Some good sound advice. I too am a believer in the full cooling system- including a black fan housing, control flaps, and yes even a thermostat!
As for Bill May advice, I will never forget the goody box he sent me that included the threaded brass carb fuel inlet pipe, complete with the correct tap- so no loose carb fuel inlets on the 34 PICT 3 carb!! Ray -----Original Message----- From: No Quarter <sil...@beatricene.com> To: Air-Cooled Volkswagen Discussion List <vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu> Sent: Sun, Aug 7, 2011 9:57 pm Subject: Re: [vintagvw] New List Member With Ignition Timing Question I was also going to mention a few more things about your engine that I noticed. I've learned from Bill May and others over the past 15 years so some things I noticed on your engine: That style of fuel pump with the spiggots out the side is the good one. Don't ever buy the NAPA kind with one spiggot up and the other out the side. It will vapour lock on you and you'll be lucky to get restarted once you shut off the engine. You have a chrome fan shroud that is done in the style of the old 36 hp engines. I believe these have been proven to not cool as well as the later style shroud. Also, I'm a "nazi" when it comes to putting things back on the engine that others pulled off. I'm guessing with this style shroud, there are no little "v" shaped pieces of tin inside that direct the air-flow properly over the cylinders. The later shrouds with offset oil cooler (1971-on) had the "v" piece welded inside either side of the shroud as well as other baffling. There were little air vanes in the shroud and they were hooked to a thermostat. The air vanes directed the air properly over the cylinders. Usually when people get into rebuilding, they just put the engine together, tear out the thermostat system, and throw on the fancy chrome stuff. An engine like yours will simply not last as long as a stock engine due to improper cooling. Also, the chrome retains heat. It's been proven that a light, flat black coating of paint actually helps the engine to cool. Now don't get me wrong, you can drive your configuration and have fun for years, but for maximum life with minimum disappointment, you can't go wrong with the stock cooling system. I have an engine in my 1974 super beetle. It's a VEGE rebuild from Denmark and was installed in the bug back in 1996 with 20 or 30 thousand miles on the rebuilt. I've driven all over the USA with it, towed my brother's 1969 chevy with it, towed a trailer to Chicago and back (I'm in Southeast Nebraska), towed a dune buggy back from Spokane, Washington. Drove to Minneapolis twice, Denver twice, Athens, TN and back (1000 miles one way and I drove it back home in day), Enid, OK, Yankton, SD, into Iowa, Kansas, etc. I'm still on that engine, all parts original, original clutch, original heads, never rebuilt the carburetor, kept the maintenance up, ran synthetic oil, etc. Once the oil temp hit 230 but most of the time runs 180 to 220. All factory cooling in place. Engine probably has 60,000 miles on it by now but probably more. The odometer broke for a time before I had the money to get it repaired. Anyway, the engine doesn't smoke, fires right up, still running and it's now 2011. Now you tell me if that doesn't spell success I don't know what does. Only problem I've ever had on the road was a flat tire, gas line pulling out of the carburetor (brass tube came out), broken clutch cable, and a plugged filter from a dirty gas tank. VW made a great product. :) NQ _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
