiment, if this dosen't work I'm not going to get too broken up about it.

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Next I bolted the flywheel up to the motor and spent some time measuring the endplay with a set of calipers. I was not able to torque it down to the full value but managed about 50 ft-lbs or so. I tried several different approaches to measuring as I do not have the correct dial gauge (something to ask for Christmas). I finally got consistent results by puting a large magnet on the flywheel and measuring between the magnet and the case. The result I got was 0.045". I went to my pile of used endplay shims and started measuring. 3 of 8 shims means what; 8 x 7 x 6 possible combinations?

I spent some time sorting through them and found a combination that gave me 0.040". I bolted the flywheel to the crank with the shims in place and measured 0.008" of endplay. Things don't quite add up but I won't make any declarations until the flywheel is torqued down properly and maybe the motor has been run for a time. The we'll measure and see what's what.

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Next was a trip to my drawer of VW tools. Some I have made myself, like the piston ring compressor and a few are actual VW tools like the seal installer.

I bought this at a garage sale.

I mean literally a garage sale. An old VW mechanic with his own shop was retiring and selling off everything he had. I got VW tool #2041 and was thrilled to get it (I think I paid $10?). This was my first chance to use it so I scrubbed it and tested to see if it would do the job:

I'm not quite ready to bolt things up yet so I took it apart again and set it aside.