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I worked on my Beetle engine a bunch this last weekend. I did finally end up waiting for parts, so it's not running yet, but it's getting a lot closer.
I got the starter all ready to go and installed. This will take strain off of the (hard to find, hard to replace) ignition cylinder switch.
I got the oil pump case and its gears cleaned and installed. Here's the oil pump before I close it up for good--I hope to not see this for quite a while. The white stuff is vaseline to help the pump prime itself when I run it for the first time.
I also spent some time securing wiring in the front luggage compartment that was part of something that's not finished yet. The purple oval indicate several open connections that I taped off. In case I made a mistake in wiring the starter, I added a fusable link (green oval) in the starter circuit so that in case the wire gets shorted to the chassis, it will burn up that rather than something deep in the wiring harness.
When I assemble the engine, I want as many of the parts oiled as possible. Here are the pushrods ready to be soaked in oil
When immersed in oil and tilted, the upper end bubbles as all the air is forced out. I'll install the pushrods last thing before installing the engine, so that at least they're full of oil when the engine starts for the first time.
Here's how far I got. Distributor is in and timed, the first part of the tin is on and fastened down, and the muffler and intake manifold are partially installed.
Unfortunately...it seems that while one side of the heat riser pipe on the intake manifold almost fits...
the other side definitely doesn't fit.
So I'm awaiting another, hopefully better intake manifold center section to continue. Argh. Good progress but no noise yet.