Itinerant Air-Cooled

I bought a running type 4 engine from a shop here in GA. My original 1.8 is in pieces and waiting for me to have it rebuilt or get the balls to do it myself. This spare popped up on Facedork Marketplace and will hopefully keep me rolling for the foreseeable future. The shop owner mentioned above found the bus for a client and then the client wanted a type 1 engine put in for aesthetic reasons. The engine that came out is a 1.8 with an AW engine code. The shop had put a single Progressive on. I had pulled the plugs and they all looked good, no oil fouling. My plan is to pull the tins, clean and freshen up everything on the outside (including sandblast and paint the tin), re-torque the heads, replace the fuel pump base gasket and rear main seal, set end play (thanks for reminding me Colin), notch for my CHT, put on my stock dual Solex and stock vac distributor, reassemble and install.

Here are some pics. The dirtiness is due to being in the bus when it was painted (overspray and dust from blue and white paint) and then sitting in the shop collecting dust waiting for me to come along. The engine is very dry judging from outside the tins. We'll see what we have after I get the tins off. It was reported that it consistently left only one oil spot when in the old bus, it was nickel-sized and appeared (according to the person at the shop I dealt with) to come from the fuel pump base or rear main seal.

You have it this far...why not take it down more, and check it out thoroughly? The end play is going to tell you a lot, but I’d sure want to check out the heads while you have it at this stage. Pull and clean the oil filter, new rubber seals there. Check all of the gallery plugs out. Pushrod seals. Clean the fan blades, and the cooling fins. There is a lot you can do to freshen that up, and become familiar with it...before it goes into a vehicle, with all of that attendant labor. I am by no stretch an expert on these beautiful engines, but I have sure seen a ton of hidden surprises on the ones that I have assisted on. They beg attention.

baah...check for anything obnoxiously abnormal, and then install that puppy. I bought a used engine that had wood chips in one of the heads. Blew it out, and drove that engine for 20k miles...and mind you 18k was with 5 working exhaust studs and a sparkplug that probably had 50k miles on it at least....helicoil had a death grip.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:55 pm

baah...check for anything obnoxiously abnormal, and then install that puppy. I bought a used engine that had wood chips in one of the heads. Blew it out, and drove that engine for 20k miles...and mind you 18k was with 5 working exhaust studs and a sparkplug that probably had 50k miles on it at least....helicoil had a death grip.

This one ...

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:55 pm

baah...check for anything obnoxiously abnormal, and then install that puppy. I bought a used engine that had wood chips in one of the heads. Blew it out, and drove that engine for 20k miles...and mind you 18k was with 5 working exhaust studs and a sparkplug that probably had 50k miles on it at least....helicoil had a death grip.

That is my plan. I am not going too deep as this is my spare and I am going to follow through with my rebuild on my OG motor. This will give me the time to cull quality parts and possibly save up for Camper Special stuff, I already have a set of 1.8 Hoffman heads laying in wait.

Several things to start the day:
I just purchased the "high end" Harbor Freight blasting cabinet with a friend. Its first use will be for the engine tin off this engine. Questions: 1) What media should I use? I am thinking walnut as it is biodegradable. 2) My plan is to prime then spray paint the tins. What primer and paint should I be looking to use? Note: I know that powder coating is the way to go but this is my spare engine. The OG engine I will rebuild will be the powder coating treatment.

Another question: Are the carb and muffler worth anything? The carb and intake runners seem pretty new and the muffler just looks like shit but appears solid otherwise. I will be putting my stock dual Solex on this and my stock muffler. Thanks!

Try to use "reusable media". Powder coating is expensive and can chip if you flex the tin and rust under the crack. Clean well to ensure no grease/oil and use a good primer, I like this one for high heat 2000* and use any color hi temp 1200*, been using BBQ paint. Durable and very easy to touch up.

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catal ... eat-primer

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catal ... -and-stove

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catal ... high-heat/

Good results...unless you want a show car look.

Well, my buddy who I was splitting the cabinet with did not hear me any of the 20 or so times I said the word "cabinet" in our discussions over the past few weeks. Nor did he seems to register just what I meant when I said I needed the "cabinet" to sandblast my engine tins. He purchased a 110lb hopper style blaster! This would burn through a 25 pound box of 80 grit glass beads in about 20 minutes! Not happening. Backed out of the friendly deal. Now looking for a local blaster. Might be just as cheap to my my own cabinet. Ugh! Hell, as this is a spare I might just clean shit up and put it back together.

Amskeptic wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:10 am

This one ...

Yup Colin, that one. Man, time flies....That was nearly ...what...14 years ago?