With Wings As Eagles: Craig P. Steffen's Blog

2nd start fine, need carb work

2009 November 21 23:46

I started my Beetle for the second time since the top-end rebuild. It did start, then ran out of gas, so I refilled the gravity-feed tank. I've run about a gallon through it so far, I guess.

With new oil in it, the oiling worked well as before. It took about 10 seconds for the oil system to prime. After cranking then engine a couple of times, on susequent cranks the oil light went out immediately and stayed on for 5 seconds or so after I stopped cranking, at which point I conclude the oil system is full and primed.

The engine started right up once I connected the ignition. I ran it for probably 10 or 15 minutes total. The ignition seems to be fine. The premature stopping after the first start I think was either something momentarily blocked in the carb.

A couple of things I need to work on/fix: - There seems to be an almost mis-alignment of the fan shroud/fan/generator. The fan was rubbing for part of the run. I could get it to stop if I flexed the fan shroud one way. I'll have to see if I can fix this by repositioning the generator. - After I got it running, I tested for intake leaks with starter fluid. The good news is there are no leaks around where the intake manifold goes into the cylinder heads, or in the intake manifold boots, or where the carb connects. However, air IS leaking in around the throttle shaft. I'm not going to drive the car until I get a carb that doesn't have this problem. I'll refurbish one of the ones I have or get a new one.

Good news: Pretty much everything else acted like it's supposed to. I checked the valves before the start. All the clearances had increased ever so slightly during the first start. This is probably to be expected; the new rods are settling into their lifters, and into the rocker arms. Before I start it again I'll be sure to set all the valves very carefully.

I didn't check the generator voltage, but the charge light didn't even flicker.

So far, so good. Given that I'm going to need to have some carb work done, I'll concentrate on the fuel system so that I can get the tank back in the car. My goal will be that the next time I run the car, it will be drawing from the real fuel tank.

Inch by inch...