Carburettor gasket (self made)

I first staret off my hack-sawing off a part of an unused carburettor tube, I then grinded it so that it became complementary in shape to my single port one and then used 'water weld' paste to stick them together. I could have welded them but I dont have a a blowtorch and wanted to see the strength of this resin that I used. Apparently it bonds to almost anything and starts to harden within two minutes of application.

The top photo shows the 'resin weld' after its hardened and after sanding.

Lets hope it holds!

Engine Problem Fixed

The distributor drive shaft finally went done into its correct depth.

I noticed that by forcefully turning the crankshaft, the teeth of the distributor drive gear (made of brass) would make a shearing sound...not good i thought. By slowly turning the crankshaft a few degrees and the distributor drive shaft (DDS), i found a point where the DDS would turn with the crankshaft. With this I noticed that the teeth were exactly above eachother so I gave it a gentle hit with a mallet and the DDS slipped into its correct position!

I was really pleased when I saw the DDS turning when I manually turned the crankshaft.

I was about to give up hope, I was going to try pull it out with a puller or split the case but I was lucky this time...

Next objective is to arrange the gasket so that my 1600cc Solex 34pict carb can fit on my 1200cc engine. The reason I am using a 1600cc carb is for increased performance but primarily because I simply dont have a 1200cc one.

Problem Diagnosis

The distributor drive shaft problem has been diagnosed:

The shaft lies too high in the hole, so the teeth are not engaging the crankshaft. I need to find the timing so that the teeth lie above eachother and then a tap of a mallet so that they fall into place. How to position them above eachother is a mystery..all I know is that the distributor drive shaft has to be lowered down about 1cm so that its teeth successfully engage the teeth in the crankshaft.

Chris

:( engine problem!

So it all started as I tried to insert the distributor in the case. The engine was at TDC for cylinder 1 but after reading on the internet from a very helpful source, I found out that the 'tangs' of the distributor drive shaft had to be at 180 degrees, (horizontal)

I tried to rotate the distributor drive shaft by turning the flywheel clockwise but it would not move!

This means that the teeth that connect it to the cranckshaft must have be chipped and/or eroded down.

This is quite a setback as I planned on starting the engine very soon but now I must lift up the distributor drive shaft and replace it with a new one. The shaft just won't move, even though it's at its normal height. The teeth must be gone and so I now need to buy a new one...

please comment and let me knw you are reading this.

Chris

Engine photos and mock up

These photos show the engine mock up (above) and as it was before everything was put on. I sprayed most of the components white to keep the engine as cool as possible but this might not have been such a good idea as every speck of dirt will show instantly. Maybe in the future, I'll paint it factory black again..

I also gave the engine a good clean with a wire brush which was really usefull. I just hope the shiny metal won't oxidise again to a darker colour.

I also inserted the distributor but I'm not sure if its in properly as when cylinder 1 was at TBC, the pulley wheel was not where it was ment to be (the notch directly in the centre on the case). So now when I turn the flywheel with a spanner, the rotor arm does not seem to move so something must be wrong.....any help??

Another thing is that my carb is one of a 1600cc bus, It's too big for my single port so I need to find a way to arrange that.

The next thing that needs to be done is an engine flush to remove all carbon and dirt deposits in the engine block and I must find a way to fix my distributor in properly.

please feel free to comment.

Chris

Ignition!

These are my newly purchased set of ignition leads (16euros).



The Complete distributor!



This is the single vacuum distributor with rotar arm and distributor cap visible. I gave the distributor a good wipe and fitted the cap on above.





This is the ignition coil after being sprayed


The next post shall show the painting of the valves covers and a mock-up of the igniton setup.

:)

Spraying the type 1 'doghouse' oil cooler

The above photo is the doghouse oil cooler after its been sprayed white. I chose white as it is a colour which dissipates heat and so the oil is cooled more efficiently. I now have to bypass it as it cant stand vertical as it is ment to on the engine. The reason being that it will cause too much drag and apparently (as I read on the internet) that cylinder number 3 does not get as cooled as the other ones due to the presence of the oil cooler. The presumed reason is that the air that pases through the oil cooler get heated and then passes over cylinder three. The hot air that passes over that cylinder is obviosly not efficient at cooling.

The next blog will about the process involved in bypassing the oil cooler..

Chris

Ignition coil

This brief post is simply about the igniton coil. It just shows the before (above) and after (below) of the ignition coil after I remove its peeling paint.
This was done with normal paint remover and didn't take more than 10 minutes.
The ignition coil is another essential part for the engine to be up and running. All that I practically need to do left is sort out the electricals.
I just need to buy a distributor and cables for the spark plugs and then I'm almost done.
Next post will be about connecting the spark plugs and distributor.

thanks,

Christian

Oil Cooler: cleaning the oil cooler

The above photos are of the 'doghouse' type 1 oil cooler from the engine.

After unbolting it, I noticed that it has bits of rust inside it. Whenever I shook it, particles of rust kept falling out of the holes like pepper.

I repeatedly tried to shake out all the dust but that prooved futile so i poured vegetable oil (didnt have any motor oil) and let it stand in it overnight and then drained the oil out the next day.

I repeated this about 3 times and the rust soon dissapeared.

The next thing to do was clean off the paint.

I purchased a tub oil paint remover and gently applied it on until most of the paint literally dissolved off. After i did this, I gave the oil cooler a good clean with sand paper, and a wire brush. The wire brush proved to be most effective.

After most if the paint was off, particles were still trapped between the vanes of the cooler so I gave it a good clean with an air hose from an air compressor. I also sparayed pressurized air into the holes of the oil and this removed tiny particles trapped inside and ensured me that the oil cooler was not punctured/damaged in any way.

The last thing I did was heat briefly with a gas torch to remove any final particles and to ensure the thing was clean.

The above photos show the oil cooler after it has had a good clean. Next thing I'm gonna do is spray in blue, it's ready for use now :)

Next post is about the cleaning/removing of piant of the ignition coil.

My Engine

Hi,

This blog is about my main hobby, aviation.

I love microlights, as they are called here, or ultralights as they are called in the US.

I'm very interested in building my own ultralight, particularly the volksplane, however i'm still undecided.

I bought a VW 1200cc beetle engine that rolled off the factory line way back in 1964...

I paid 65 euros for it so it wasn't a bad buy. I've been working on converting it for use in flight.

The above photo is the engine with all the cooling tins/flaps removed for, the engine. I also removed the fan and oil cooler.
(the oil cooler needs to be placed horizontally eventually)
I gave the enigne a good cleaning with a wire brush and air hose.



The above picture shows all the stuff removed from the enigne. note that the ignition coil and the oil cooler have to be put back on the engine...but the total weight removed from the engine totalled to around 20kg, around 50 lbs.



The picture at the top is the engine stripped of almost everything. It should be below this text but blogger didnt allow me to move it down :s (yes, i put spark plugs on it)

The engine looks like a proper flat four aircraft engine.

I weighed it empty with my bathroom scales it weighs about 62 kilos, give or take a few kg..

In order to get it running, I still need a distributor, carburettor, fuel pump, igniton coil and cables connected to the spark plugs.

I now hope to try get it running and remove the flywheel to decrese around 7-10 more kg in weight.

see the following posts, coming soon

Christian