Dad decided to start work on the red bug today so he got the engine ready to pull out and I gave him a hand to actually drop it out. I really don’t understand some people who work on beetles, there were 3 repairs to the accelerator cable, the repair parts would have cost more than a new accelerator cable would have costs. There were so many repairs that disconnecting it was the hardest job we had to do to get the engine out.

Before

After

We found a handy new tool to help. An air jack. Basically you set a bag up under the car connect the pipe up to the exhaust of a car and use the air pressure to jack up the car. Sounds strange but it works and works very very quickly.

Once the engine was out it was easy get on with the jobs that needed to be done. There were two main jobs. First one was to fit the heat exchangers. There was no heat in the car which makes driving it in the winter fun. There were J tubes on the engine so these where removed and stored, I’ll need them for the buggy.

These aren’t new but they came with the car and they seem to be in good condition so we’ll reuse them. I do have new ones in the shed but I don’t see the point in using the new ones unless I know the old ones don’t work. Generally when it comes to parts, good original parts will always be better than pattern parts.

Next up was the fan shroud. Before:

The fan shroud was in good condition but it had no outlets for air which are needed for the heating system. I had a chrome one in the garage so that got a quick polish and was fitted.

It wasn’t all easy, we did come across two problems what will need to be fixed before we can refit the engine. First on was one of the mounting bolts. The threads were in bits, so we need to get a new stud and fit it before we can re-install the engine. The other problem is that one of the exhaust studs is badly bent, I don’t know how they fitted the exhaust the last time. A new stud will cost 1 euro!! I think we’ll replace it!

There are two parts which can go on the for sale list.

The old fan shroud:

Bugpack Exhaust: