Time has come to start preparing my 54 right hand drive Oval to get it back on the road. I will document as much background to buying the car and the work needed at another time, but my first objective is to fit a 30hp engine back in place of the newer 1300 presently fitted.

So... Im a school teacher with an interest in old VW's; once a week I run an activity that allows students to learn about cars and their maintenance.

During the previous summer months I bought a near complete but untested 30hp engine - this will be stripped down, cleaned, checked, refreshened wherever possible and rebuilt ready to be fitted into the Oval later this year.

The first step has involved lifting it into the boot of my car and tomorrow will be the start of the strip down.

Watch this space - photos will be added as we progress.

Phill Thomas.

ps - if you fancy donating any bits to a good cause then I would be delighted!!!

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Best of luck Phill, it'll be great to see the photos as the work progresses.

Cheers,
John

PS. Otto was actually built in Nov 1954.

Hi John - Its quite exciting to get the work underway. We had a good afternoon. Four of my students worked very well and seemed to enjoy learning about the mechanisms and fundamentals of a simple four stroke engine. The parts unbolted with ease and we managed to get as far as taking off one cylinder head complete with both cylinder barrels. So far everything looks good; the valve heads do not appear badly worn and the rings are free on the pistons with no signs of scoring to the skirts or the barrels.

Here are some photos.








Next week we will be taking off the other side cylinder head and will start the cleaning.


Does anyone know where I could buy exhaust valves and heater tubes?

Until next week...

Phill Thomas.

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I think Chris(formerly SDV) who posts on these forums,has some NOS Exhaust valves he would probably sell you.
If you look for one of his posts in the General discussion section(name change),you could send him a PM.

Thanks - I will look for his details.

Phill.

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Looking forward to seeing your '55 on the 22nd Phil.

Can you email me your full address please mate

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Hi 64 Ghia-coupe, I will email you shortly.

I took the other cylinder head off this evening and found that the head has a large crack between cylinders 3 and 4, but also that the exhaust seat has sunken into the head by 1mm or so.

Is it worth removing the seats, welding the head, and re machining for new oversize seats?




I also found a great deal of 'twisting' movement to the small end bearing on cylinder no three; I will investigate this further on tuesday.

Phill thomas.

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Here is a photo of the damaged small end bush. The con-rod appears to have escaped any damage but it will be checked carefully when out.



Phill thomas.

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Hi Phill,
interesting to see the photos, it looks like you had a lucky escape with the con rod bush if it hasn't done any other damage.

Re your heater tubes. I got some from Karmann Konnection but they are a bit of a pig to fit as they are just the tubes, no flanges. You have to cut the flanges off the old tubes and weld them on to the new ones, making very sure they are in exactly the right angle. I have one NOS heater box for a later 30hp but I'm not sure if it's the same as those fitted to your engine. I'll have a look and compare with your photos.

I'm hoping to have a nice shiny rebuilt 28PCI carb waiting at home for me tonight.......and a cool beer :lol:

All the best,
John

Some useful stuff here on heater box types and restoration...

https://www.zarwerks.com/heater_boxes.htm 

For £60 plus postage, for new tubes and flanges, blasting and painting, I might send mine over to John at Zarwerks!

Malc

😃

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We managed to seperate the case halves today and inspected the bearing surfaces for the camshaft and main bearing journals. The only wear marks were very slight beneath the end bearing, but the thrust face has worn down to 23.67mm where it should measure 24mm. All bearings were standard size and the crank journals were clean, and measured round with no ovality. They were 49.95mm up to 49.97mm and the smallest bearing came in at 39.99mm.

Next question - where do i get new bearings?
To fix the thrust bearing will require standard OD and ID with .5mm overersize across the thrust face, and machine either the bearing or case until they become within the correct fit. Does any one have any experiences that might offer me guidance on this?

I will post photos later this week.

Phill Thomas

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Seriously mate try VZi (www.volkszone.com/VZi), you'll get a lot more info and answers over there much much quicker, Moby is Guru of all things VW and can give you fantastic advice.

I know VZi is hated on here (for unknown reasons :roll: ) but for tech info you can't beat it 🙂

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Thanks for the advice Harry, but a lot of people have been contacting me with information.

So its week 4 of the engine stripdown. During the week I started taking some other engines appart that were donated by a very kind man who lives in the hills. I needed a cylinder head and looks like I have been lucky, although it will need to be checked out when clean.

From the crank measurements it seems that it is within tolerance and can safely be reused with a set of fresh bearings. The thrust will be fine with some bearing lock used on the edges - the measurements taken were 23.67 at the narrowest point, but where the shoulder of the bearing is fully seated, it measures 23.89.. which is OK.

The connecting rod with the damaged small end bush measured 22.3 in one direction and 22.0 else where...so it will be replaced.

The exhaust valve shown in the picture from previous weeks was in an awful state with cracks all the way around its circumferance, and the actual seat in the head simply fell out!

The students got on with cleaning the parts today and have also finished sanding the outside of my W decklid.
I will get the case cleaned quite soon and start collecting the best bits ready for re-assembly.

Phill Thomas.

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Cleaning and more cleaning this week! I concentrated on one case half whilst the students did the rods, crank and made a start on sanding the inside of the engine lid. Were using 'Jizzer' with a brush as the tank we have needs so much liquid - it would cost too much to fill!!! Its slow going, but not impossible; the case will be steam cleaned in a couple of weeks time along with the tinware.







Next up for a bath is the pistons and barrels.

Phill Thomas

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Its been a while since i posted the progress of the engine, mainly becouse I have been ordering the parts and reconditioning the various bits.
The heads have had new exhaust valves fitted and all have been lapped in. The guides were very good and showed very little wear when compared to new replacements. The barrels were honed in a cross hatch configoration to deglaze ready for the new piston rings to bed in, and treated to high temperature black paint. Each barrel was lapped back with its corresponding head to ensure a better seal. The pistons were cleaned and the grooves had all traces of carbon removed before fitting the fresh rings. The crank has been polished and measures within the tolerances and the case has been steam cleaned throughout.

I dropped off all 36 pieces of tin and associated engine metal bits with a local powder coater today and will very soon be actually starting to rebuild the engine!

Phill Thomas

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How did the rebuild go Phil? :d

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The engine is fully rebuilt but I will have the dynamo reconditioned before its ready to fit into the car. Ive been collecting the correct detail parts and believe that its now all located - with just servicing of the fuel pump, distributor, and re-plating a few parts to do.

I will put up some photos from about 6 months ago - a few bits will be different when back in the car.



Phill.

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Is that a NOS silencer?! :shock:

Are you going to the 'Castle' this coming weekend Phil? I'd really value your opinion on our pitted crankshaft if you don't mind.

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Im hoping to get across on Sunday and would be happy to look at the crank for you. Yes it was an NOS exhaust - which I would like to have heat protection coated, but do not know whats best!

See you on the weekend.

Phill.

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I wish I had got my split nos exhaust ceramic coated ( like 50 Karmann did) as it is very surface rusty now in just a couple of years and although it may well look very 'authentic' , next time round with a nos exhaust I wont hesitate to have it coated so it stays non rusty!

I am not remotely into engines being a woman, but that one ^ looks really fantastic! :d

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