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#1
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VW Oil Change
The VW engine does not come with an oil filter. There is an oil
STRAINER surrounding the oil pick-up tube in the sump but its job is exactly the same as the oil strainer found on the inlet of the oil pump on a Ford V8... or any other modern engine... which is to PROTECT THE OIL PUMP. Protect it from what? From 'chunkie' attacks... from those brittle little bits of cast iron that are spawned by the cam, or those glass-hard bits of steel that are the product of an improperly adjusted valve. In normal service the VW engine (and all others I know of) is capable of generating 'chunkies.' On the VW, the ones you have to worry about are those those made of iron or steel -- anything harder than aluminum -- and less than about 0.060" in its greatest dimension, meaning it can pass through the mesh of the oil strainer. These hard chunkies can get into your OIL PUMP and cause scoring of the aluminum pump-body. It takes only a minor amount of scoring of the pump body to produce a dramatic loss of pressure and flow from the oil pump. (Factory spec for maximum scoring dimension is 0.002" Any scratch or groove of greater depth justifies replacement of the oil pump.) [see the NOTE below] After-market cams are notorious as a source of chunkies. (See my blog for the article on how to prevent chunky attacks. Lotsa purdy pitchers :-) If you have not fitted your engine with a full-flow oil filter, a chunky can keep circulating through the pump until it's totally trashed... assuming the chunky hasn't been feed to one of your bearings, in which case you're liable to trash the whole engine. Even WITH a full-flow oil filter a chunky gets at least one shot at your oil pump... unless you do something to prevent it, such as adding a Chunky Collector. That's a fancy name I just invented for a rare earth magnet such as the ones you can buy from American Science & Surplus or a similar retailer. Big Chunky Collectors, with a pull of up to 80 pounds, can be mounted on the OUTSIDE of the sump plate. Smaller ones can go on the inside. (I use three big ones on the outside). Chunkies small enough to pass through the oil strainer will be attracted to the magnet(s) instead, along with any other iron or steel debris. (Back in the Good Ol' Days, whenever that was, we usta use Cow Magnets as chunky collectors.) Then there are the Drips. These are caused by guys who think the oil STRAINER is an oil FILTER, and pull it out of the engine on every oil change. WRONG. Leave the damn sump-plate alone! The strainer is only there to protect the oil pump... which you've already done with your Chunky Collectors and Full-Flow Oil Filtration... just like a modern engine :-) Install the oil strainer & sump plate ONCE, using a good sealant. Then leave it the hell alone! The only time you'll need to remove the sump plate is when you dismantle the engine. Oil Change, whatcha wanna do is drain as much of the old oil as you can. You CAN'T drain ALL the oil. There's always some residual oil trapped in the engine, not only in the nooks & crannies of the crankcase but in the geometry of the heads & valve covers and in the push-rod tubes and oil galleries. You can wipe away the oil in the valve galleries but there's no convenient way to remove the residual oil from the push-rod tubes and oil galleries. (The inconvenient way is to connect your pre-luber and pump fresh oil into the main oil gallery until you see it coming from the business end of each of the push-rods.) The key point here is that an oil change doesn't get all of the old oil out of the engine... so stop worrying about it. (And that means stop messing with the sump plate.) You can pull the sump's drain plug, if it has one, get the tail up until the sump is about level, and drain out as much of the old oil as you can. Or, if you've mounted your prop on the clutch end of the crank you can drill & tap the crankcase so as to provide a new sump drain that takes the angle of the engine into account. And while everyone recommends draining the oil when the engine is warm, often times that isn't possible, in which case you simply give it more time -- up to an hour in really cold weather -- for the oil to ooze into the bucket. (When it gets down to an occasional drip, you're all done.) In fact, when you put the prop on the clutch-end of the crankshaft and tap the case for a new sump drain plug location, that gives you full access to the original sump plate, which only needs to be removed when you dismantle the engine. That means you can use the sump plate as a MOUNTING BASE, welding brackets to it for your carb heat, oil cooler or whatever. Sturdy, convenient and generally lowers the under-engine profile. Yeah, I know: Nobody does it that way! I do. (Why? Because it's an AIRPLANE ENGINE, not a dune-buggy engine.) When it comes to Flying Volkswagens I'm often the Mechanic of Last Resort, meaning guys bring me these really goofy engines converted for flight by their local 'expert.' In fact, the engine is usually just fine... if it were installed in a dune buggy. But it lacks the dozens of 'unimportant' details that makes it suitable for use in an airplane, such as the grub screw securing the distributor (if it uses a distributor) or safety wire on the sump drain plug, or a full-flow oil filtration system or some means of limiting chunky attacks. And it usually leaks like a bitch. The sad part is that the difference between an airplane engine and a dune-buggy engine is due to things that are BUILT-IN to the engine, rather than something you can just bolt on. So you smile at the guy and tell him you're too busy to take on another engine right now. And suggest he take it back to whoever built the thing. -R.S.Hoover NOTE: For a quick check of the health of an engine of unknown provenance, pull the oil pump cover, pull the idler gear and check the condition of the oil pump body, inspecting for score marks and gouges. It takes surprisingly little scoring to reduce the output of the pump when the engine reaches its normal operating temperature. This often leads to complaints of high temps and low oil pressure. If you've got a suitable puller, loosen the two parting-line studs adjacent to the oil pump and remove the pump. With an inspection light & mirror you can see the flange of the cam and any marks it may carry. This will tell you if the cam is suitable for an airplane or a dune buggy. Lock the crankshaft in position and dismantle the valve train for the 1-2 cylinder head. Dismantle the rocker arm shaft and check for worn washers and scoring on the shaft and rockers. Check the torque of the head stays. On reassembly, unlock the crankshaft, set the valve lash and estimate the valve train geometry using a dial indicator. These checks take only a few minutes but allows you to judge the condition of the engine with a high degree of accuracy. If the engine is mounted and can be run, starting your inspection with a leak-down test will allow you to determine the health of the engine with near-100% accuracy. -- rsh |
#2
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VW Oil Change
On Sep 24, 10:15*am, " wrote:
The VW engine does not come with an oil filter. *There is an oil STRAINER surrounding the oil pick-up tube in the sump but its job is exactly the same as the oil strainer found on the inlet of the oil pump on a Ford V8... or any other modern engine... which is to PROTECT THE OIL PUMP. *Protect it from what? *From 'chunkie' attacks... from those brittle little bits of cast iron that are spawned by the cam, or those glass-hard bits of steel that are the product of an improperly adjusted valve. In normal service the VW engine (and all others I know of) is capable of generating *'chunkies.' *On the VW, the ones you have to worry about are those those made of iron or steel -- *anything harder than aluminum -- and less than about 0.060" in its greatest dimension, meaning it can pass through the mesh of the oil strainer. *These hard chunkies can get into your OIL PUMP and cause scoring of the aluminum pump-body. *It takes only a minor amount of scoring of the pump body to produce a dramatic loss of pressure and flow from the oil pump. (Factory spec for maximum scoring dimension is 0.002" *Any scratch or groove of greater depth justifies replacement of the oil pump.) *[see the NOTE below] After-market cams are notorious as a source of chunkies. *(See my blog for the article on how to prevent chunky attacks. *Lotsa purdy pitchers :-) If you have not fitted your engine with a full-flow oil filter, a chunky can keep circulating through the pump until it's totally trashed... assuming the chunky hasn't been feed to one of your bearings, in which case you're liable to trash the whole engine. Even WITH a full-flow oil filter a chunky gets at least one shot at your oil pump... unless you do something to prevent it, such as adding a Chunky Collector. *That's a fancy name I just invented for a rare earth magnet such as the ones you can buy from American Science & Surplus or a similar retailer. *Big Chunky Collectors, with a pull of up to 80 pounds, can be mounted on the OUTSIDE of the sump plate. Smaller ones can go on the inside. *(I use three big ones on the outside). *Chunkies small enough to pass through the oil strainer will be attracted to the magnet(s) instead, along with any other iron or steel debris. *(Back in the Good Ol' Days, whenever that was, we usta use Cow Magnets as chunky collectors.) Then there are the Drips. *These are caused by guys who think the oil STRAINER is an oil FILTER, and pull it out of the engine on every oil change. *WRONG. *Leave the damn sump-plate alone! *The strainer is only there to protect the oil pump... which you've already done with your Chunky Collectors and Full-Flow Oil Filtration... just like a modern engine :-) *Install the oil strainer & sump plate ONCE, using a good sealant. *Then leave it the hell alone! *The only time you'll need to remove the sump plate is when you dismantle the engine. Oil Change, whatcha wanna do is drain as much of the old oil as you can. *You CAN'T drain ALL the oil. *There's always some residual oil trapped in the engine, not only in the nooks & crannies of the crankcase but in the geometry of the heads & valve covers and in the push-rod tubes and oil galleries. *You can wipe away the oil in the valve galleries but there's no convenient way to remove the residual oil from the push-rod tubes and oil galleries. *(The inconvenient way is to connect your pre-luber and pump fresh oil into the main oil gallery until you see it coming from the business end of each of the push-rods.) The key point here is that an oil change doesn't get all of the old oil out of the engine... so stop worrying about it. *(And that means stop messing with the sump plate.) *You can pull the sump's drain plug, if it has one, get the tail up until the sump is about level, and drain out as much of the old oil as you can. *Or, if you've mounted your prop on the clutch end of the crank you can drill & tap the crankcase so as to provide a new sump drain that takes the angle of the engine into account. *And while everyone recommends draining the oil when the engine is warm, often times that isn't possible, in which case you simply give it more time -- up to an hour in really cold weather -- for the oil to ooze into the bucket. *(When it gets down to an occasional drip, you're all done.) In fact, when you put the prop on the clutch-end of the crankshaft and tap the case for a new sump drain plug location, that gives you full access to the original sump plate, which only needs to be removed when you dismantle the engine. *That means you can use the sump plate as a MOUNTING BASE, welding brackets to it for your carb heat, oil cooler or whatever. *Sturdy, convenient and generally lowers the under-engine profile. *Yeah, I know: *Nobody does it that way! I do. *(Why? *Because it's an AIRPLANE ENGINE, not a dune-buggy engine.) When it comes to Flying Volkswagens I'm often the Mechanic of Last Resort, meaning guys bring me these really goofy engines converted for flight by their local 'expert.' *In fact, the engine is usually just fine... if it were installed in a dune buggy. *But it lacks the dozens of 'unimportant' details that makes it suitable for use in an airplane, such as the grub screw securing the distributor (if it uses a distributor) or safety wire on the sump drain plug, or a full-flow oil filtration system or some means of limiting chunky attacks. *And it usually leaks like a bitch. *The sad part is that the difference between an airplane engine and a dune-buggy engine is due to things that are BUILT-IN to the engine, rather than something you can just bolt on. *So you smile at the guy and tell him you're too busy to take on another engine right now. *And suggest he take it back to whoever built the thing. -R.S.Hoover NOTE: *For a quick check of the health of an engine of unknown provenance, pull the oil pump cover, pull the idler gear and check the condition of the oil pump body, inspecting for score marks and gouges. *It takes surprisingly little scoring to reduce the output of the pump when the engine reaches its normal operating temperature. This often leads to complaints of high temps and low oil pressure. If you've got a suitable puller, loosen the two parting-line studs adjacent to the oil pump and remove the pump. *With an inspection light & mirror you can see the flange of the cam and any marks it may carry. *This will tell you if the cam is suitable for an airplane or a dune buggy. Lock the crankshaft in position and dismantle the valve train for the 1-2 cylinder head. *Dismantle the rocker arm shaft and check for worn washers and scoring on the shaft and rockers. *Check the torque of the head stays. *On reassembly, unlock the crankshaft, set the valve lash and estimate the valve train geometry using a dial indicator. These checks take only a few minutes but allows you to judge the condition of the engine with a high degree of accuracy. *If the engine is mounted and can be run, starting your inspection with a leak-down test will allow you to determine the health of the engine with near-100% accuracy. *-- rsh Does anyone build a full-flow filter for the VW? I imagine it would need to be a modified oil pump body with outlet and inlet ports for a remote filter, maybe? The only filter I ever saw for the VW was a bypass filter that stole some of the pressuized oil from the pressure switch port and ran it through a restrictor, through a remote filter, and dumped it back into the case through another port (maybe a rocker cover fitting). The restrictor was necessary to prevent total pressure loss, as the oil would much prefer to go through the filter rather than take the tougher route through the hot and noisy places. Of course, the restrictor also prevented any big bits from reaching the filter and would plug it off altogether. IIRC, the VW's pump was a bit anemic anyhow and could little afford any extra flow, kinda like my A-65. Same problem, with an oil pickup screen having holes big enough for parts bearing serial numbers to pass through and a "filter" screen only a little finer. Those oil pumps get torn up pretty good. What do you do to stop the VW's case seam from leaking? Dan |
#3
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VW Oil Change
On Sep 24, 6:09*pm, wrote:
On Sep 24, 10:15*am, " wrote: The VW engine does not come with an oil filter. *There is an oil STRAINER surrounding the oil pick-up tube in the sump but its job is exactly the same as the oil strainer found on the inlet of the oil pump on a Ford V8... or any other modern engine... which is to PROTECT THE OIL PUMP. *Protect it from what? *From 'chunkie' attacks... from those brittle little bits of cast iron that are spawned by the cam, or those glass-hard bits of steel that are the product of an improperly adjusted valve. In normal service the VW engine (and all others I know of) is capable of generating *'chunkies.' *On the VW, the ones you have to worry about are those those made of iron or steel -- *anything harder than aluminum -- and less than about 0.060" in its greatest dimension, meaning it can pass through the mesh of the oil strainer. *These hard chunkies can get into your OIL PUMP and cause scoring of the aluminum pump-body. *It takes only a minor amount of scoring of the pump body to produce a dramatic loss of pressure and flow from the oil pump. (Factory spec for maximum scoring dimension is 0.002" *Any scratch or groove of greater depth justifies replacement of the oil pump.) *[see the NOTE below] After-market cams are notorious as a source of chunkies. *(See my blog for the article on how to prevent chunky attacks. *Lotsa purdy pitchers :-) If you have not fitted your engine with a full-flow oil filter, a chunky can keep circulating through the pump until it's totally trashed... assuming the chunky hasn't been feed to one of your bearings, in which case you're liable to trash the whole engine. Even WITH a full-flow oil filter a chunky gets at least one shot at your oil pump... unless you do something to prevent it, such as adding a Chunky Collector. *That's a fancy name I just invented for a rare earth magnet such as the ones you can buy from American Science & Surplus or a similar retailer. *Big Chunky Collectors, with a pull of up to 80 pounds, can be mounted on the OUTSIDE of the sump plate. Smaller ones can go on the inside. *(I use three big ones on the outside). *Chunkies small enough to pass through the oil strainer will be attracted to the magnet(s) instead, along with any other iron or steel debris. *(Back in the Good Ol' Days, whenever that was, we usta use Cow Magnets as chunky collectors.) Then there are the Drips. *These are caused by guys who think the oil STRAINER is an oil FILTER, and pull it out of the engine on every oil change. *WRONG. *Leave the damn sump-plate alone! *The strainer is only there to protect the oil pump... which you've already done with your Chunky Collectors and Full-Flow Oil Filtration... just like a modern engine :-) *Install the oil strainer & sump plate ONCE, using a good sealant. *Then leave it the hell alone! *The only time you'll need to remove the sump plate is when you dismantle the engine. Oil Change, whatcha wanna do is drain as much of the old oil as you can. *You CAN'T drain ALL the oil. *There's always some residual oil trapped in the engine, not only in the nooks & crannies of the crankcase but in the geometry of the heads & valve covers and in the push-rod tubes and oil galleries. *You can wipe away the oil in the valve galleries but there's no convenient way to remove the residual oil from the push-rod tubes and oil galleries. *(The inconvenient way is to connect your pre-luber and pump fresh oil into the main oil gallery until you see it coming from the business end of each of the push-rods.) The key point here is that an oil change doesn't get all of the old oil out of the engine... so stop worrying about it. *(And that means stop messing with the sump plate.) *You can pull the sump's drain plug, if it has one, get the tail up until the sump is about level, and drain out as much of the old oil as you can. *Or, if you've mounted your prop on the clutch end of the crank you can drill & tap the crankcase so as to provide a new sump drain that takes the angle of the engine into account. *And while everyone recommends draining the oil when the engine is warm, often times that isn't possible, in which case you simply give it more time -- up to an hour in really cold weather -- for the oil to ooze into the bucket. *(When it gets down to an occasional drip, you're all done.) In fact, when you put the prop on the clutch-end of the crankshaft and tap the case for a new sump drain plug location, that gives you full access to the original sump plate, which only needs to be removed when you dismantle the engine. *That means you can use the sump plate as a MOUNTING BASE, welding brackets to it for your carb heat, oil cooler or whatever. *Sturdy, convenient and generally lowers the under-engine profile. *Yeah, I know: *Nobody does it that way! I do. *(Why? *Because it's an AIRPLANE ENGINE, not a dune-buggy engine.) When it comes to Flying Volkswagens I'm often the Mechanic of Last Resort, meaning guys bring me these really goofy engines converted for flight by their local 'expert.' *In fact, the engine is usually just fine... if it were installed in a dune buggy. *But it lacks the dozens of 'unimportant' details that makes it suitable for use in an airplane, such as the grub screw securing the distributor (if it uses a distributor) or safety wire on the sump drain plug, or a full-flow oil filtration system or some means of limiting chunky attacks. *And it usually leaks like a bitch. *The sad part is that the difference between an airplane engine and a dune-buggy engine is due to things that are BUILT-IN to the engine, rather than something you can just bolt on. *So you smile at the guy and tell him you're too busy to take on another engine right now. *And suggest he take it back to whoever built the thing. -R.S.Hoover NOTE: *For a quick check of the health of an engine of unknown provenance, pull the oil pump cover, pull the idler gear and check the condition of the oil pump body, inspecting for score marks and gouges. *It takes surprisingly little scoring to reduce the output of the pump when the engine reaches its normal operating temperature. This often leads to complaints of high temps and low oil pressure. If you've got a suitable puller, loosen the two parting-line studs adjacent to the oil pump and remove the pump. *With an inspection light & mirror you can see the flange of the cam and any marks it may carry. *This will tell you if the cam is suitable for an airplane or a dune buggy. Lock the crankshaft in position and dismantle the valve train for the 1-2 cylinder head. *Dismantle the rocker arm shaft and check for worn washers and scoring on the shaft and rockers. *Check the torque of the head stays. *On reassembly, unlock the crankshaft, set the valve lash and estimate the valve train geometry using a dial indicator. These checks take only a few minutes but allows you to judge the condition of the engine with a high degree of accuracy. *If the engine is mounted and can be run, starting your inspection with a leak-down test will allow you to determine the health of the engine with near-100% accuracy. *-- rsh * * * * *Does anyone build a full-flow filter for the VW? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lotsa folks, including VW of Mexico (starting in 1981). Adding full- flow oil filtration has been the most common mod for VW engines since the mid-1960. Very straight forward mod. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I imagine it would need to be a modified oil pump body with outlet and inlet ports for a remote filter, maybe? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nope. Just plug the output of the pump and make or buy a new pump- cover. Then drill & tap the main oil gallery. The oil is diverted through the new pump cover, plumbed to the filter then back into the main oil gallery. Google it. You should get lotsa hits. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only filter I ever saw for the VW was a bypass filter that stole some of the pressuized oil from the pressure switch port and ran it through a restrictor, through a remote filter, and dumped it back into the case through another port (maybe a rocker cover fitting). The restrictor was necessary to prevent total pressure loss, as the oil would much prefer to go through the filter rather than take the tougher route through the hot and noisy places. Of course, the restrictor also prevented any big bits from reaching the filter and would plug it off altogether. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's the old FRAM by-pass filter, a dealer installed after-market kit. In 1958 VW issued a Service Bulletin telling dealers not to install them because they could cause a catastrophic loss of oil pressure. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IIRC, the VW's pump was a bit anemic anyhow and could little afford any extra flow ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Depends on which VW pump you're talking about. VW used about NINE of them over the years. Basically, the size of the pump was increased each time they increased the size of the engine. But they also increased its size to obtain better cooling. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- kinda like my A-65. Same problem, with an oil pickup screen having holes big enough for parts bearing serial numbers to pass through and a "filter" screen only a little finer. Those oil pumps get torn up pretty good. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Actually, the VW oil pump is larger than that used on the little Continentals. It puts has a greater flow and can put out a higher pressure, thanks to its greater speed of rotation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * What do you do to stop the VW's case seam from leaking? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assembling it correctly is always a good start :-) SN's & SB's (Service Notes and Service Bulletins) issued over the years describe all of the problems you're liable to encounter that can produce a leak on the parting line. But staandard practice is to lay a strand of silk thread in the Permatex... just like we do with aircraft engines :-) -R.S.Hoover |
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