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Late last season, I noticed some weird, gray, fuzzy material showing up in the engine compartment from time to time.  I looked high and low and couldn't find a source, but noticed that it looked a lot like the fluffy stuff that mice carried off from my wife's Subaru (it used to be her firewall noise blanket), most of which showed up in the heater blower of my Nissan.

Anyway, I could see it pushing out around the edges of the tin over the heads and thought, "Oh, oh.....    That ain't good!" and decided to pull just the fan shroud and see what's going on.  Let me tell you, after a couple of hours of fighting with it I decided it is a LOT easier to just pull the engine (something I know I've told others in the past, but I tried to do a "quick and dirty" fix and failed - I should-a known better.

So it's out on the floor, I pulled the shroud and tins off and #3 cylinder was maybe 40% covered in fluff while #4 was about 10% covered.  The passenger side was clear.  I'll get it onto an engine stand later today and give it a once-over and clean things up before returning it.  Besides, it's a LOT easier to replace the fan shroud with the engine up around 3 feet to get at the underside tins.  I think it is over ten years since I last pulled the engine, so I'm not feeling bad about this, but it was a LOT easier to do this ten years ago.  Getting old sucks.

I'm glad I went to all this trouble though, and, of course, found a bunch of other things to fix along the way making this a 3-day process, but Whalla-Hey?  It needed to get done and now I can figure out how to put a screen over the fan opening.

DAMN YOU, MICE!

Driver's side photo:

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Glad you noticed this. Mice nests can overheat an air-cooled engine in no time. I place plenty of mice killing devices and poison around my garage and own 2 outdoor cats to boot! Mice have cost me plenty over the years and I have learned to take extreme measures to rid my garage of them. I had to have the dash removed on a BMW sedan some years ago after they built a home in the Heat/AC blower fan. They will always build on top of our VW engines, and it is easy to not see the nesting material and wonder why the engine is running so hot. Corvair engines were always prime real estate for the critters.  Your engine loves you for all the work you are doing Gordon. Happy spring motoring to all!

356 Porsche engines have a screen on the back of the fan shroud ,

Dune buggy guys did the same thing ,

one of the things I do when checking out an unknown motor is to check and see is anything got sucked into the fins of the fan ,

I have found string , shop rag , plastic bag pieces and things like that.

probably something that needs to be on your tune up list of To Dos

I thought that a “Dune Buggy Screen” would be a good idea but the reviews on the few that are offered are poor (they don’t stay mounted) so I’ll fab up a better one over the opening and screw it to the fan shroud.   The challenge is to make it look “factory”.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, I keep finding other things to fix, like a Kennedy clutch that looks like it has been slowly chattering and self-destructing for over 15 years, a couple of cheap Asian, cracked, cylinder cover tins and a deep sump and three pushrod tubes that have leaking gaskets.  Maintenance stuff, really, but they need attention and are easy fixes with the engine on a shop stand.  And all these I found just this afternoon.  Can’t wait to see what else pops up tomorrow!!

I will say, that I was shocked, SHOCKED, I say! At how easy it was to pull the engine using the lift to get the car way up out of the way, then simply wheel the engine away on a motorcycle jack, everything level.  I never had that luxury before.  Sure makes life easier for an old guy pulling wrenches…….

I ripped out the hood insulation from my 4-runner because of mice building homes with it on top of my intake manifold almost nightly one winter. I even noticed my interior fan slowly developing a wobble. Of course, mouse house. My emergency toilet paper was once made into a mouse house in between my seats. I don't know how how in the heck they got into my truck. Luckily they haven't started chewing any wires, yet.

I started zip tying clumps of peppermint here and there to keep them at bay.

A buddy of mine that LOVES Corvairs, finds epic mouse houses in field cars that he finds and gets back on the road.

I didn't have any mice when I had the peppermint in the engine compartment or inside the cab. But, where do you get fresh peppermint in the winter time?

I have a patch of it in the driveway that I've actually tried to get rid of, without using chemicals, and just can't get that last bit of root. I've just accepted it now and just try to keep the patch in check. It's supposed to keep away mosquitos too, but keep it in a pot if you decide to grow it.

went to the gas station a while back to fill 'er up, popped the lid, and out scampered about 6 or 8 almost hairless baby mice.  They split in a real hurry and I never saw where they ended up.  So I've dealt with chewed oil rags and kleenexes for a while.  My method now is barbaric: good old fashioned mouse trap next to the car with irresistible peanut butter.  Put the proceeds in the garbage. Ain't pretty, but it works.

@Carlos G posted:

I didn't have any mice when I had the peppermint in the engine compartment or inside the cab. But, where do you get fresh peppermint in the winter time?

I have a patch of it in the driveway that I've actually tried to get rid of, without using chemicals, and just can't get that last bit of root. I've just accepted it now and just try to keep the patch in check. It's supposed to keep away mosquitos too, but keep it in a pot if you decide to grow it.

Carlos is (as usual) 100% spot-on. Mint will overtake everything unless you physically contain it. We've got a small patch we use dried for tea and fresh for mojitos. We cut it back probably 3x every summer, so that the leaves are supple and soft when we harvest.

Creeping Charlie is related to mint, which is why it's a multi-year affair to get it out of the yard.

I thought that a “Dune Buggy Screen” would be a good idea but the reviews on the few that are offered are poor (they don’t stay mounted) so I’ll fab up a better one over the opening and screw it to the fan shroud.   The challenge is to make it look “factory”.

Look at Ebay listings to get an idea how the Factory did them , its pretty basic unless you are trying to find " Metric" screen !   Hahaha

So my Kennedy 1,700 pound clutch has had an uneven engagement chatter for over a decade but I just learned to live with it.  It was slowly getting worse last Fall but I was prepared to ignore it this season, too, until I had to pull the engine anyway, looked at the clutch and had a “WTF? ” moment.  Here is a side shot showing one clutch plate lever sitting a LOT lower, at rest, than the other two levers and the other end of that lower lever has chewed into the plate actuator so it’s no wonder the plate is failing - it seems to have been manufactured poorly in the first place and has had an uneven engagement since day one.  
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Here is a shot from the outside end of that lower lever.  There should be a small anti-chatter spring on the lever like the other two, but that was destroyed sometime, too.

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and here is the same shot of a “good” lever with the spring intact.
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So I have a new Sachs 200mm clutch kit on order, along with a growing list of other stuff, but this clutch thing was a real biggie.  

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Oh man..........I remember when I had a mouse in my garage and was too lazy to find the bastard, so I threw the cat in there (yeah literally threw her in) and closed the door for an hour or so.

I opened the door to her strolling out the garage and when I turned on the light I found the mouse. She had killed it, and then proceeded to eat it on the bonnet of the speedster, there was blood going down the light and the hood, it looked awesome. So I left it for a week or so before wiping it down.......sure got some looks at the shops.

Yeah, we need a cat.  Maybe two or three of them.

I also need another hole in my head - Can you tell I'm not a willing "Cat Person"?

I put the Speedster up a couple of feet on the lift for the winter and that seems to keep them out, but I am not sure about that - They're crafty devils.

After several bouts of a  heater fan chock-full of mouse-nest in my daily driver (MAN!  How they rumble and shake when there is a nest in there), I got really good at removing the heater blower.  Out, cleaned and back in took about an hour in a Nissan Rogue, but the Rogue just got replaced by an Acura RDX so I'll have to learn that stuff all over again.  The good news on the mouse front is that there was no nest in my lawnmower when I opened it up yesterday.  

Getting the Speedster back together is taking forever due to "supply chain issues".  I got the new Sachs clutch kit in less than a week (from JBugs) but had been waiting on new cylinder head tins and other goodies for a couple of weeks from a different vendor.  Just cancelled from there and re-ordered from JBugs who's website shows them in stock.  I hope they'll show up at the end of the week.  In the wait time, I've been re-painting things that were last painted 20 years ago and replacing all of the heat shield gaskets.  Mine are, of course, unique, because I designed them before I found this forum to make it easy.   🙄   I will also be replacing the sump gaskets today.  

OK, back to twiddling my thumbs and waiting for parts.

Have you tried Dune Buggy Warehouse(Ohio), CIP1.com, or Appletree Automotive(Michigan)?

Dune Buggy warehouse has an IRS Sachs kit for $140. Looks like it's in stock.

I've been attempting to stay away from California vendors lately. They seem to be really slow the past few years. I ordered an oil cooler block off plate from Scat on 3/21. It STILL hasn't shipped.

Last edited by DannyP
@DannyP posted:


I've been attempting to stay away from California vendors lately. They seem to be really slow the past few years. I ordered an oil cooler block off plate from Scat on 3/21. It STILL hasn't shipped.

Maybe they're still testing whether or not, if it's licked, will it cause cancer or any future reproductive harm to small pets and children.

Last edited by Carlos G

I got the sachs part numbers for clutch, disk and TO bearing from Carey and verified that was what is in one of the kits from JBugs for a 200mm clutch at around that price.  That arrived a week ago (Maybe four days after ordering) but I have the engine on a build stand which means I had to remove the clutch to fit it to the stand.  That's how I found that the old pressure plate had failed.  

Things are coming along, just at a snail's pace.

Spent an hour today with a sheet of exhaust gasket material hand-making a bunch of gaskets for the collector-to-muffler joint on my Berg Extractor exhaust because NOBODY around here has one like it and I don't feel like ordering a few from Berg.  Made up a template to center the holes and they came out pretty spiffy!  I only need one, but it's just as easy to make six.

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

...................PROJECT RECAP EDITION....................

"You have to remember, that it all started with a mouse....."

Mickey and Walt

No, not that mouse, but this kind of mouse:

Field-Mouse Cute little bugger, right?

One of those built a "Mouse Condo" nest on top of my cylinder heads by sneaking into the fan shroud through the fan opening.  I've now placed a metal screen over that opening.  The only easy direction from there is onto the driver's side cylinders (3-4) and that's where the nest was.

That morphed into pulling the fan out of the shroud (I couldn't see anything from there because of the shroud design), then pulling the engine to get the shroud off which then showed that I had a significant oil leak between the case and the deep sump and probably another one from the pushrod tubes on one side.  

Getting the engine onto my engine stand meant that I had to remove the clutch and THAT showed that I had a defective clutch.   🤬    But it worked OK for the past 20+ years so who am I to gripe?  Onward to a new clutch kit.

So, while waiting a couple of weeks for parts to show up, I decided that, after 22 years, my el cheapo but highly effective heat shield gaskets could really stand to be replaced.

And if I'm doing that, then I could sand the shields down and repaint them.  Besides, I can't do much else until new parts arrive, like sump gaskets and clutch and stuff, right?  I've gotten pretty good at painting things at 50F-ish without clogging up the rattle-can.

Well, finally, some parts are trickling in and the first thing I found is that I ordered the wrong sump gaskets and got sets that are too big.  🤬   BTW:  I used mushy silicone sump gaskets about 12 years ago and they sealed well for a while, but then the oil attacked them and they became distorted and leaked - I'm re-evaluating the nuts I used to secure the sump to the case, too and hope to use something better.  Live and learn - So I dug around in my part stash and came up with three sets of paper gaskets that fit, and those will be applied with some black, max-oil-resistant Permatex RTV (the silicone gaskets didn't need RTV, but they didn't last, either).

While cleaning the bottom of the case I decided that I just HAD to really fix the leaking pushrod tubes.  I have everything to do that, just have to take the time.  Mine are the 2-part, threaded versions.  They're OK, no more, no less, but they lasted ten years and I have all new o-rings, so......

So starting this journey, I thought this would be an easy, pull-the-shroud, vacuum-the-stuff-out, get on the road again, but that was only the beginning of this prolonged journey that has been ten or twelve years in the coming.  My entire workbench is covered with things that want to go back together but the pushrod tubes are first on the hit parade, then the sump (now drying after degreasing), then putting the shroud and fan put back, then refurbished engine tins (there are a LOT of little tin pieces involved, here) and on and on.  I hope I can remember where everything goes and how.  Last, when the engine is off the stand and onto my motorcycle jack to re-install it, I'll install the new Sachs clutch and bearing.

I can't install the intake manifolds until after the engine is back in (it's a CMC with limited frame clearance to the carbs) and then will install the linkage and start buttoning things back up and then I'll probably find that the clutch adjustment is all wrong for the new clutch and have to re-do that, too.  

I'm beginning to feel like @majorkahuna out at Lake Tahoe:  I might get back on the road in June, at this rate.....   Just about the time the snow will melt off of his lawn.

Unless I find something else to fix along the way.  That's become a daily occurrence!

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Before I installed my engine in the car for the first time, it was sitting with no plugs.  I happened to look through one of the spark plug holes and saw that I had mouse poison pellets on top of the piston.

When I had a somewhat rusty Beetle, a mouse got stuck halfway through a hole in the kick panel.

I have an ultrasonic mouse repeller in the garage.  I don't if it really works but I haven't noticed evidence of mice in the garage.  I do find mouse turds in the garage attic.

Last edited by Michael McKelvey

It is so nice to finally be putting things back on the engine after a long period of just removing and cleaning stuff and waiting for parts.

Sump is back on, new pushrod seals, couple of new head tins arrived today and are already installed and now I just have to play with the 3-4 head tin to make it fit just a bit better in one spot.   After that, try to remember how the other ten pieces of cooling tins all go together in their 3-D puzzle to get all the tins back in place and the shroud back on.

I came up with an anti-mouse screen over the fan inlet while waiting for parts, so maybe this will never happen again, but I never would have gotten in there to fix these pesky oil leaks otherwise, so everything’s good.  

Heading to Newport, RI tomorrow to visit the Audrain Classic Auto Museum with a couple of friends and will post a few photos later.  Maybe I’ll see Donald Osborne or Jay Leno there, right?

Today was a day of “deja vú all over again” (with a hat-tip to the inimitable Yogi Berra).  

My old engine upper cylinder tins were bought in 1997 from Latest Rage Imports, were chrome because I liked the look (chrome engine parts were all the rage, back then) and seemed to work well - I never had cooling problems with them, but they were quite thin and eventually fatigued and began to rust and fall apart.

When I originally installed them, they needed a lot of “massaging” to get them to just fall into place like OEM tins, and then I had to really beat the heck out of them to fit my intake manifolds past the tin and onto the mounting studs.

Fast-Forward 26 years and those snazzy chrome cylinder tins were falling apart, so I got a new pair of snazzy black versions from JBugs and started fitting them, today.  All those metal bashing memories came back to me as I started moving things this way and that to get them to just fall into place with no gaps like OEM tins.  Now that that is done, I’ll be out there tomorrow relieving them between the spark plugs so that I can easily get the moosey, dual-port intake manifolds in there past the tins with enough clearance that you can install them by feel, because you sure can’t see anything over there when the engine is back in the car, so it’s all done by feel.

In the middle of all this, today, I remembered going through all of this way back then and messing with them for a couple of nights until I finally got everything to fit right.  The only trouble this time, is that back then I made up a press jig to re-shape the area between the spark plugs to give the intake manifold enough room.  That jig got pitched when we moved to Rhode Island  😡 along with a lot of other stuff I never expected to use again, so now I have to come up with something else.   Sigh…..   😔

Deja Vú is not always a wonderful thing…………..

Didn't want anyone to think I'm being a slacker or something, so a quick update:

My new cylinder tins arrived and needed moderate "adjusting" to get them to fit right.  I also realized that I had previously installed the engine breast plate and rear heat shield tin in the wrong order (the rear tin goes under the breast plate - Who knew?  Most photos don't show this well).  This required that I re-work the rear tin to fit properly to the breast plate (and beat the crap outa the breast plate to un-do what I had done 20 years ago to make it fit around the deeper Berg oil pump) and then "adjust" the head tins to fit everything else.  Lots of Dremel cutting and hammer forming has been done lately.

This turned into a BIG F'in DEAL to get everything to fit right, especially because my headers have rusted together and cannot be removed without wrecking them (the slip joints no longer slip) so there's very little space to fit everything in.  It required that I remove the crankshaft pulley for better access.

What I found is that, if you run a stock VW oil pump, all of the after-market tin sort of fits with minor/almost no adjustment.  Add a Berg 30mm oil pump which is a lot deeper and it interferes with the breast plate behind the crankshaft pulley, requiring a lot of tin rework (translation - You need to beat the crap out of it).  Reworking the breast plate tin then requires reworking of the rear tin to get it all to match up.  🤬  This means putting a 1/4" "step" in a piece of 19 ga. sheetmetal with limited tools (mostly, a vice, a hammer, a torch and patience).

So I'm almost done with these little, time-consuming "adjustments" but now the tinwork will need stripping (powered wire brush or maybe I can find a sandblast booth) and re-painting before everything goes back together.  The toughest part was getting the head tins and the rear tin to match up where they meet, to have a continuous, flat surface to match the rear heat shields.  I hope to have everything done by the end of next week, just like a week ago I hoped to have all this done by the end of this week.

Time flies when you're having fun......   🙄

@Gordon Nichols, a little too late to ask, but do we really need the 30mm oil pumps? I've got one on mine, too, but I've heard various opinions about whether we really need the bigger pumps.

Imho, if you need a 30mm pump to obtain good oil pressure, your bearing clearances are too large. I think Berg used to say a 21mm pump could supply plenty of oil for most engines. He recommended using his pressure relief cover any time a 30mm pump was used.

Rick is absolutely correct. I had a 26mm pump with the Berg pressure relief cover and it worked great.

CBs dry sump uses a 26mm for the scavenge side and a 21mm for pressure. That works FINE in the 2276 I built a couple years ago.

My Autocraft dry sump has 52mm scavenge and 26mm pressure side. That works awesome, especially with the JayCee pressure relief oil filter mount. That dumps anything over 80 psi back into the tank.

There is simply no need for anything bigger than a 26mm pump gear.

FYI, the Formula Vees run 6500 rpm with a 21mm gear pump and full flow filter and cooler.

Unfortunately, none of you experts were around when I was originally building my engine (1998) OR when I converted it to Full-Flow (2003).  

Mostly, all I had was articles (glorified ads, really) in "Dune Buggys and Hot VWs" magazine and everyone was pushing 30mm Melling pumps back then.

Al wrote: "(Berg) recommended using his pressure relief cover any time a 30mm pump was used."  That's true, and I got that from his tech notices.  All the magazines were pushing 30mm pumps and I had one when I built the engine.  I actually bought Berg's complete (GB233A) Full-Flow kit, so I looked up the sales invoice (COD people never through anything away) and it says I have a "26mm pump with the outlet tapped and plugged for use with a full flow GB pressure cover".  

I stand corrected on the size, but it's still pretty deep and whatever I used for the breast plate tin (which fits a stock engine) didn't fit until I whomped the heck out of it to rearrange the bottom half.  There is a big protrusion on top of the cover for the pressure valve and the nuts holding the cover stick out quite a bit, too.   All that was fixed back when I full flowed it to clear the pump and the pulley, but I had the stack-up of the breast plate and rear tin all wrong (never saw a photo of what was right, back then, just guessed) so the creative tin adjustments went out from there as best I could.  Now, with 20-20 hindsight and a few more photos from the Interweb, I've seen what I did wrong and while it worked ok, it's always nice to get things right, right?

I'll post a couple of photos later on (it's Mother's day, after all) of what I've been up to, but the biggest thing is returning the rear tin to the original stepped shape where it meets the head tins so that the compartment heat shields make even contact all around the engine.  One side's done, and I'm finishing up the other side now.  That transition is hard because there is a 1/4" step down at the end of the metal sheet and really hard to duplicate accurately without the proper dies so a lot of hammering, trial and error, swearing, etc.......

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Photos!

Here is what I've been spending most of my time on lately.  3-4 Head tin (driver's side) on the left, rear tin on the right.  

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I need to get both top surfaces close to even with no screws on top so my heat shield will lie flat and seal.  The piece on the right needed a 1/4" step in it at the ends to put the screw tab on the bottom.  That means that I screw them together from underneath (the nut is captive to the head tin), but that's no big deal.  Making that step in such a short span is a MAJOR PITA when you don't have proper dies and a press.  Getting two precise bends like that with a hammer and improvised die (1/4" steel bar stock) is really hard.

There's a slight bulge towards the center of the engine to clear the exhaust pipe flange and the rear lower tin piece below the head tin is not yet in place.  All this is to fit the CMC-Style, horse-shoe shaped, rear heat shield that slides up and onto the top of the tins from the rear, then screws into the bottom of the body frame member making a seal.  Sounds complicated, but it slides in pretty easily and allows for engine movement while staying sealed.

Below is a shot of the modified breast plate that still needs a few tweeks to make it pretty, but it's close and just drops right into place.  It had been pounded out of round to fit the rear tin on top, which is wrong.  The rear tin goes underneath so I'm re-shaping it back to more like original to fit the rear tin better - Almost there.

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That silver bulge left center is clearance for the oil pump external fittings.  Berg offers a "special" 45º cover and fitting for T-2 that might have cleared better, but I didn't know about that until years after full-flowing it.  I can't easily remove the exhaust headers (they're rusted together) so I took this route instead, which works fine with the pulley removed.  So I need to finish up the passenger side of the rear tin, make a few adjustments to everything to get them to match up and not hit the pulley and then sand blast, re-paint and assemble everything in the correct order so they'll all go together, happily.  Gotta love German engineering.   🙄  

It's a good thing I'm not in a hurry......

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Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Mice. Death to them. Last night, I fixed my wife's 2006 "old reliable" Subaru. It's on its last legs, but she doesn't seem to want to part with it at 238,000 miles.

It would be a great donor for the Beck boys.

She got a check engine light and at the same time the fuel gauge stopped working AND the reserve fuel light was on. Hmmmmm. Of course, if the check engine light is on, it will FAIL a safety inspection in NY as the state-provided computer(that each station is forced/extorted to buy from the state) plugs into the OBD port and reads it. Any check engine and/or not enough warmup cycles to remove the "emission readiness" flags and it fails.

After a ton of research, downloading wiring diagrams, pulling fuel pump/float assembly from the top of the tank, head scratching, wire testing, etc. I still didn't find anything other than a headache and an open wire from the tank to the ECU.

Then after MORE research, I found that there are TWO flanges on the top of the tank.

One has the fuel pump, fuel lever sender, and fuel temperature sensor(yes, really). Six wires to the plug.

The other one has two wires and is called the "fuel level sub-sensor". Yup. It's on the other side of the tank, but under another panel under the back seat. Friggin MICE! Two wires, one semi chewed and the other chewed through. After I fixed it, all went back to normal immediately. No check engine, fuel gauge working, reserve light OFF.

Last edited by DannyP

@DannyP this makes me wonder if my persistent CEL on my '01 325 sportwagon is something like this. (not a wire but a vacuum/vent line issue?) I keep getting EVAP System Leak (large leak) detected.. most of the time its a gas cap thing... but not this time and I can't find it.  At least being 22 years old they don't plug it into the State computer now.. so I can still get the "safety" inspection done without the "emission readines" flags causing a failure.  guess it's time to get a smoker..

@Wrenn Smith posted:

@DannyP this makes me wonder if my persistent CEL on my '01 325 sportwagon is something like this. (not a wire but a vacuum/vent line issue?) I keep getting EVAP System Leak (large leak) detected.. most of the time its a gas cap thing... but not this time and I can't find it.  At least being 22 years old they don't plug it into the State computer now.. so I can still get the "safety" inspection done without the "emission readines" flags causing a failure.  guess it's time to get a smoker..

Subarus usually develop gas filler tube rot. With your Mercedes at 22 years old, I'd start looking there. Also look at evap canister hoses, tees, connectors, etc.

Here's one of Lane's spiders.  But it's the little ones, like "Golden Orbs" the size of your thumbnail, that you really want to avoid.  They can take you out for a few days.

This is a Banana Spider, so named because they arrive in bunches of Bananas.  The good news is.......They don't bite!

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Last edited by Gordon Nichols
@DannyP posted:

Subarus usually develop gas filler tube rot. With your Mercedes at 22 years old, I'd start looking there. Also look at evap canister hoses, tees, connectors, etc.

2001 BMW 3 Series 325iT Wagon 4D

not a Merc... but still German, this has been my "back-up" for when the other DD's are in state of dis-repair.   I didn't think of filler tube rot.  Yep at this age all the rubber is going, going... well you get the idea.  .

Just did the headliner, about to do oil pan gasket & level sender (& rear main while I'm under there..) and the 3rd oil filter housing gasket & 2nd valve cover gasket.  Frankly I'm surprised the oil pan gasket lasted this long. Speakers are rotten as well.  But car still starts, drives ok and has been pretty darn reliable.. plus nothing I could buy would be any better at 2x the price. Planned on this being son's first driver but he wants a truck.  ("Well son, you get what you get, or you can go buy what you want.") I personally would have loved something like this for first car..

Mine was this

@Wrenn Smith posted:

2001 BMW 3 Series 325iT Wagon 4D

not a Merc... but still German, this has been my "back-up" for when the other DD's are in state of dis-repair.   I didn't think of filler tube rot.  Yep at this age all the rubber is going, going... well you get the idea.  .

Just did the headliner, about to do oil pan gasket & level sender (& rear main while I'm under there..) and the 3rd oil filter housing gasket & 2nd valve cover gasket.  Frankly I'm surprised the oil pan gasket lasted this long. Speakers are rotten as well.  But car still starts, drives ok and has been pretty darn reliable.. plus nothing I could buy would be any better at 2x the price. Planned on this being son's first driver but he wants a truck.  ("Well son, you get what you get, or you can go buy what you want.") I personally would have loved something like this for first car..

Mine was this

Just tint out those windows and change the rims, perfect for the kids

We're old. That's what we did. I myself put many "miles" on the hatchback area of my first car, a used Vega GT graduation gift.

My girlfriend at the time used to complain about the piano hinge(there when the back seat folded flat) hurting her back.

Not as many kids drive today.

Today, they "Netflix and chill" right in their parents houses.

Forward progress!

All of the “Tin Whacking” is done, everything fits with zero forcing (it just falls into place), the clutch is installed, I threw in a new set of NGK plugs, the fan belt is on but loose and my motorcycle racing neighbor, Gusto, came over to help me get it off the engine stand and onto the motorcycle jack.  I still have to set the valves, but I’ll do that after the engine is back in because the distributor is hanging on the side of the engine compartment, waiting for install because it was easier to do it that way than remove the wires from the coil.

I will say that is really pretty, painted fresh and all.  Even Gusto was impressed and he’s more OCD than I am!

After all that, it was time to do a little league baseball game with the grandkids, so the actual re-install will have to wait til tomorrow.  

No more parts to buy, no more tin to whack, just finding the time to get it back in there, get the carbs/manifolds installed and…..

GET THIS BABY RUNNIN’, AGAIN!

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

“Tin Whacking.” I like it.

I’m glad I read a bit from, I think, Awesome Powder Coating, about shrouds/fans needing some “adjustment” or I would have freaked out when I installed my Thing shroud. The first time I test fit it, the fan wouldn’t even turn. I loosened it all up and it was fine. In the end, the process involved tightening one screw a little bit, “tin whacking” until I got a full rotation with no rubbing, tightening another screw a little bit, rinse, repeat.

Finally got it all together only to realized the nutserts I’d installed for the coil heat sink were a little too close to the hex bar. Luckily, the second time it went together much mo betta, but I discovered there was a specific sequence I had to tighten the 4 alternator flange screws in to keep the fan from rubbing.

Last edited by dlearl476

There are a LOT of pieces if you use all of the VW-designed-style tinwork, like a dozen or so, and they all have to fit just so.  The guy who taught me what little I know about VW engines impressed me that all of the original VW tins should just "fall into place" with no tinkering.

That was then, (the 1960's), and this is now.  Any original tin you get is old and tired and needs adjusting.  Any new tin you get was made from who knows what as a model (Unless they got some original VW part drawings from somewhere or could reverse-engineer it) and a "perfect fit" is more of a suggestion - Everything has to be adjusted to whatever it's fitting to so remember that if you're buying Powder-coated parts - They will need to be adjusted.  And besides, we all deviate from the originals because none of us are driving a VW Beetle Sedan!  On top of that, there are differences between IM, VS, Beck and CMC cars, all made in the name of progress, not to mention some of us "tinkerers" coming up with our own ideas of what should work.

After that, how well everything fits is up to whomever is adjusting and installing everything (a mix of original and reproduction parts from several different vendors who don't share or talk to each other) and how much they can learn about how it is all supposed to go together.  

I certainly am not an expert at fitting engine tins - A lot of it is guesswork on my part while thinking, "Well, this aught-a work!" and so it goes.  Eventually, with trying, whacking, re-trying, rinse and repeat, I got everything to fit with minimal gaps, everything works, nothing binds and the engine looks good.  I'm still glad I wasn't in a hurry doing this.

I do kind-of miss my chromed head top tins, though.  I thought they looked classy.

Oh!  And here is my engine with my Patent-Pending, Anti-Mouse protection system!

IMG_2228

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Tried installing the engine today.

Note to self:  Remember to remove the flywheel lock after installing the clutch.   🙄

Once that was remembered and removed, something else is holding the driver's side away from the bellhousing so it won't seat.  Can't be the starter, as that's on the passenger side.
After messing with it for a while and getting nowhere, I gave up and walked away for the day (actually, I got the dinner call) so I'll try it again, tomorrow.  

Tomorrow I'll wear my lucky shirt from:

Binford Decal

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Don't feel too bad Gordon , I was installing the engine into the Outlaw and it would not go the last 5/8". ( I have this down to a science where they slide right in) Connie comes into the garage with and ice tea and say's maybe those bolts you put into the trans mounts are too.... long ? ........ Umm Yup a 1/16 " too long.

Last edited by Alan Merklin

Oh!  And here is my engine with my Patent-Pending, Anti-Mouse protection system!

IMG_2228

I’ve got the grill from a shop fan that shot craps that I intend to use to make a grill for my fan.



Im not so worried about mice as I am my fingers. Especially after I install the Andrig fan. In a Spyder fan isn’t semi-protected against the firewall like it is in a speedster.

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Last edited by dlearl476

I actually bought one of those fan inlet screens seen at CIP1 and others.  Turns out it will fit an early, 36hp-style fan shroud, but not the later so-called "bigger" fan shroud.   It is also a very close mesh and I was worried about how much airflow it would restrict - If it has half as many woven strands it would be a lot better.....  We're trying to keep out mice here, not Mosquitoes......  

On my later shroud (for the larger fan and oil cooler), the inlet is of a different shape and the giant water-pipe clamp holding the screen on wouldn't get a good grip and it could easily fall off, not to mention that the screen base and clamp also restrict some airflow.  Plan "B" was what I ended up with, above.  Less restrictive, cheaper and seems to work better (and, at least, it can't fall off).

I bought one, too, after the guys at Cooled1 told me it would fit with my Thing shroud. It doesn’t, because of the Venturi ring.
Mine isn’t restrictive at all. It’s made just like a headlight screen.
ps: If you’ve never had a small rodent as a pet, it might surprise you how tiny a hole they can get through.

Meet Boscoe, a little guy I saved from freezing to death after I found him on my patio nearly solid.

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¡Hola, Boscoe!  "¿Qué Tal?”

We have a neighborhood house rented by several Vet School students and one or more of them have pet white and gray mice.  They often walk the ‘hood and carry one or more in their pockets.

So I found that the engine was actually seating correctly first shot, but I forgot that my top, driver’s side mount is actually a bolt that threads into the engine - DUH!  I had to call up Dr. Clock to verify what was in there and found that we both do that mount differently.  Alan puts a stud there as a pilot to guide the engine in, while I use the two bottom mounts (studs) as a guide and put a bolt in top driver’s side (The passenger side top is usually a captive bolt at the starter).

So I had it right all along, just getting too old to remember stuff like that once it’s been apart too long.   🤷‍♂️

So things are humming along again, Patsy Cline and Juice Newton are wailing in the background and all is right with the world.   Except that we’ve got errands to run today and another little league game this evening. The life of Grandparents is a constant shuffle.  

@Sacto Mitch posted:

.Completely understandable, Lane.

An object at rest tends to stay at rest.

Hey, hey, hey - Lane was just "conserving energy*".





*A footnote regarding the above attempt at a joke regarding the conservation of energy, which I had always believed to be a Newtonian Law. Upon further reading this evening, I find that it was not Newton.

A guy named Gottfried Leibniz was working at the same time as Newton, and had a more complete understanding of kinetic energy which he called "vis viva" (living force). 40-ish years later, Émilie du Châtelet (a young French woman) was the first to propose and test the hypothesis of the conservation of total energy, as distinct from momentum. A working understanding of energy (encompassing motion and heat, etc.) didn't really coalesce for 150 years post-Newton.

In 1844, William Robert Grove postulated a relationship between mechanics, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism by treating them all as manifestations of a single "force" (energy in modern terms). In 1846, Grove published his theories in his book The Correlation of Physical Forces. (<that paragraph was lifted verbatim from the Wikipedia article)

It was less than 100 years before Einstein blew it up again.

Everything I thought I knew was wrong. At the end of the day, I'm a monkey at a keyboard.

Last edited by Stan Galat

Perhaps, but a monkey I enjoy having a refreshing adult beverage with.  Then again I'm a bit simian myself.

I'm certainly looking forward to this year's TdS.

Hey Gordon, since this is your thread why don't you consider joining us this year?  We're in VA instead of NC, so we're a couple of hours closer.  Haven't seen you in quite a while.

Last edited by Lane Anderson


Stan, I’ve got no time for either of those overachieving smarty pants.

OK, the momentum and energy stuff may be of some value. You need that to design a good engine or crankshaft, I guess.

But then they had to spoil everything by inventing calculus - both of them! They even argued about who was first. If I ever happened across some calculus, I’d quietly back out of the room and not breathe a word of it to anyone. But these know-it-alls had to publish and tell the whole world, as if calculus were something useful that mankind couldn’t do without.

They had to go and ruin senior year for countless generations of high school students ever since.

Don’t get me started.

Last edited by Sacto Mitch

Calculus was my college downfall.  I understand what it is doing, and even why it does it that way, but the tedium of going through all that to arrive at the answer just gets to me.  My brain rebelled, and so did my grades.  Of course, having class lecturers who could barely speak English didn't help, either.  Fortunately, you don't need a lot of calculus to put together integrated circuits to make them do something.

What saved me, and my career, was the invention of the electronic calculator, first by Wang labs which created a big, desk-sized thing with Nixie tube readouts that did the usual four-functions plus a handful of scientific tricks - plus....  It was programmable with paper tape.   Later, Texas Instruments created the calculator chipset and Bowmar quickly made the first hand-held 4-function calculator.  I still have a very early (1973?) 4-function unit buried somewhere around here.  

I spent many a fun-filled afternoon cranking out "Ball Clash Calculations" to properly balance miniature gyroscopes at 30,000 rpm with a Texas Instruments TI-99 programmable calculator.  Those gyros became part of the inertial guidance system for the Harpoon missile.  

Anyway, I owe a lot to those intrepid engineers who gave us the early pocket calculator (for big pockets).  Saved me, for sure.

  ...I understand what it is doing, and even why it does it that way, but the tedium of going through all that to arrive at the answer just gets to me. ... Of course, having class lecturers who could barely speak English didn't help, either.

Agreed, & it sounds like we attended the same school, albeit in different decades and states.  I have no proof, but I would postulate that all college math departments are approximately similar.         And there you have it, the extent of higher level math I want to do short of running load simulations in CAD and letting it do the math for me.

Y'all caught that Mr. Big Brain (masquerading as a retired photog from the Sacramento Bee) took calc back in high-school, correct? Like my kids did in their AP math classes?

... exactly unlike Mr. Pipefitter who topped out in HS Geometry, and spent Senior year sitting on the hood of his car in Mr. Schaidle's Engine Testing class eating Dolly Madison Donettes, and bench racing with his fellow slackers.

He learned everything he knows about Newton by applying his laws to physical things in the physical world - the same way he knows about Mr. Ohm and his laws. Get shocked enough times and any large primate would want to learn all he could about the 'lectrixity.

When he doesn't know (which is often), he goes down some rabbit-hole on the interwebs, and quotes Wikipedia so he can look smarter than he is.

Last edited by Stan Galat

'lectrickery is a harsh mistress. As also with gravity.

As an English Major I'm proud to say that I, for one, noticed that @Gordon Nichols just outed himself as a bloody rocket scientist.

As some of you know doubt already know, this means that, next time there is a get-together, he is required to face off against Kelly Frazer with Roman candles at 20 paces.

This is how the rocket scientists do it in their honor society. It's like samurais touching swords in a crowded market....

Godspeed to you both.

I spent many a fun-filled afternoon cranking out "Ball Clash Calculations" to properly balance miniature gyroscopes at 30,000 rpm with a Texas Instruments TI-99 programmable calculator.  Those gyros became part of the inertial guidance system for the Harpoon missile.

"Fortunately, you don't need a lot of calculus to put together integrated circuits to make them do something."  Nor do you need it to write software unless you're calculating orbital dynamics or something like that.



@edsnova posted:

As an English Major I'm proud to say that I, for one, noticed that @Gordon Nichols just outed himself as a bloody rocket scientist.

As some of you know doubt already know, this means that, next time there is a get-together, he is required to face off against Kelly Frazer with Roman candles at 20 paces.

This is how the rocket scientists do it in their honor society. It's like samurais touching swords in a crowded market....

Godspeed to you both.

Lane too?

Perhaps a triangular shootout, just like in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (which is the highwater mark for art in Western Civilization).

The G, the B, and the U

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All things considered, Stan, your time in high school was probably better spent than mine.

First off, Geometry was probably my favorite math and it went downhill from there.

But more to the point, in the 50 years since, I’ve had to pay somebody else to do anything more than an oil change or valve adjust on any of the cars I’ve ever owned. As it turns out, knowing how an engine comes apart and goes back together is a lot more useful than solving quadratic equations.

As folders of accumulated automotive service invoices have grown over the years and the limits of my own skills have become increasingly obvious to me, respect for talented folks like messieurs Emory and Runge continues to grow, as does respect for the membership here.

Michael, I LOVE that cartoon/drawing!

Electrickery, indeed. I have always found electrics/electronics easy to understand. I still have all my Forest Mims books from Radio Shack. I still have a 3 battery discharger/charger for radio control nicad batteries I designed and built. I also dabbled in speaker design, built quite a few of those. Went on to work at the Shack during my college years.

Geometry, I use that every time I align a car. SOH CAH TOA, people!

But, like Gordon, I have intense distaste for Calculus. I took it in college, failed miserably. Took it again and squeaked out a C-. Calculus is painful. Then I changed my major from Computer Science to Communications.

None of it mattered, in the end. I got into my telco career a few years later. It's been 3.5 years since I've happily retired.

Oh right, Nixie tubes.

Gordon, I think the last time you brought up that Wang Labs calculator, I mentioned there was one in a Navy electronics lab I somehow managed to land a summer job in. (Insert long story about how temporary summer relief ‘civil service’ jobs were available to teens in the ‘60s if you scored high enough on the test.)

Anyhow, what I remember about the thing is that it did multiplication the same way a slide rule does - by taking the logs of two numbers, adding them together, and taking the antilog of the result.

So, if you multiplied 2 times 3 on this absurdly expensive thing that was the size of an IBM Selectric typewriter, you could get an answer something like 5.999873.

Which any self-respecting, practical engineer would round up to ‘6’.

Q.E.D.

We once had this very neat lady living in the north end of my town who, when she lived here, was a post-Doc at MIT and founded a series of computer companies, like "Higher Order Software".   IIRC, she coined the term "Software Engineering" and pushed really hard for the start of that curriculum at MIT (and nearby WPI).

If you're a software geek, this is a great read and she was a GREAT woman:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._(software_engineer)

And OBTW, I got the clutch re-adjusted for the new pressure plate/TO Bearing, installed the carbs/manifolds and re-installed the disti and other wiring.  I need to keep up with Rich MacKoul and his original '55 Speedster as he's telling me of all the shows he's been to and the chicks he's meeting.   🤣

I also built a magnetizer/demagnetizer for my neighbor from a free, discarded Cuisinart food processor which I then had to trash because:

(1.) I could never get the pulse button to work reliably with their weird interlocks and

(2.) When I pulsed it for longish bursts, the motor coils heated up - A LOT - and I felt it was an un-safe design.  Just goes to show.....Only use coils from a brush-less style motor for your magnetizer or you'll have problems.  At least I saved the bridge rectifier for it for the next project.

Give me an old, brushless Oil Burner blower motor anytime.

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Today's update:  The carbs went back in yesterday, so I got out there after lunch to put the hex bar linkage back in along with the Turbo rain hats and air cleaners, re-routed the spark plug wires, installed my re-painted heat shields (Boy, they look nice!) and marveled at how everything lined up and just went right back in - And this is on a CMC where nothing has ever fit first time!!  

It's becoming clear to me, though, that I can't leave something lying around on the floor or the bench from a month ago and expect to always remember exactly where it goes or how it fits.  Twenty years ago, sure, but today?  Not always.  It sucks gettin' old.  

After that the oil filter mount went back in - That's always like watching a Calvin and Hobbs fight scene because of a couple of blind bolts, but it's in there and solid (and it wouldn't be a CMC without a few blind nuts and bolts to contend with).

In the end, everything went back in place and I have a small Tupperware container with almost nothing left in it - two screws I decided to upgrade to shorter and a few washers and the Alternator B+ terminal cover (which I would love to upgrade from black rubber to red, once I find one).

So tomorrow, it's set-the-valves day, get some oil in it, pump up some oil pressure and get this baby running, again.  It's been way too long, but I take the blame for that.  I wasn't in any hurry to Git R Dun, so I let life get in the way as it often does.  I got a lot of things fixed or upgraded after over 20 years of driving it (starting with a clutch cable bearing upgrade on the pedal shaft and new clutch cable months ago) so I have very few complaints other than a few moments when I found something and thought "Why the Hell did I do THAT?" and "fixed it" so it'll be a similar question the next time.  🤣

I've got a new clutch and cable, a bunch or new engine tin, an anti-mouse-screen and cleaned everything up so it looks like new.  It's gonna be a great Summer season!

Last edited by Gordon Nichols
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