INTERIOR

In search for rust holes and other nasty stuff I ripped off most of the interior. Rear seat , front seats, carpet and rocker paneling all came out. I found about 6 euros and 500Drachmas(Older greek currency) and some other interesting stuff that only the 2 British ladies on the "How Clean is your House" could appreciate. So far only a small rust hole on the area under the rear glass was found, that was used for storage from the previous owner. Thank god no heater channel rust damage.!!
Next in order is to measure up the case and go buy bearings, maybe new rods and bolts and some 85.6mm cylinders along with gasket kit. In the plan is also a new oil pump, full flowing the case and an extra oil cooler. More to come!

Case Preperation

After a lot of power washing, brushing and cursing for all the nice stuff that found their way on my face I got a clean engine. I masked it off and I lightly sprayed a flat black on it. There are a lot of discussions on the net about the benefits of black paint, chroming, powder coating etc. I chose the benefits of dissipating heat with a light coating of flat black paint. It also looks good at least on my eyes.

Crankshaft

The plan for this engine is to be turbocharged , but I also wanted a little bigger engine size without having to cut the case or the heads. I wanted the maximum thickness on the cylinders and on the sealing surface of the heads. I searched through the net, asked around the at www.aircooledvw.gr forum where I am also a member and I concluded that I would use a 76mm stroker crankshaft. For this task I recruited my best man and ex flat mate Constantine which he still lives back in New Jersey. I kind of told him he had to carry an extra 28lbs in his carry on luggage. I ordered a CB Performance crankshaft through the very helpfull online order staff and on Christmas day It arrived along with my Best man! The crank has also 8 dowels and it will give me about 1744cc with the stock size 85.5mm pistons.

New Engine Assembly

After a long search for a rebuildable engine the guys at YKP Tuning tracked down a previously running 1.6 dual port motor. The motor was torn down for a project that never began so they offered it to me. The price was right so I bought it. The case was a mexican replacement case AS41 with 8mm case savers installed. So I removed the cylinders and the pistons and split the case.

More Disaster Pictures

Well I didn't do much the last two days.. Work has been hectic and I didn't feel like bugging.
I gathered up some more pictures from my engine. This is what we first saw when we took off the cylinder head. The funny thing is that the oil in that engine and the engine was grime free! The oil was as if it was changed a day before the explosion and all the parts in the engine where super clean. Today's post will be dedicated to the beautiful things that can happen inside an engine. I wonder if VW will accept this warranty claim :).

Bug Pictures

This car makes me smile every time I look at it!
Name another car that gives you that feeling.

Engine teardown

Well out came the engine and it was time to tear it down. I sat on one side, Panayiotis sat on the other side of the cylinders and we started taking the exhaust out. Out came the generator and the cooling tin. We took the cylinder heads off and started laughing. Well what had happened was that the camshaft had broken and one of the pistons was pounding away on the exhaust valve! The piston broke, so did a part of the cylinder barrel .. NICE!. Well from all that pounding the head of the valve broke off and went into the crankase.. (game over). I split the case just to take some good pictures...

The backround of my Bug

The previous owner of this Beetle Mr Andreas bought this Beetle brand new back in 1971 from Thessaloniki. He moved to Athens where he used the Beetle for his weekend trips and the summer vacations.! Before we made the deal he told me that the Beetle did not run. He told me that the last time it run was August 08, and that while he was driving he heard a noise from the engine. He immediately stopped to check it out but the Beetle never started again.
I towed the Beetle to my Garage and last week I started tearing it down. A quick diagnosis showed that the valve train of the two rear opposing cylinders did not move at all while trying to start it. ! That wasn't good :). With the help of my friend and coworker Panayioti which he also shares the same "bug" for beetles we took the rear fenders off, the engine lid and we put the car on stands so we could take the engine out.

The begining

About a month ago I came across a beetle that was for sale. I have been looking for a Beetle project for a while but even here in Greece rust free Beetles are hard to find. The Beetle had one owner since 1971 and the odo registered 79000 km. I thought this could not be true. More like 790000km I told the owner but he urged me to come and inspect it. One afternoon after work I went over where the Beetle was parked since this August to examine the Beetle condition. Well I was happily surprised and I closed up the deal right away. I took a quick look at the heater channels and the floors and it all seemed rust free!. The doors did not hang at all and the overall condition confirmed the 79000km.