From all my reading, lack of zinc is the main concern in new oils.  I, too, would be using air cooled motorcycle oil if I could afford it.  Very pricey.  If you find one that is even close to the automotive oils in price, I’d like to know.  I usually run 20W50, but that was before I changed oil pumps to a 26mm Schadek from a worn out stock one.…[Read more]

My coice for oil this time around.Fresh 1641 build.
I went with a fleet farm brand diesel oil.
my concerne is that todays oils are designed for todays engines,LESS of the antifriction additives(mainly zinc) for flat tappet cams,and more detergents that plug up the cat,wich we don’t have.
I was just searching oils for old engines this morning,and…[Read more]

Awesome Ed, thanks for sharing and being our eyes when we can’t be there!

More Berkeley love.Super nice resto & some neat old slides of racing Berkeleys from back in the day.Again I say: British fiberglass cars with air-cooled engines. These things are our blood brothers.

Greg,
1.  You will get all sorts of recommendations on oil.  The more you ask, the more comments.  VW recommends multigrade.  In your climate 10W40 is a good choice.  I run Castrol GTX.  Every 2000 miles is what I do but once again it depends on a lot of variables.  At least every 3000 miles with dropping the screen and cleaning it also. 
2.  I…[Read more]

Schu, I was not aware that the fancy aftermarket pulleys did not have the reverse spiral cut into them to channel oil back to the crankcase.  Thanks.  Enough said.
Dale, my guy (Dalton) has had his own one man shop for 35 years and works almost exclusively on air cooled bugs.  But if you want to talk about putting on bigger jugs or 2 fancy ca…[Read more]

Thx Dale….Also with the ol pulley it was difficult to keep the slack out
of the belt…it would not tighten properly…btw roy I got silver lake info
thru a link you gave me refering to another guy in new bern…thx
darrell also came recommended thru salem imports in Salem va.
Darrell has been working on air cooled V W’s around 28 yrs.

Roy,
The original German pulleys also work better – they are
designed to sling the oil back into the engine – if you
have a drip back there it is most likely because you are
using a after market pulley and it was not machined
correctly. I had this problem and went back to German NOS
and all was good. It may not look as good, but works.
Dale

Roy.
The crank pulley was small . I took the car to Darrell Phillip at Silver lake V W .  Understanding the the history of the ca and  knowing it was kind of neglected mechanically, I asked him to go thru the engine . He said the smaller pulley would make the engine run hotter too. The crank pulley costs 15$.
Darrell did a great job at a very price..

John, Why did you take the indexed flywheel pulley off and replace it with the stock one?

Roy thanks for the heads up ..Appreciate it!

John, you might want to keep a close eye on the exhaust pipe that comes from #2 cylinder and crosses over to the left before entering the muffler.  It looks like it would be very close to the fiberglass on the rear engine cover apron.  This muffler looks a lot like an EMPI 3487 except that the #2 & #4 cylinders cross over (presumedly to eq…[Read more]

 
 Good Morning!

Mark .I picked up this exhaust in Roanoke..
A coworkers sez he can hear me coming down beach road before he sees me in my MG TD. I have to admit I haven’t heard too many ol air cooled V W engines in a while maybe the throaty was a bit exaggerated.
Roy I had a few nice cars back then too..one was a ’66 Chevy Nova SS with I b…

[Read more]

In my younger days, I might have put a small tricked out V8 into a Pinto/Chevette  based TD and also a VW in the trunk (just for show) with its stock muffler in the “trunk”.  Keep the V8’s exhaust as tame as possible and maybe even leave the trunk lid off.  I always liked the “sleeper” idea.

I’m getting a chuckle each time I look at this thread. Hmmm Lomdon
Roadster. VW engine. But “throaty”?

How do you get throaty sounds with a VW?

Looking atb the photos again I notice that the one valve is diferent than the others (coloration etc). Only because what WAS in there banging aroung finally came uot, it may have done some damage to the valve area underneath the valve seat that you can’t see. If you are purchasing a rebuild kit anyway go for a kit that includes the new cylinder…[Read more]

I’m with you Ed.  Lets not forget that 1oldbuzz is/was a welder (and my guess is a very good one).  I wouldn’t sleep well at night if I had this head (repaired) in my engine.  I’d be surprised it a new head didn’t end up being cheaper than weld repair and recutting all 4 cyl.  Without looking very hard I found heads new $250dp(EMPI) and $125…[Read more]

Keep these in hand for next year’s calendar.

Does anyone else think this head is toast? How does the price of getting someone careful to weld, grind and polish that combustion chamber (so you don’t have hot spots) compare to buying a new head?