Type IV engine swap

Current progress

8-6-01: Went and got the alternator tested, turns out that it was indeed bad but what do you expect for only $5? I'll order a new one soon.

8-12-01: Went to the junkyard today looking for a few items for the swap and came home with a couple of goodies. The OP conversion places the oil cooler in the same position as the Type 1 dog house fan shroud which means the top left engine mounting bolt/nut combination from the Type 4 has to be reworked. This involves enlarging the hole on the case and pressing in a serrated nut from the Type 1 case. I'm not sure if these are available separately or not but as long as the serations are in good shape it can be re-used without any problems. There was only one Beetle in the yard that still had the engine in so I dropped it, screwed the bolt in from behind and tapped the nut out of the case. I was also able to get the doghouse fan and mounting hardware from the generator. Unfortunately someone had damaged the pulley so it was left behind. All I need now is a new alternator and pulley with enough shims to space the fan out properly (to clear the OP fan shroud) and life is good. Another item I picked up was the fan spacer for the crankshaft pulley which is used between the type 4 fan hub and the OP crank pulley. Seems that I must have tossed mine when I got rid of the Type 4 sheet metal. Oh well another bit sorted out. There are plenty of '80 vintage Volvos in this particular yard and I was tempted to start collecting the CIS conversion parts but I have to wait until this engine is actually in before I can even contemplate starting that project.

9-11-01: Finally ordered some parts today. I went with a Super 75 alternator and a stainless T-bolt clamp from Kymco. I have had good luck with the Super 75 in my '74 Thing. I also ordered a German alternator/generator pulley from OE VeeDub.

9-15-01: It was 1/2 price day at Pick Your Parts in Hayward which was too good to resist so I went in search of the CIS components from an '80s era Volvo. I was able to get everything including the intake manifold (for reference). Putting CIS on the Type 4 is a future project as I'll start off with some dual Dellorto carburetors. I also picked up an extra serated nut in case I want to convert the other Type 4 engine kicking around in the garage.

9-17-01: The German alternator pulleys arrived today.

9-18-01: Just got the alternator and shims/hardware so I guess it's time to get cracking on the beast:).

9-19-01: The engine that I am going to use for the swap has a 225mm clutch/flywheel that I need to change out for the one on my 2.0l. I went to the parts store to get a new pilot bearing and main seal. Next I went to the machine shop to get the flywheel opened up and the new pilot bearing pressed in. While there I sketched out a design for a main seal installation tool and had it made out of aluminum. Got home and proceeded to tear down the engine and managed to bugger up the old pilot bearing. Damn! Time to take a break and pick up again tomorrow.

9-20-01: Started off fresh and took another whack at that pilot bearing and after grinding it down some I was able to pry it out. I checked the endplay and needed a thicker shim. Went out to get the shim, a new o-ring and some graphite to ease installing the flywheel. I also picked up some M12x1.50x40mm bolts to use with the seal tool I had made. With that done I set the endplay, installed the new main seal and the flywheel/clutch. The last bit for the engine today was to drill out the upper left mounting hole and press in the serrated nut from the Type 1 engine. With the nut installed I was able to bolt up the engine stand mount that I had made out of an old bus bell housing years ago. Now the engine is back on the stand and ready for some cleaning.

9-28-01: Cleaned the engine on the stand today and got all the oil and dirt off with ease. After the cleaning I squirted some Marvel Mystery Oil and WD40 into the cylinders and intake ports to prevent corrosion. I finally got the nerve to drill out the bail holes in the crankcase tower. I was worried about getting shavings down into the sump and the damage that could cause. It is a very good idea to tape off any opening when doing this especially the distributor hole since it has to be removed to drill out the left side hole. After letting the engine sit for a while I wanted to do a trial install of the DTM shroud. First up was the main bracket that utilizes the first and third top case bolts. I had to file down some flashing in order to get this to fit but it was no major ordeal. When I tried to install the shroud onto the engine it became apparent that the fuel pump was in the way. Since I am going to use an electric pump with the dual Dellortos removing it wasn't a big loss except that I have to add a block off plate. It appears that these aren't readily available so I will have to make one out of some 1/4" steel plate. After removing the pump I was able to fit the shroud on. Feeling inspired I decided to fit the alternator too.

9-29-01: With the shroud on it was a good time to check the clearance between the intake manifolds and the shroud. I had to clearance the left side of the shroud in order to fit the manifold. Reading through Hot VWs today I noticed that European Motorsports has an oil filler that bolts up to the stock location and provides a cleaner look. I might use one of those rather than the OP dipstick tube.

9-30-01: Didn't get much done today except sorted out the oil cooler hardware and prepped the cooler for installation into the shroud. Joe recommends folding the edges over or grinding them off. I decided to use some aviator's tin snips, which proved to be quite easy, and file the edges afterwards. Trial fit showed that the cooler might actually sit too low so that the nuts will ride on the fiberglass. I may add some rubber pads to the bottom of the cooler to gain some clearance.

10-01-01: Another light day except that I sent the fan off to Gene Berg Ent. to get straightend, welded and balanced. This is probably overkill but since the shroud is fiberglass I wanted to take every precaution against damage due to fan failure at higher RPMs.

10-02-01: Following a tip from Scott Fraser, I picked up some transmission cooler cleaner to use on the oil cooler. This stuff, which comes in aerosol form, kicks ass! You have to modify the end of the hose to fit snugly into one of the cooler holes but then, with the holes facing away from you, press the button and watch the crap fly out. I rinsed the cooler well with paint thinner and let it dry. After drying the cooler was ready for the seals and adapter plate. I used some permatex #2 on the seals being careful not to get any where the oil could come in contact with it. One other thing that I did to prep the cooler was to straighten out any openings that were bent. I bolted the cooler pod back onto the shroud and installed the cooler which is held in place by a spring that runs through the opening at the mounting end. I plan to order some steel AN fittings to use in the adapters for the braided steel oil lines between the block and the cooler.

10-03-01: Ordered some AN 8 x 38" npt fittings and the 2 oil cooler lines from Gene Berg Ent. today. I decided to go with the Teflon lined braided steel lines based on the performance of the set I'm currently using on the 1600 in my '74 Thing.

10-04-01: Today I went to the machine shop to fab the fuel pump blockoff plate and get the alternator support machined where the clamp rests on the underside. Check out the before and after pics of the stand to get an idea what I had done. I didn't feel that the clamp would sit correctly on the web as it was. The blockoff is made from some 1/4" thick steel bar stock with the holes alligned to the gasket. One thing I had to do was to round off the upper right corner to fit the machined boss on the case. I got the plugs gapped and installed to the proper torque with some anti seize for good measure. I forgot to get the dipstick flange gasket while at the FLAPS getting the pump gasket so it looks like they will see me tomorrow.

Alternator stand - before...	and after.

10-15-01: I finally received the welded and balanced fan from GBE along with the two AN 8 Teflon lined braided steel oil lines, the steel 3/8" NPT to AN 8 fittings and a couple of other bits. A recent trip to the junkyard yielded the remaining items for the fan spacing as well as a nice set of pulleys for a future Type 1 project or swap. I also scored the plenum and throttle body from a fuel injected Beetle for a CIS conversion project but that is another story. The only work on the engine was to install the AN fittings and attach the oil lines.

10-18-01: I felt brave today so it was time to tackle the alternator mounting. This is pretty much the most challenging part of the swap and I wanted to get the whole thing mounted correctly so the pulleys lined up. I started by assembling the fan backing plates to the alternator. Next up was setting the proper fan to backing plate clearance, which Joe specifies as 0.220". With that done I put the alternator assembly together with the stand and mounted it to the case and fan shroud to see how things fit. This was a dry run so I would have an idea what to watch out for when I had the Permatex #2 on the breather tower. Things looked good so I drew an outline around where the stand met the breather tower and removed everything for cleaning and re-assembly. I added the Permatex to the breather tower and the alternator stand to insure that there would be no leaks. Getting things back together again wasn't as easy as I thought it would be since the object was to not get any sealant on the rest of the parts. It's pretty much a juggling act but worked out well since I had a helper to tighten up everything while I pulled the alternator to one side to get the fan belt straight. Having gotten it all together without screwing up I decided to let ithe engine sit for a couple of days to let the Permatex set.

10-19-01: I finally bolted the empty case up to the tranny in the single cab and added the rear bus cross bar. I wanted to see get an idea about how to fabricate the bumper mount to cross bar brackets. I have a good idea but really need to put the bumper on also to be sure everything will fit.

10-20-01: Without much else to do I worked on the adapters for the Dellorto cross bar today and think I have them pretty well set. I still have some work to do to the manifolds so I haven't torqued them down yet. Hopefully that will happen Thursday and then I can get the Dells set up and adjusted.

10-25-01: Took a trip to the machine shop to get the bungs for the brake booster vacuum fittings made and welded to the intake manifolds. I dropped them off along with the hex bar and went to kill some time at the junkyard. Found a 412 wagon that hadn't been touched yet. I was able to pull off the heater boxes which were in excellent condition. They are worthy of modifying for use on a system with heat rather than removing the sheet metal and making headers. I took the heater timer switch and relays of course. You never can have enough gas heater parts;)

Back at the machine shop it looks like the first attempt failed due to the bung being made with too small of an OD. Basically the welding rod was blowing through the bung so I left the manifolds there to get redone Friday. I did have success with the hex bar which needed to be shortened 1/4" to accomodate the two 1/8" thick linkage adapters from OPP. One thing I didn't account for was that the hex bar has steel inserts in each end to prevent wear from the spring rotation. I had the OAL and the hole depth modified by 1/4" which cut through the bottom of the insert. The simple solution, and rather good luck too, was to find a steel washer that just fit inside the hole.

10-26-01: Back to the machine shop again to pick up the manifolds and they are perfect. Went back to the junkyard to get some of the gas heater parts like the fuel pump, glow plug and temp sensor. This time out I remembered to get the rear cross bar and brackets from the 412. Previously I had tossed the bar off to the side while removing the heater boxes and now it was missing. Started hunting for it and five minutes later I found the bar stuffed into the back seat of a BMW.

- Fabricate sheet metal sealing tin

- Get sheet metal powder coated

- Fabricate cross bar to bumper mount brackets