Welcoming Arándano: a 1975 single cab

[Spike0180]

so let me get this right. You have a huge oil leak coming from what you presume to be the rear main seal. And you think it is because of your case pressure. But you have removed your breather box all together, and tried routing it to the negative pressure of your air intake. And you still think it is case pressure being too high? ... sounds like a bad seal to me... why do you think it isn't just a bad seal? am I missing something?
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[jtauxe]

To be clear, it is the front (towards the front of the car) main seal that I believe is leaking oil into the bell housing. I have replaced the seal several times with the best seals I can find.

Perhaps there is a reason besides crankcase pressure that the seals always leak...

Could it be that the new flywheel / pressure plate / clutch assembly that I installed would make it leak? If so, how?
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[Spike0180]

[jtauxe]

Stock oil pump. 20W 50 oil. Maybe I should switch to a lighter weight?
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[Spike0180]

[jtauxe]

I had inadvertently added a comment on lighting here, but meant to do it in my build thread on this truck:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8967202

I moved the general discussion to that thread.

We can keep this thread for the engine issues.
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[Stuartzickefoose]

My favorite repairs are lighting nice work!! Very cool. Can you take a pic of the wiring to the driving lights through the nose? I thought only headlight washers ran wires through the nose...hmmm. Cool fact to learn!
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[jtauxe]

[Stuartzickefoose]

[jtauxe]

OK. I can't stand it. The only thing that I did not ACTUALLY check last time was the tightness of the oil gallery plugs. It must be that one of those was loose even though it looked fine. Time to pull the engine yet again... Sad

This time the focus is on the gallery plugs. I removed all the steel plugs and switched them out for aluminum plugs, so that they enjoy the same coefficient of expansion as the block. The two on the right seemed fine. The one on the right had poorly cut threads which I blame on the builder who cut them. But I cleaned all the threads with acetone and used JB Weld as a sealant. These are going nowhere.

This time, I added a new pilot bearing (which curiously left no room for the felt washer), cleaned and lightly resurfaced the faces of the pressure plate and flywheel, and torqued it all up to spec. Got it all back together again, and ... no change. Still dumps oil. Double crap.

But the truck drives so fine! It is smooth and has power and is bouncy as heck.

So, what else could cause the oil leak? My double cab builder suggested crankcase overpressure, and that I could route the breather box to an oil trap and them into the carburetor air cleaners. I already had that, but I suppose I could really try to get the air intakes to suck on the pipes. So, I tried that, with replacement intake horms and some plumbing to the the oil breather pipes right down in there.

No change.

Someone suggested ventilating the valve covers. I got some nice new ones and outfitted them with the ventilation kit sold by EMPI, with hoses over a meter long, run up forward under the body. That should do it!

No change.

In Spring 2020, I removed the valve covers with the ventilation hoses and reverted to the original ones. And that is where things stand.
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD