I bought her and drove her straight to bugjam, she overheated 5 times on the way there, major loss of power, oil ran out of the seams of the engine. Cooled her off, she stopped dripping and started straight up evertime, came home on a trailer tho, to avoid causing long term damage.

She doesnt have rear tinware and the engine seal had also perished, clearly the first point of call, tinware is on route and have a seal in stock.

Please see the photos below, want to ensure that with the tinware and seal, everything is still correct, when cold the ring(trumpet) on the bak of the fan sits wide open, i believe its supposed to be only a 1/4 of an inch.

Do the belows look correct?

Also wanted to enquire about the, what i can only describe as little pillows, that appear to hang on both sides from in the roof, what are they?

any technical comments would be much appreciated

cheers


















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On our Beetle's 'maiden voyage' she overheated badly, but once cool she'd run again. The engine was a bit of an unknown quantity for us so it was impossible to be sure if it had overheated like that before.

We found the that the distributor's mechanical advance had jammed in the fully retarded position (it was working fine a few days beforehand). Optimistically, we replaced the distributor but the engine mildly overheated 20 miles later. We never understood why that engine overheated a second time, and the distributor and carb are functioning fine on the replacement engine.

I hope you manage to get to the bottom of your overheating problems and with any luck I'll learn something while you do! :d

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The engine is overheating because the rear tinware is missing. The heat is rising directly from the exhaust and being drawn into the fan which is then circulating the hot air over the cylinders and through the oil cooler in an attempt to cool the engine. Of course because the air is already hot from the exhaust, its fighting a losing battle and will overheat. The oil becomes very thin and begins to leak out and will loose it lubricating properties. You need to make sure all the tinware and rubber seals are in place before running the engine again. You should also change the oil and clean the oil strainer.
The thermostat is definately in need of replacement. You're correct about the air control ring position.
The 'little pillows' are just bungs to prevent fumes escaping up through the bodywork and as a sound deadening measure. They probably need pushing back upwards.

I also looked at this car with a view to buying it. I told the seller at the time that the tinware was incomplete and that the engine would overheat, but he didn't seem to understand. As regards your earlier comments about the bonnet. I'm pretty sure its the original bonnet but its a poor fit because in the past it's rotted at the top corners and has been badly repaired. It's now rotted again and the top edges have spread outwards so making it appear too wide for the body. I think the solution is a replacement bonnet, but as most bonnets will be from deluxe cars you'll have to weld up the holes for the trim and deal with the area where the VW badge will have been.
Hope you get it running ok soon.
Cheers.

Thank you for your comments, realised instantly it was the tinware causing the problem, although i must admit i didt realise that it would have such a large affect having seen other people running later beetles in a much less caring manor (all sorts missing and added!) Tinware is hopefully on route and have anew engine seal in stock.

When i viewed it the car had been on sale for just over a month so i took advantage of him being more flexible, although i agree, the seller did appear very unaware of the value and workings of the car almost as though it wasn't his, was actually quite un-nerving.

Saying that it flew through the MOT as he ensured it would, i was worried about theonly hole thats under theA pillar but they didnt even mention it. Wire wooled the fuse box and played with the connections and the wipers and brake lights worked fine, bit of castrol and re-beared the wiring on the semaphores and the shoot straight up, passenger side could still do with a bit of viagra tho!

Am not convinced about the bonnet, although it is central and does action well, it has clearly been set forward as to not fowl the body when actioned. As you stated the repairs seem to have been done by a small child, which is strange considering the overall quality of the paintwork.

The air control ring is stuck wide open tho, isn't that the hot position? Am i correct that the thermostat works against the spring to shut it?

cheers

Absolutely...it's the tinware...Who would think that a thin piece of tin metal could make such a difference to the running of a car? When I had my 51 Standard, there was also a piece of tinware missing, the one at the rear of the engine. When it was raining and humid, the car virtually didn't run. I thought it was the engine that was giving up. The day I thought of putting the tinware back as a remedy, it was like night and day! A perfect runner again :d

A couple of things,
Your thermostatic belows are totaly shot. That is why your throtal ring is stuck wide open. When the engine is cold the belows should be fully contracted. This pulls on the linkage between the belows and throtal ring and pulls it shut as you correctly understand, against the spring (pre load). As the engine heats up the belows expands and pushes the linkage and opens the throtal ring with the aid of the pre loaded spring upto about an inch open (25 - 30mm)
The pre load also causes the throtal ring to fail wide open if fault accurs with belows/linkage.
The belows only expand to the height of the mounting they are bolted in, something has let go in yours causing them to spring out big time:shock:

If you look at the 'Historic vw owners club' web site (on pre67's link menu)look in the 'technical' section under cooling system overhaul. It's a copy from the vw workshop manual explaining the set up.

Totaly agree about the missing tin.
just a thought, check the timing, although will not cause severe over heating could be a contributing factor.

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Just want to say thank you to all for the advice and tips, really appreciated, also appreciate the non-patronising manner in which you deliver it, as is often the case on volkszone. (volkszone is still a great forum tho for vw comms).

Will try all of the above very soon, have a new piece of rear tinware in the pipeline. Its gona be an engine out job this weekend or next as a few seals have gone when it overheated meaning shes dripping dripping quite badly, actually shes dripping gearbox oil too now as one of the gaiters has gone aswell! ill put cleaning the garage floor on the list too.

Cheers guys