[Spridgets] Looking for a Motor Porter, VW dealer item ...see image.

[Bud Osbourne]

Lin,

If you are into pain & suffering, I suppose you could replace the heater
boxes with the engine in place.   Long-time air-cooled VW folks tend to pull
the engine as casually as normal people say "excuse me". ;)   

Look at it this way: the exhaust flange nuts are probably pretty well rusted
to the manifold studs and if you break one of the studs, you're going to
have to pull the engine, anyway.  Also, have the heads been re-torqued since
you've had the bus?  Easier to do that with the engine out.  On my
air-cooled engines, I used to (and will, again) remove the engine every two
or three years just re-torque the heads and  to pull the cooling tin off and
make sure everything is clean under there.  It only takes a little bit of an
oil mist (and if you think Spridgets leak oil...) to land on cooling fins of
heads or cylinders or oil cooler and start accumulating fine particles of
dust, which continues to build-up until you've got some significant blockage
of cooling air.  Not a good thing!  Also, with the engine out, EVERYTHING on
the engine (except the oil drain plug and sump plate) and engine compartment
is easily accessible, so you can come up with a nice list of "might as
wells". J  Fun stuff!

You'll want to make sure all of the rubber around the perimeter of the
engine compartment and on the rear cover plate is in good shape and that
there are no significant openings in the cover plates.  This is critical to
keeping the engine temperatures down to a survivable (for the engine) level.
Also, how's the clutch looking?  Bus clutches really do take a beating, so
you don't want to start the season with a worn clutch.  Clutch release shaft
bushings OK?  Easy to access with the engine out and not that difficult to
replace.

Food for thought and, yes, you'll want to have some help, when you pull that
engine out for the first few times.

 

Looking longingly at the Midget, yesterday and remembering that it had
already been out for several runs on salt-free roads by this time, last year
L  Beginning to think that the run to Import Carlisle may be it's first time
out, this year.  By Import Carlisle, last year, I had already put a couple
thousand miles on it!

 

Bud

From: Linda Grunthaner [mailto:grunthaner at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:04 AM
To: Bud Osbourne
Cc: Spridget list
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Looking for a Motor Porter, VW dealer item ...see
image.

 

Cool my 67 bus engine is a Super Beetle engine 1600 DP, so do I have to pull
the engine in order to replace my heater boxes? 

 

Hoping to do some maintenance on Pinky in the warm dry garage once the bus
get all her glass. 

 

Frank would have had all this work done in one afternoon ; )

Lin