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Building Up a Longblock with All-New Parts: Part 3

Building Up a Longblock with All-New Parts: Part 3

Be Your Own MotorMan
By Ryan Lee Price
Photography by Ryan Lee Price
0407Vwt Engine01 Z
The engine is mostly completed by the time we visited Clyde at his shop. It wouldn't take long for him to get this engine up and running.

0407Vwt Engine02 Z
First and foremost, he leveled the fan and generator by adding this shim. The results is a smooth spinning fan that can't rub on the shroud.
0407Vwt Engine03 Z
Brackets were added to the heater boxes where they connect with the muffler. The exhaust system has to be airtight otherwise you lose performance and you could introduce unwanted gases into the cabin.
0407Vwt Engine04 Z
The bracket system for the heater boxes as they attach to the tubes that direct hot air into the car. Since we'll be keeping the heater system on the car this engine is intended for, it was critical to make this work. Leave it to the Germans to design a needlessly complicated system that only opens a butterfly valve.
0407Vwt Engine05 Z
We had to buy a couple of missing items from Wolfsburg West, one of which was this rubber grommet for the oil breather tube. The tube itself is a used one from Topline's cache of parts, because the shiny chrome one we wanted to use wouldn't fit around a small (useless) knob on the generator stand.
0407Vwt Engine06 Z
The oil breather tube attaches to the generator stand with this nut that fits inside the tube. There's a special tool to tighten this nut, but needle-nose pliers works just as good. Make sure it is tight otherwise a leak is in your future.
0407Vwt Engine08 Z
These heater box tabs are used for Buses (this is the only difference) and are unneeded on Beetles. Since they will hit the underside of the car once the engine is in place, they had to be removed with a grinder.
0407Vwt Engine09 Z
Another part we needed was this metal gas line that runs around the fan shroud. Again, we picked this up at Wolfsburg West. It merely slips in under the manifolds and around the shroud.
0407Vwt Engine10 Z
The inlet fuel line attaches here to the horizontal post on the fuel pump, while the outlet tube attaches to the upward-pointed post. It goes up the carburetor and into the float bowl at the back of the carb.
0407Vwt Engine11 Z
0407Vwt Engine12 Z
Instead of engine tin screws for the sides of the fan shroud, Clyde only uses 6mm bolts, that way, when everything is in the engine compartment, you can reach it with a wrench rather than a screwdriver if the shroud has to be removed.
0407Vwt Engine13 Z 0407Vwt Engine14 Z
Here was our first big problem. The rear tin that came with the kit didn't fit to the tin that all new engines come standard with. So, this is old tin from another engine. It has space cut for preheater tubes... but obviously doesn't fit (above or below). And if it doesn't fit, it doesn't do its job.
0407Vwt Engine15 Z
And to solve this problem was to use a piece of tin from another engine that we knew would not only fit around the existing tin but have holes for air inlets to the shroud
0407Vwt Engine16 Z
vThe only problem was that it didn't have cutouts for the pre-heater tubes (where they connect to the exhaust). No problem a grinder couldn't solve.
0407Vwt Engine17 Z
Since our 009 distributor doesn't need to be equipped with a vacuum advance, there's no need to hook up the carburetor to anything. So, a small piece of vacuum tube and a screw will block off the vacuum port but keep it functional if we need to use it in the future.
0407Vwt Engine18 Z 0407Vwt Engine19 Z
One of the last things to do before we shoehorn this engine into the car is to cut and install the heater hose that goe from the fan housing to the heaterboxes. Each one is cut to length and attached with hose clamps.
Mid America Motorworks
Effingham
IL
www.mamotorworks.com
Wolfsburg West
2850 Palisades Dr.
Corona
CA  92880
Clyde Berg Heads and Motors
2420 W. Beaton Way
Orange
CA  92868
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