Last of the tapping
I started where I left off yesterday and did some final adjustments on a few of the holes I tapped.
I’m still not happy with the 3/4 lifter hole that I tapped too deeply. It shouldn’t impact anything, but I’d rather have it closer to the case surface. I tried to open it up a bit larger with the next side tap. I have several plugs of that size but it was not going to be easy, especially without a drill press to do the initial 1-2mm of metal removal to set the larger tap in place.
I gave up so as to know risk the threads.
The other plugs all rest at the surface of the case or very close to it and will not impede any other part around it such as tin, or the flywheel, etc.
To Mod or Not To Mod?
I sat there with the case halves in front of me and debating heavily to grab the dremel and start the Maher Racing mods the same way I did on the 2019 New Build. and then decide if I could take the HVX case and rocker arm mods. In my opinion, even outside of racing, the crucial nature of the air-cooled beast means that any improvements that can be made to oil flowing and basic oil cooling should be standard. These are all lessons learned by people over the decades and as with so much, racing is the test bed for what eventually ends up in production cars.
Sure the Type 1, for all of its many decades, had minor changes, but eh case architecture itself pretty much locked in the late 70’s and stayed that way until 2003.
If I was a VW shop, and had the money to make it happen (as well as customer base for it), I’d make all my new cases properly machine shop HVX modded as well as Maher modded. I’d sell rockers that were modded to allow for the HVX oiling flow increases. I’d only sell decent quality Thing-style fan shrouds with Type 4 larger oil coolers in them.
All distributors would be quality electronic ones with a modern coil delivery system at a fair price.
He’ll, I’d work to try and make dual throttle body EFI systems so simple and affordable to purchase, let alone configure, that you’d never want to run a damn carb (or carbs) again.
But… that is fantasy.
And sitting in The Garage of Love, without proper drill presses, and beat up and aching 50-year-old hands, I decided to not go through the motions, and the mess, to mod the case or pursue deeper part mods.
Cleaning out the oil galleries is where I left it.
Final Case Wash
With the metal work done, I blew out all the passages of metal debris with compressed air and then used my new large bin to wash each half.
I’ve used a couple of different soaps before, but I am out of Dawn so I opted for Purple Power.
Even with all the power washing at the car wash, then solvent cleaning, and then spot scrubbing, there was still dirt and oil to be had.
I was shocked at how dirty the brushes remained during this stage. I kept pulling oil residues from the galleries.
Using the scotch pads, I went over the mating surfaces again as well as other areas inside.
Now I wasn’t sure, when doing all my research in prior years, that what I read about popping gallery plugs and deep cleaning with brushes, really made much different.
I mean, it is quite a bit of work to pull plugs, drill, tap without effing up, etc. just to allow yourself access to the guts of the 3/4 case side.
But it really does make a difference at this stage.
I mean, I had run solvent through and tried to get brushes in as deep as I could and yet, at this stage, I was still cleaning out residue and debris.
Of course, the water turned filthy too.
No yet, if I had access to the right things, this would be the best time to do a hot tank dip for cleaning. But I’m just not willing to set up a metal trash can, run a propane take to it, then soak all these case halves in a caustic solution to clean them. Then I’d have to deal with remains of the caustic cleaning solution!
And no, I don’t want to drive 150+ miles just to drop a case off, have it cleaned, then have to drive back to get it again.
I think what I’m doing is more than enough effort for a stock case rebuild. More than most people probably do.
I washed them all clean again, took the air compressor to them to purge as much water as I could out of the the case savers, oil galleries, surface, and sump area. Paper towels got some of what I could not reach.
The case halves then set in the sunlight for several outs.
It is done and ready to be rebuilt.