Fixing an Oil Leak? No, Replacing the Bus Engine!!!

Despite recent inactivity on this blog, there has been lots of activity in the garage. The Speedster broke a transmission mount at the June Jitter Bug. It was patched by John's Bug Shop and permanently repaired by me a few weeks ago. That meant pulling the engine again, new mounts, transmission straps, etc.

The bus had been running better than ever, but I was really working the engine hard to get it up hills, revving higher than I would have liked. Possibly as a consequence of this, the engine developed an oil leak at the engine-to-transmission seam, meaning the flywheel seal (aka rear main seal, even though it's on the FRONT of the engine) was the likely culprit. I ordered a new flywheel reseal kit from German Supply, as well as a crank seal and o-ring for the fan end of the engine.

This was the first time I've had a bus engine out. It wasn't too bad, but there were some big surprises along the way, so please read on:
Despite being my first bus-engine pull, it did come out fairly easily. The first surprise was the foam engine seal was shot. There goes another $50. These pics were taken after a lengthy pressure-washing of the engine and engine bay..

The tin was mostly solid, but wet with oil, rusty, and covered in overspray.
Here was the biggest surprise... My "2L" engine is a 1700!!! It is possible this CB case was bored out, but it has 1800 heads at best and unknown bore & stroke...

The fuel pump boss should have been a dead giveaway. Somehow I always ignored it.

This is a freshly rebuilt 2L with zero miles on it. I picked it up last year after I found metal chunks in the engine... After discovering my 1700, I decided to install this one.

So, the swap begins. I hauled the engine over where I could work on it.
I pulled my exhaust from the 1700.
I decided to use the shroud from the replacement engine too, since it had matching serial numbers. The CB engine also had a GD shroud... I pressure washed everything as an initial cleaning.

Vanessa spent an hour or so with a wire brush on the tin.

While I welded up some of the holes and rot.
Vee also prepped the tin for paint.
Though I was never a fan of painted fanshrouds, my attempts at polishing failed and I became a big fan of painting it... Two $3.99 rattle cans handled the shroud and the intake runners handily.

The rest of the tin took two more cans of gloss black. I know flat black is more "correct" but I couldn't resist.


This cheap paint looks really good!

Everything got two coats.

I put all the 1700 pieces back together and rolled it to the side of the shop for storage. For now I'll keep it as a spare.
Here the assembly process has begun.

This morning I started adding the FI components.

While the engine was out it made sense to change the input shaft seal on the tranny.

I used my hoist to lift the engine off the stand.

I dragged it over to the bus, then swapped it onto my jack.

It went in pretty easily, considering I left my tranny in place..
Once the cross bar was connected, along with the two bottom studs, I was ready to put the top bolts in.
I held the bolts from underneath while Vanessa threaded the nuts on.


Once I bolted up the exhaust I cranked the engine for oil pressure, then connected the coil and tried it. Crank, crank, BOOOOOOOOOM!!!! The timing was way off... I adjusted things, tried again, and it started right up!! I set the timing to 7.5 BTDC, slightly adjusted the idle, and went for a couple scoots around the block. It is a whole new bus!!!!

Here I am, happy, filthy, and hungry.

Sure looks different without the bumper.
I need to adjust the valves and hook up my CHT gauge before I go further than around the block.. Oh, and the bumper should go back on too!

Waxing & Polishing

With show season fast approaching I decided it was time to get the Speedster polished and waxed. Bob's Bug has been at my place for the month too, so I felt I should get it looking its best as well.

In the case of Bob's bug, I also tried colour sanding and buffing some of the dry spots and orange peel from the hood. The good news is that it's possible to get it looking perfect. The bad news (for Bob) is that he'll have to do it. Knowing that won't happen any time soon, I used the Mother's clay-bar and zip-wax polishing compound where needed, then a thorough coat of Mother's cleaner carnuba wax for the whole car. I also painted the brake drums and installed the chrome lug nuts as well!

The Speedster was another story. First of all, I wanted as close to a show car finish as possible. Though the original gel coat appeared shiny and in good shape, I was amazed how rough it felt to the touch. I guess 15 years of sitting allowed a good deal of dirt and debris to work into the finish. I started polishing with a Meguire's fine polishing compound, but it wasn't agressive enough, so I switched to a Zip-Wax paste polishing compound, all by hand. You could not only feel, but hear the difference as you run your hand or a cloth from the unpolished to polished surface. After two nights of hand polishing the car was looking pretty great. I had to use some 2000 grit paper in some spots to remove blemishes, but the compound brought the shine back very well. After the polishing I picked up a Mother's Clay Bar kit and proceeded to clay bar the entire car. I was shocked that this process picked more black dirt up off the seemingly brilliantly clean surface! Following the clay bar I went to work waxing the whole car with Mother's Carnuba Cleaner wax. Vanessa used the same to polish the wheels. The results were pretty amazing to see. I really wish I had before pictures, but any of the assembly pictures would provide a good comparison... The final product I've been using is Mother's Instant Detailer, which is a spray bottle. I found it to be useful to quickly clean and polish the entire car if you've driven through any bugs or dust.

The Speedster - Convertible Top, Windows, Engine Tin & First Big Drive!

Well, another week has passed and much has been accomplished putting the finishing touches on the Speedster. Today was a beautiful 20 degrees and sunny and we managed to do a 200km+ drive to Bobcaygeon and back. What a thrill!

Two big issues I've been struggling with do not have any pictures to go with them. Both are worth mentioning because they were real hair pullers! The first was the setup for the carburetor. Even when this engine was in the super beetle it would stall at stoplights, or coming off the highway. It would also flood when it was shut down hot and would take a lot of cranking to start again. I spent hours adjusting, readjusting, and rebuilding multiple carburetors to find the problem. In the end there are three main things I hadn't considered. Firstly, I read that the pilot jet (sometimes called the idle jet) in the carb can sometimes be seated too deeply by overzealous mechanics like me. This will cause the idle adjustments to have little to no effect. I learned by backing it out slightly for highest idle, then using loctite to hold it in place, you can get the idle circuits to work properly. The second issue I solved was the flooding and rich running. It turns out the cheap rebuild kits I've been using allow the fuel level to go too high in the bowl. I solved this by reinstalling the original Solex needle valve, with a washer beneath it of the correct thickness to keep the fuel level a little lower. This prevents the fuel from overflowing through the venturi when the engine is hot. The final issue was more simplistic, just that the carb was a little loose on the uneven intake manifold. Two gaskets allowed things to seal up nicely.

The other issue has been the freeplay in the steering. Despite adjusting the steering box (a new one, by the way) every possible way, there was still 3" or more of play in the steering wheel. With the car jacked up I found the source of the issue... The steering coupling was slightly loose on the box, allowing the splines to slip a little before they caught. The tie rods also needed adjustment to set the toe-in. All is fixed up now.

There are captions under the pictures below describing the other processes: Here I've painted the top bows, and installed them into the top and then to the car for the first time.
The car had to be drilled and the snaps installed, both on the car and the top. I used a couple kits from the camping section at Canadian tire to handle this task.

The front bow has been installed here. It is a fibreglass unit, shaped to fit over the windshield. I had to modify it slightly, then install the chrome latches that hold it to the windshield. The fabric is glued to the bow. The manual recommends a very expensive and hard to find adhesive. I found that five coats of extra strength contact cement were more than enough. And it only cost about $3.99.
Here's the finished top... In order for an aircooled engine to cool efficiently, the bottom (hot) side of the engine needs to be separated from the top (cool) side. This means the engine compartment needs shrouding to seal against the stock engine tin. Rather than use fibreglass or steel, I found some 1/8" aluminum and cut and bent it to fit.

Once installed a late bus "H" foam seal was used.


Vanessa and I also installed the mirrors.

When it came time to put the side windows in, the ones included in the kit didn't come close to fitting. I made my own template out of cardboard, then found some 3/16" acrylic at Warehoused Plastic Sales to make my own windows out of.
Most replicas have a fibreglass bow inside the door where the windows mount. I did not want to install one, so I decided to install the window mounts on the top of the door. They are an aluminum ferrule, into which the chrome brackets fit.
To make the acrylic fit properly I bent it. This allowed for a good fit against the front windshield (I'll need to source a good weatherstrip) and also a good fit against the top.

This morning we washed the Porsche and Vanessa's bug. We couldn't resist a couple pictures of them together.


After these pictures we went for a beautiful drive through the Kawartha Lakes region. When we got home we changed the oil out for new 15W-40, and cleaned the strainer. I thought the good run with the lighter oil that had been sitting in the engine would be good to clean out any gunk..

Still on the to-do list are the following:

-raise the front end about 1"

-do a full cut and buff on the finish, then apply a good wax

-adjust tachometer for accuracy

-adjust speedometer for proper operation

-replace gas tank sender with VDO unit