Project Slowly Underway: Berrien 295

[Vanapplebomb]

All the cooling tin and parts got cleaned up. The cooling tin had been buried under who knows what for who knows how long. Needless to say, it was in pretty rough shape and bent out of whack.

I started with the blower housing. Pretty straight forward really. Four studs holding it on. I found that 35mm studs were just the right length. Any longer and the blower would rub on them. The clearance between the blower and housing is amazingly tight for what it is. About 30 thou between the perimeter of the blower and the housing. It amazes me that VW built so much precision into something as simple as a blower housing.

I spent the better part of an afternoon with a rubber mallet and anvil and man handled a bunch of cooling tin back into shape. Lots of test fitting, removing, tweaking, twisting, hammering out some wrinkles, and test fitting again. I got the four pieces of tin for the drivers side all situated. The passengers side is in progress yet, but a lot closer than where I started. The worst were the large upper cylinder/head tins. The ones on the underside were not bad, nor were the oil cooler and 1/2 front cylinder tins. Rears were average. You can see how the upper 1/2 side tin is still not sitting quite right, but it is almost there.

Once it all siting the way I want it, I will shoot it with some paint and button it up. I'll need to pick up a pack of M6 button heads and a couple M5 button heads for the underside of the heads. That should do it.

Carbs are almost done being rebuilt. I have been waiting on one throttle body because I have to order new bearings from igus. Rather than order two bearings and then a few more for another project, may as well pay shipping once. The other carb is golden save for the accelerator pump linkage. After many many cycles, they wear funny over time. I'll have to make new linkage rods and weld up and redrill the pump lever. More on that to come.

Front suspension updates to come as well. When the weather is good I will snap a few pics of the set up.

That's all for now. More to come later.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Vanapplebomb]

Replaced the brushes and bearings in the alternator. The field winding on the rotor was cutting in and out, so I figured the brushes were worn. Now it holds a consistent 4.5 +/- 0.1 ohms. I sent it out to a local shop to have the diode pack tested. Everything appears to be in working order.

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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[ORANGECRUSHer]

Let me know if your interested in some powder coat on those tins.. I owe you one for all the crazy little things I learned from this build so far. I've got some super durable gloss black and I'm just about done with the oven.
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Brian H.
I may not know everything,but I will try to help if I can
OrangeCrushER Berrien Warrior 2.4L Quad4
LAZY MARY 1970 Baja 1835cc

[Vanapplebomb]

OC, thanks for the offer. Had I not had a bunch of yellow and black rattle cans of paint sitting around collecting dust I would have taken you up on the offer.

I was able to find the size shim I needed to set the crank endplay. A member of a local VW club had a few sitting around. I cleaned the shim stack, lined each one with assembly lube, slipped them over the crank, and installed the main seal. If you are doing a Type 4, be aware that for whatever reason there are two different main seals. Some are 10mm deep and available everywhere. Others are 12mm deep and are a little harder to come by. You can get Victor Rinze seals at many auto parts stores. It is silicone and works pretty well, but I prefer the Brazilian Sabo seals which are a tougher fluoroelastomer. With the seal in place the lip was lubed up and the flywheel bolted down. The five bolts were torqued in a star pattern to 80 Ft*Lbs with a fresh lock plate below the heads and Loctite 271 on the threads. The Loctite 271 serves as an assembly lube for the threads while torquing and provides an extra measure of protection from backing out when it sets up.

I started covering the engine with the cooling sheet metal, etc.

I also got some accessories lined up including the oil temp gauge, cooling system thermostat, and the air intake thermostat.

Exploded view of cooling system thermostat/bracket and assembled.

My core block came out of a Porsche 914, so I was fortunit enough to have the Porsche 914 sump cover which has a boss welded on for an oil temp sensor. Rather than use the expensive Porsche gauge cluster I decided to get an adapter and use a simple mechanical temp gauge. Simple, inexpensive, and reliable. I had to cut a fresh gasket from ruber fiber gasket paper because the gasket kits do not include this particular and somewhat rare gasket. The botom cover was slit in a bandsaw to make clearance for the capillary tube between the ether filled bulb and the temp gauge.

The air cleaner thermostat was taken apart, cleaned, and recalibrated to operate the flap between 90 and 100 deg F. Easy enough to do with a thermometer and the household furnace. Turn the screw in to increase the opening temp, turn it out to lower the temp. Easy.

I reinstalled the distributor that was rebuilt and installed a length of stainless braided brake line to make an Extention for the oil pressure switch and pressure gauge. Because there is only enough room in the stock location for the stock pressure switch.

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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Brian]

I see it now, the year 2021: Van torques the final bolt on the motor and prepares to install it in his rail.

lookin' good man.
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Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Vanapplebomb]

[flashho]

Thanks for another amazing post! 2020 would be a good year.
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rant _ classified ads with out pics are almost worthless

[flashho]

Thanks for another amazing post! 2020 would be a good year.
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rant _ classified ads with out pics are almost worthless

[Vanapplebomb]

Thanks Rich!

Should have the thermostat installed tonight. I just need to pick up some more M6 hardware on my way home.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Kizbo]

I'm just now seeing this thread for the first time and all I can say is WOW! Dude, thank you so much for all the detailed documentation of your build!... especially in the beginning of the thread. I can defenately see myself switching out CVs and having to do the whole bearing/brake redo, and this will surely help. I'm getting inspired....

[Vanapplebomb]

Thanks man, glad it has been helpful.

Started making a new crossover tube for the engine. All the originals are over 40 years old and generally in less than ideal condition. A few feet of .014 wall 3/8in brass tubing, a brass tee (actually for household poly water lines), and a little trial'n'error got me half way there. Just need to go back and grab some slightly larger brass tube for the connection to the little funsize carburetor piggy backing off the drivers side carb float bowl.

I found that I had to anneal the brass tubing before bending to keep it from splitting or kinking. A torch made easy work of locally annealing where the bends had to be. Snaking the tubing around the air cleaner was a bit of a bugger, but not to difficult. Soldering the tubing to the tee was a bit of a trick though because after the first joint was soldered, it was easy to desolder the first connection when soldering the second and screw up the alignment. Soldering a third tube to the tee without getting the other two joints too hot should be fun when the time comes.

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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[dustymojave]

A plumber I worked with building houses a long time ago taught me that when you have multiple connections to solder close together, to solder all of them at the same time. Have all of the connections cleaned, prepped, with flux applied and assembled, then start the heating.

It's worked for me whether plumbing a house with copper, or the cooling lines inside of an injection mold for making plastic parts, or on race cars.
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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Vanapplebomb]

Thanks for the wisdom Rich! I got the third leg bent into shape, all lined up, and soldered into place. Found some left over 3/8in fuel hose I can cut to connect the crossover tube ends to the manifolds. Just need to find a bit of 7/16in fuel hose to make the connection to the carburetor.

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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Vanapplebomb]

Manifolds are on. Always use the aluminum crush gaskets with the dual carb manifolds. The large phenolic gasket/spacer that goes against the head is for fuel injection only. Dual carbs use the small phenolic spacer and two paper gaskets between the carbs and manifolds. When I can, I like to use serrated concave lock washers. If you do the same, best proactive is to have the convex side against the nut and the concave against the part...in this case, the manifold. 14 Ft*Lbs on the M8 nuts. The central idle circuit crossover tube is attached to the manifolds with sections of 3/8in fuel hose. Lined up the air cleaner with the pre heat air pipe and the dimples on the brackets, and snapped the bail wires down to secure the air cleaner housing to the brackets.

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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Axitech]

A tip for bending tubing. Fill it with sand, or some other powder that you can pack in tightly. That will keep it from kinking as you bend it.
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He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36


The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.-Thomas Jefferson

[dustymojave]

Yeah! let's not get kinky on here!

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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Vanapplebomb]

The problem is that this tubing was extruded which strain hardens it. Even with beach sand it will crack and split. It has to be annealed before bending to remove the internal stress. Once annealed, you don't need any filler material to make a nice bend unless it is really tight.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Vanapplebomb]

[dustymojave]

Took ya a minute huh?




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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Vanapplebomb]

Just needs some 7/16" fuel hose to make the connection from the central idle circuit to the crossover tube, and have accessories installed...alternator, air cleaner elbows, plug wires, etc...

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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021