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Just spent two days attaching the engine tin. After two days it doesn’t look like I did all that much. The tins must be made in China because nothing fit well. Spent hours grinding and filing to get all the pieces to fit and secured. Still have the front (front is front of the car) breast plate to install and amazingly the fit is fine. But there are no holes for the accelerator cable or fuel line. I mean what does it cost to add just a few minutes of QA during the manufacture of the tins to make certain they will fit the engine. I know its normal for VW parts to fit poorly and I’m venting but I could have had the top installed if it weren’t for poor engine tin fit. Sheesh!
I return you to your normal TDr forum.Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackAllen – You “spent hours grinding and filing to get all the pieces to fit”? Not being unsympathetic here, but I haven’t encountered anything on my car yet that didn’t require “hours grinding and filing to get all the pieces to fit.”
On a more serious note, thank you for your post. At one time I foolishly thought that maybe I would like to have a chrome tin for the engine, since my OEM tin is full of holes that various people have drilled. After reading your post, I think a better solution for me would be to fill the holes with screws and then just carefully brush paint the whole thing with heat-resistant black paint. It’s not like a VW engine is ever going to impress anyone anyway. “Hey, John, check out my fully-chromed 500 HP hopped up turbo-intercooled V8!” “Oh yeah, that’s nothing compared to the hand-painted tin on my 1600 single-carb VW!”johnsimion2016-06-01 14:21:34
I hear your frustration about fitting engine tins. When I restored Herbie, a year ago, I had to make several mods to the new tins I used. I even went a couple of steps further, to help to try to avoid extra ABOVE tins heat, especially here in Central Florida. I wrapped my non heater box exhaust tubes with high temp exhaust rap, and I made a hand crafted custom muffler tin, about one inch above the muffler, to help avoid my Fiberglass Rear Slpash Pan from blistering. What ever one can do to avoid lower engine heat from getting into the above tin area around their engine, will be well worth the effort. I also have changed my motor oil from 20/50 to 10/40, as I read an oil article that 10/40 oil weight, removes heat from friction engine points better then the heavier oil viscosity. I think there is a thread about the oil viscosity and which oil brand and weight is best for Air Cooled Engines, in a previous post. Again cooler shroud fan air intake, even just a few degrees will make your engine last longer. I think with all of my mods of, the new style larger air shroud and fan, an offset in shroud engine oil cooler, a larger EMPI Oil Sump, and change of oil viscosity, my engine oil temp is about 275-285 degrees. When the outside air temp reaches in the 90s in the Florida summer, you do what ya gotta do.
Dave
Lakeland, FlDave
Lakeland, Florida, where we drive Topless every dayIs 275-285 degrees normal? I drove my car 25 miles in stop-and-go city streets today in 100 degree temps (that’s Vegas for you). My shirt got soaked but my engine oil temp gauge never showed over 210, and the engine is just sitting there with a stock tin full of various open holes and nothing to keep the hot exhaust out of the engine compartment, and none of Dave’s mods. I guess all these cars are different, because I thought 210 was hot and the mechanic assured me it was normal. If I can safely go up to 285, I guess I can stop worrying. Or maybe my gauge is just wrong?johnsimion2016-06-01 21:14:33
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