From: bjgaed@bb1t.monsanto.com
Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw
Subject: Re:  Air cooled engine is HOT
Date: 3 Sep 92 06:49:08 CST
Organization: Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO

In article <78917@ut-emx.uucp>, sjk@ut-emx.uucp (Phil Alvin) writes:
> 
> Greetings VW fans,
> 
> I just put a new engine (and tranny) in my '66 Ghia and all seems
> well, but the engine is running  hot.  After a 5-mile or so trip,
> the dipstick, for example, is hot to the touch - I mean I wouldn't
> want to hold onto it for any length of time.  The new engine was
> rebuilt by a good mechanic out to the cylinders.  I re-used my old
> heads (after taking them to the machine shop.)  Here are my ideas as
> to what could be wrong:
> 
> 1) Oil cooler messed up - I cleaned it and put the proper seating
> gaskets on when I installed it - no sign of an oil leak.  Any other
> way to test it w/ the engine in the car.  Would taking an oil
> pressure reading help diagnose a bad cooler?  (The cooler came off
> my old engine.)  

If the old cooler gave a free flow of solvent through it when you 
cleaned it it should be O.K.  Is your oil pressure relief valve moving 
freely in the engine?  (See Idiot book.)  If it's sticking it's 
causing the oil to bypass the oil cooler.

> 2) I am running too lean. How do I check this? A new cam maybe changing the
> mixture a little and I may need to enlarge the Carb main jet.  

If you replaced with a stock cam (no high-lift dragster cams) I would 
definitely *not* screw with the carb jets.  Set the idle mixture per 
the Idiot book or other manual for max. rpm at idle.  After that, you 
would need to go to a garage that has an exhaust gas analyzer for a 
more accurate setting.


> 3) My timing is off and/or my distributor is not returing the
> advance after high rpms.  I set the timing to 7.5 deg BTDC intially with a
> static timing light as I always do and it seemed fine. I got a
> stroboscopic light and saw the advance working and returning okay -
> though my carb return spring does not quite return the acc. lever
> back to idle after high revs.  The distributor is an 009.  Is 7.5 BTDC
> still the right value with this new block?

I just put the 009 in my 64 Ghia and it's running fine.  7.5 BTDC 
static is the timing number from the Idiot book as well as what I got 
from two other independent sources that I trust.  Did you plug the 
vacuum port in the carb?

> 4) My valves are too tight.  I set them (0.006) before I put the
> engine in and the following morning after testing the engine the
> previous day - most of the valves were tight.  Since then, I have
> put about 50 miles on the engine.

Do you have long studs on the heads?  If so then you should be using 
.008 on the exhaust and .006 on the intake. (Check that in a manual to 
be sure I have it right.)  If you have short studs or a stud kit in 
the heads they should be .004.

> 5) A vacuum leak somewhere.  No obvious sign, but there may be a subtle one
> I am trying to track down.  It's hard to tell for sure by listening.

See above re carb. vac. port.

> All my sheet metal and heater hoses are on and connected.  I put new rubber
> molding around the engine compartment.

How about the thermostat and air control system?  Do you have an air 
control ring or flaps on the 66?  (Ghias tended to change some of 
these things a year or so before bugs and busses.)  I had to overhaul 
my Ghia because the air control system failed and put the ring right 
up against the firewall on a hot day. 8{(  Engine overheated, the air 
control bellows got hot and "blew up" fracturing a pushrod tube and 
causing most of the oil to leak out. 

Anyway, try removing the air control bellows (thermostat) from between 
#1 and #2 cylinders and pull down on the control rod to see if 
everything moves.  Then wire the rod down to open all the flaps and 
drive it to see if it still overheats.  I removed the whole system 
when I overhauled.  Rather be cold in the winter than risk another 
overheating episode.

The Idiot book has the best step-by-step instructions anywhere for 
diagnosing these problems.  If you don't have it, you need it.

> Thanks for any and all help,
> Scot

You're welcome.

-- 
--Electric Monk            (Bruce Gaede); 
                            e-mail: bjgaed@ccmail.monsanto.com

"...and then time started seriously to pass."
--Douglas Adams, _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_
Newsgroups: rec.autos.vw,rec.autos