Concern

Despite reassurances from Ed Henry, the car is still not back from paint. I have been down this road with Ed before; he promises the car and on the appointed date, doesn't deliver. He has done this at least three times; the latest round of promises was made last week. This time, the excuse was, that although the car was 'done' when his crew went to close the rear decklid, they chipped a section of paint on the apron below the lid, and had to reprep and paint. The car was promised for this week...and no phone call.

Despite all this, I'm still convinced that Ed will deliver a quality product. Now if my reassembly skills are up to that level.

At the moment, I'm not too concerned about the delay, as I'm still working on the engine overhaul, which will probably take another week. Beyond that point....well, I'm really, really ready for reassembly. I need a car to put all these parts in!!!!

Engine Rebuild

A few pics and some comments.

First the good news...the engine rebuild goes reasonably well. The polished crank and cam were re-installed in the align bored case. New lifters installed, and the case reassembled. Permatex 3H is some great stuff for sealing the case. Had a little trouble putting the distributor drive shaft back in. I'm using Tom Wilson's book on rebuilding VW aircooled engines. While the book is excellent as a whole, there are occasionally places where some of the language is a bit unclear. I'm an engineer and I like things to be painfully clear, even redundant. So, I'll put the distributor drive shaft as per John Muir's Idiot's Guide.

My car is an Auto-Stick, so what would normally be an oil pump is actually an oil pump and a hydraulic fluid (transmission fluid) pump at the same time. I was able to locate the proper seals and gaskets, and rebuilt the pump. The pics below show the rebuild.

I had Volks-Tech of Burlington, NJ do the engine machine work: align-boring (1.00 mm over stock), new crank bearings, new cam bearings, installed case saves, but I did not have them do a 'deep stud' - I missed that part of Wilson's book. My engine is a 1970; meaning it has both an oil pressure relief valve and an oil pressure control valve. The relief was actually stuck in the case; I had to use a large tap to pull the valve cylinder out. Otherwise I cleaned the hell out of the case, as it was incredibly dirty, as if someone had dumped a quart of mud in the oil filler instead of oil. Every nook and cranny, shiny clean.

I've chosen to paint the case using Eastwood's Aluma Blast - just like the tranny case. So that's what these pics show.

Still yet to do: install new pistons and cylinders (stock sizes). The heads were rebuilt by Volks-Tech using Gene Berg parts (the good stuff). I'll rebuild the top end and install swivel feet valve adjusters.