My 1964 Birch Green Canadian Squareback

[bobnorman]

My buddy fes (above) came over the other night and we tore into the engine a little. I found out why compression on was low on number IV. As I suspected, it was a broken middle ring.

I also found out a few other things too - like the engine is fitted with 85.5 (1600) cylinders.

And that the heads were also rebuilt by VW Canada

Overall I think the engine looks to be pretty good. Valves seem to seal well, rods are all straight, pistons look good. #4 exhaust was sitting a little lower than the others, but it looks great with little wear. The new one sits the same height, so the others must be dropped a little?

Even though they look alright, I think I’ll still replace both exhaust valves on this side, mainly because I have NOS ones, so I may as well, while it’s apart.

And yes, if it were warmer think I might break out the pressure washer to see what that does with the paint, though I think it’s on a little too securely to come off that way.
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Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[ataraxia]

Handle options based on what I've seen used on some cars:

[fes]

Well what we have learned so far:
The car sits as it did with 59,000 OG miles from 1974,There is no way that odometer would have rolled over considering where it came from,the overall condition of the car and the 10 years on the road..

Sometime after 1966,the engine had problems,VW likely warrantied the engine,sent a long block with 85.5 pistons and jugs from VWC,and the local VW mechanic put most of the accessories from the original 1964 back on and sent the customer on their way.

What has been said of VW replacement manufacturing Canada,is that their build quality was not at the same level of quality as Deutschland..Whether or not this is true..who knows..

That said,The more I think about it,the #4 intake valve looks sunken,and the others do a little as well..The head has a clear VC stamped on it,so Canada had their hands on building or re manufacturing that head..
59,000 miles is not a huge amount on stock heads of any type, and we've determined that the replacement engine would obviously have less miles on it than the odometer..So the idea of the seats being pounded is unlikely IMO..
So...It's possible that the valves might have been overground from spec,or the seats overcut from day one..

Solution? Well, you can grab some of my intake valves and springs and retainers, swap them out and see if anything changes as far as seating..
If nothing changes, change the exhaust valves anyway,put it all back together and run it..If indeed the seats were put in out of spec originally,I wouldn't worry about it much,especially on a lower mileage head..It's normal result of a machinist that doesn't completely know what their doing..

Just a theory..good luck bud
-Matt
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'68 Campmobile-Pedro
'15 Golf-Stella Blau
'56 Oval-The Turd (for now)

[bobnorman]

[bobnorman]

[Bobnotch]

[BSQUARE]

[EverettB]

In the USA, 1963 was 6 months/6,000 miles.
Example:

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[Bobnotch]

[bobnorman]

[bobnorman]

More Volkswagen Canada rebuilt stuff from this motor. Noticed this on the generator.

Heads cleaned up pretty good.

Lapped the new exhaust valves and replaced them. Cleaned up and lapped the intake valves and reinstalled them, I may replace them yet, have new ones ordered.

Tested it with gasoline - have a very small amount of weeping through number 3 exhaust.
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[bobnorman]

Just a little update... I ended up taking out the leaky #3 exhaust valve again and giving it another little spin with some fine valve grinding compound. I think the problem may have been left over compound though, so this time I cleaned it thoroughly. No leaks at all now. I bought new Intake valves but didn't use them; I just cleaned up the old ones and reinstalled them. I measured them and they were all in spec and looked good. I kinda trust old VW/ate stuff over the new -made wherever- stuff. I replaced the busted ring and reinstalled the cylinders and head. I also used new push rod tubes and seals.

Having done that side I decided that I may as well clean up the other side and replace the exhaust valves on 1 and 2 as well. Not surprisingly this head was also rebuilt by VW Canada.

Head was pretty clean overall and the intake valves on this side cleaned up great too. Interestingly, the push rod tubes on this side had a 311 part number.

They look to be in good shape so I may try to figure a way to test for leaks and reuse them.

Here’s how she sits now in my very cluttered and messy garage: Looking cold and sad; sans motor, sans transmission; sans a little more forest green paint.

Looking forward to getting at it over Easter. Hope to get a solid day to get organized and make some significant progress.
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[andybla]

keep it up

[Evilgtiguy]

Looking good! I'm enjoying this build. On a side note I miss seeing my car intact with windows and such lol! I have a skeleton in my garage.
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66 sunroof Fastback http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590530
84 Rabbit GTI (gone and missed)
80 Rabbit (gone and missed)
92 Nissan 240SX turbo

[MonT3]

Little by little, the car will come back together. Any progress you make on it gets you closer to the end result. Stick with man!!
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MonT3
67 Squareback
64 Squareback
63 Squareback
Engine rebuild
Trailer rebuild

[Bobnotch]

[Rome]

[bobnorman]

Thanks again for the encouragement guys. As for the pushrod tubes, that is exactly why they have the part number. Type3s got the 1500 first, so they would have to differentiate them, as they wouldn’t fit on the smaller T-1 & 2 engines.

Was at the engine again for a while last night, assessing and cleaning. I was checking the ring gap on #2 and accidently broke the lower compression ring. Before installing it, this time I checked the gap on the new one in the cylinder as well. The gap was over 1mm which wasn’t right. From what I‘ve read you want it to be about .30 and they are pretty much shot at .90- and these were new. So a bit of searching and looking and trying other rings from another T-3 engine and finally I figured it out. VW Canada used oversized pistons when rebuilding the engine. I’ve since found out that it was pretty common for VWC to do that back in the day. So I have 85.95 pistons instead of the regular 85.45mm ones....should have looked at them a little more closely after I cleaned them up I guess.

So, after more research I determined that I need a ring kit with VW number 311-198-171A- NLA and rare as hens teeth of course.

Long story short - a bit more time spent on the net, and after a read through the riveting Grant’s Piston Ring Catalogue, I found several sets (Ford, Citroen, Porsche, Isuzu) that had rings that could fit (the rings are 86x2 for compression rings and 86x5 for oil). I settled on a set that is listed as oversize for a Porsche 356/912 (part number c1465), and went looking for them. Interestingly, when I did find them, the ad listed the OG manufacturer’s part number as C1605- which according to the Grant catalogue, are the same size as the Porsche ones but is actually for an Isuzu. So, 90 bucks later and the ring set is on its way. Sucks that I have to take the number 3/4 head off again though.
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[bobnorman]

While waiting for my 356 onion rings. I’ve been picking away at other parts of the motor. Turned my attention to the exhaust. Now, my plan was to replace it with an NOS one that I bought a few years ago, of course when I compared the two I noticed right away that they are different.

The NOS one has the screw-on heater boxes/pods, whereas the VW one from the car has those permanently attached. So, no dice in trying to transfer those over. I believe the NOS one, while correct for a single carb, is a 1965 up. Paper tag on it indicates that it was made in West Germany, but it’s much lighter than then VW one. Instead of looking for the boxes I took a closer look at the old exhaust, and it actually looks to be in pretty good shape. The flange for the tailpipe/dampener set up was mashed in. (didn’t get a good Before pic)

There were also dents on the ends of the back side where someone had previously tried to remove it from the heat exchangers with a BFH by the looks of it. When I removed it, I had the same issue, but instead of pounding it too much I put a relief cut in the flanges. I decided to see if I could recreate the damaged/rusted flanges.

The tail pipe flange was removed and straightened out as best I could to get the correct shape.

I managed to find a section of steel pipe that was very close to the original size. Inside diameter is the same, but the pipe wall is .5mm thicker. Close enough for me.
I cut as short section and reamed it out,

Then to make the flare I used an old hitch ball and, after a trip to the hardware store, found a plumbing coupler that looked to be the perfect size/shape.

Pressed it together…

And, voila, here it is the new one next to the old heater flange and the cut out tailpipe flange. It might have been a rudimentary process, but it worked perfectly.

Decided to trim this one to shape to replace the tail pipe flange, looks to fit pretty good.

I now need to tack this on, then make and trim two more for the heat exchanger flanges.

After that I’m going to need to find some 16mm tubing to re-create the heat riser tube.

I also removed one side of the back section that was pounded in and straightened it out… Neglected to get a before pic, but here it is almost straight and ready to weld back on.

And this is the other end that I’ll tackle soon.

If anyone needs one or three of these flared flanges let me know... I’ve got 9 feet of pipe left over.
_________________
Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[Bobnotch]