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No new Beetle stuff, argh.
On the above page, I do have a history and some writing about what I've done to my car, but it's terribly out of date. If you've read my blog, and are confused and want the back story of my vintage car, then this post is for you. This is a brief overview. I'm not mentioning various attempts to work on the carburetor and get the car running right, unless it pertains to a longer-term issue.
2003-2005: Got into my head that owning a vintage beetle would be a good way to learn to work on engines, particularly air-cool horizontally opposed ones (similar to airplane engines in man respects). Started looking at vintage beetle ads here and there; started running search on ebay.
July 2006: 1 week before major cross-country move for wife's new job, I see a vintage beetle ad in newspaper. We check it out. Has mechanical issues, but body is in amazingly non-rusted condition. Have it checked out my our mechanic, brings it up to snuff for major cross-country trip. Buy the car. Drive it around town for remaining 5 (very busy) days as primary car, everything goes fine.
In two car, two cat, road trip to new house, starter fails in beetle. Wife continues on, have beetle towed, get it "fixed". Drive another 200 miles, starter fails again, roll start, stay in hotel. I get to house half a day late.
Fall 2006: I drive the beetle as my primary car, without starter failure. After a while, it starts to fail occasionally. Late fall, it finally fails in the house where i can diagnose. Problem is the starter solenoid.
fall/winter/spring 2006/2007: take top part of engine apart, replace starter, put in breast tin (it was just left out in the last assembly). replace rubber seal around engine compartment.
spring/summer 2007: work on getting beetle to run right. I discover definite air leaks around carb throttle, possible ones on right side of intake manifold. Buy another carb on ebay; makes those leaks go away. In the process of re-tuning everything, discover that #1 exhaust valve is stretching/sinking. Crap. From now on car is driven limited milage only until I figure out why. #1 exhaust valve stretching .001 every 200 miles or so. Danger Wil Robinson!
Fall of 2007: Try to investigate valve issue. (possibly I discovered valve and the carb air leaks; don't remember). Driving frequently short distances. One day I discover that brake fluid is down all the way. Refill. Realize next day it's down all the way again. Refill and time. It takes less than 4 hours for entire reservoir to drain completely. Crap crap crap. Car up on blocks.
fall/winter/spring 2007/2008: Take entire brake system apart. Master cylinder was the culprit; leaking brake fluid into body. Discover all four brake drums machined badly past spec. Replace all four drums, all new brake system, relube wheel bearings. Having mistakenly decided that main front-to-back brake line was the culprit, run a new line in a custom location.
spring 2008: put car back on the road, get brakes adjusted right for the first time in ownership of car (adjusting stars had been frozen). Brakes really nice.
Summer 2008: work on stretching valve issue again. Still no real information. I decide that I need to see the valve to see what's going on.
August 2008: I pull the engine, hoist it up on work bench.
Fall/winter/spring 2008/2009: Dis-assemble engine down to long block. Remove heads. Problems: 1) loose head nuts. 2) possibly loose intake manifold on right side. 3) right head machined too far. 4) left side compression ratio is too high, right side is WAY too high. 5) oil pump way out of spec, and installed with wrong gasket, making the problem worse. WTF? Was this engine assembled by a squad of Shakespeare-typing monkeys?
Buy new cylinder head to replace right one, discover it's the wrong type. Buy another head, with unusual spark plug holes (seemed like a good idea at the time). Buy barrel shims to get compression ratio down to reasonable level. When weather is warm in spring, start the re-assembly process. Pull first cylinder to install barrel shim, realize massive crack in cylinder. Crap crap crap.
Order new piston/cylinder set, and as long as I'm replacing cylinder, I attempt to order another head just like the one I have. Discover that the new, good head I have is an extremely rare type and have the devil of a time ordering another one.
As of May 2008: Cylinders are here. Pistons are within 4 grams of each other, which isn't too bad. The next to-do list, which will happen after I get my big work presentation done next week:
- equalize piston weights. - sand clyinder sealing surfaces - paint cylinders - clean cylinders and pistons - do deck height re-evaluation - shim cylinders, install pistons and cylinders, install heads - assemble and install engine - replace all soft fuel lines (and possibly remove and seal tank)
and away we go!
Sorry no pictures, but there's nothing new. More in a couple of weeks, I hope!