VolksDoktor

Vw Type 4 kombi , sealing hot air out of the engine bay..

Oil pressure switch boot.

Every little bit matters.

Overheating issues folks? EVERY little bit matters. We pay attention to every detail , and not only we do, but VW also did.

All those holes in a type 4 bus motor.. tinware holes .... we fill them with the correct parts on our builds.

Here's a little piece we made.

Unassuming.. seemingly insignificant.

It's quite important. And missing on many motors.

Half century VW type 2/4 Alternator birthday.. pt 2..

Complete, and with rebuilt alternator loom.

Amazing!

Distributor rebuilding...

1800/2L kombi.

This particular example was handed to us in lots of pieces.

It got so hot that it melted the insulator block for the condenser on the distributor!

The carburettors were just as bad (rebuilt now) .. but at least it didn't catch on fire!😃

Have a kombi? 1973-1983, with "Type 4" dual carburettor motor, or EFI, air cooled?.

The engine thermostat is a critical piece of kit, as installed by VW.... but over time, they were disregarded, discounted, and discarded...and the usual excuse 'it's Australia, you don't need it'.

From a more technical perspective, (long lived experience and testing with my own cars,including engine dismantling for checking), I can tell you a few things.

-Firstly, engines are more efficient and last longer. Why? They use less fuel the warmer they get,in terms of longevity, heat/cold trmperature cycling causes hugely accelerated wear, mostly pistons and barrels, and cylinder heads. The parts need to expand to operating temperature and stay there. The constant heat/cold cycling causes parts to crack. Mostly cylinder heads

-At 5 degrees C, if you start the motor, stone cold, it will take 18 minutes for the thermostat to open. A 1 minute blast down a freeway will see the thermostat closed. Image what's happening to engine parts and oil temperature if the thermostat wasn't there... hot/cold/hot/hot/cold... it impacts fuel economy, cold weather usability, and engine life.

-The thermostat is integral to the heating system . VW designed engine cooling air flaps, that when closed, all air intake for the cooling system is directed to the cabin heaters.

So, what's not working on yours? 😊

Half century Alternator birthday. 1974 VW bus alternator.

Oil coolers..

We prefer to rescue original oil coolers.

Why?.

The repros are not nice, both aircooled Type 1 and Type 4.. they are often dimensionally incorrect, and even burst at low pressures.

We follow a few simple steps that nobody else does, in their ignorance. Below;

-We assess for clear damage/corrosion.

-Chuck the cooler in our stripper chem tank to de-varnish, decarbonise.

-wash it off, then into our ultrasonic cleaner, with alloy friendly, aggressive chem.

-Then wash it out, high pressure and aeration,, and then weak acid wash to remove embedded dirt.

-then into Ultrasonic cleaner again, and full wash out.

-Dry it.

-Pressure test , using our VW genuine VW 661/2 oil cooler pressure test tool. To working pressure fir our application, +20%.

If it passes all of the above, it is installed.

The devil is in the detail.

Some parts no longer available, we make again.

VW bus Type 4 motor right side rear heat exchanger support.

The nice, clean one on the left is ours. The one on the right is an original.

95% of cars are missing them... and you should wonder why heat exchangers rattle loose. More repairs, failures etc..

VW installed this piece of metal for a reason.

Behold!

We have new manufacture VW Type 1 magnesium crankcase arrivals in stock, after a long covid worldwide outage and a manufacturer tiff with VW over the royalties for the molds, and surviving on our reserves! 🥳🥳

For the DIYers, and new builds, requiring a new crankcase where the originals have suffered a terminal failure, are plain worn out, or building performance where a new casting is preferred.

If you've been hanging out for one, now is the time to grab one!

We have all the align bore reconditioning log books from "Adelaide engine service".... "reliance auto spares". The Mahle and Kolbenshmidt distributors... bearing sets..25 years ago.

We have the machines too.

Kolbenshmidt distributors in Australia.

Your old engine number is likely there..

They did it for VW Australia too.

Leaking VW Type 4 pushrod tubes in a kombi, renewing seals...

What is ordinarily an easy and fairly short task , isn't always that way in 2024.

Chisels, scrapers knives, cold tank the tubes to strip them, straighten, then repaint as they had no zinc left on them..

Enter, my estimate of approximately 3 tubes of ultra grey silicone, packed in around pushrod tubes. All those consumables, in futility......

Correct preparation of cylinder heads would have removed sharp edges, so pushrod tube seals are not cut on installation. 4 out of 8 cylinder head seals were damaged on inspection after removal. We deal with this on every new cylinder head we install. No leaks with us.

They could have at least sealed the lower 8 cylinder head nuts, which were loose and leaking, the loose heat exchangers and the leaking oil pressure switch. That was obviously too hard. No matter..

Sorted.

Beauty, from within..

Did you know...

That all 68- 79 Kombi headlight rims have drain holes at their bottom.. another way we spot fakes.

VW Type 4 bus fans and fan hubs?.

VW balanced them as a set. Weights crimped in the outer lip of the pulley .

We have everything balanced as VW did it.

Folks check the basics?

We do.

We even ultrasonic clean the oil caps on our builds, and install new cork gasket.

99.99% of them are unserviceable.

VW184.

Vw air cooled automatics.

In this case a beetle, 'stick shift' , semi auto.

Try working the flex plate without VW184 factory VW tool .

The gland nut torque is 345 Nm. .
This piece, I 'piggy back' on a VW307 engine cradle, to get the 3/4" torque wrench on it.. and hold it at 345Nm.. sorry for extra edits.. FB is living in the stone age.

The devil is in the detail with aftermarket parts. Especially after somebody else's seizure.

A car that was previously diagnosed as "a starter motor issue". By no less than a major road side service.RRA.

It arrived on a tray top.

On turning the ignition key, the starter solenoid made the right noise, but no go.

A breaker bar on the pulley nut of the motor revealed that it was indeed locked. We are well into it.

Repairing the issues of others.

Because we can. And we do. Type 4.✊️

Rebuilt "big piston" late Type 3/412/Porsche 914 front brake calipers 1972 onward.

We also cater for Type 2 calipers-early and late Bay, T25 & T3

How do we know?

Even with an Aussie made Type 3 distributor?

Aussie Bosch 9 230 061 400,

VW 312 905 205 Z

Ignition timing and fuel at the right time is everything.

Some of the many things we stock..

Parts for the infamous "late Type 3" front brake caliper. Also on the VW412 and Porsche 914 of the same vintage.

We rebuild them!

Rusty pistons? No problem, we have good used and new reproduction.

Pads, clips, springs, seals, fitting parts, we have them all.

1971-1973 VW Australian built Type 3s originally had this distributor.

Bosch # 9 230 061 400
"A" VW # 312 905 205 Z

'A' above, before the vw logo denotes it is made in Australia.

They share many parts with more common earlier VW distributors of their time, however, it's not so common to find one of these in complete condition now, right down to the correct vacuum advance can. They are unique for the VW Type 3, the German distributor if you bought an import, in 1973, is VW 311 905 205 AJ( this is the advance curve we install into our 123 Tune+ distributors for late dual port Type 3s with the correct carburettors.)

Sorry for the nerd stuff folks,95% of these distributors were discarded in most cases, faulty from lack of maintenance, abuse, broken vacuum cans. Etc..

We got this one to rebuild. It's complete for all essential bits.

Here's the carcass.

We check everything(next post )