Engine Oddities

[andy M.]

I recently dismantled a 1776 so i could rebuild it, had low oil pressure and dodgy valve train geometry but the strangest thing was the end float shims,
whoever originally built this thing had decided that VW didn't know what they were doing and re invented the whole process of setting up end float by putting the shims on the INSIDE of the case!!, they had spent some time openning up the the shims so they would slide over the number one journal
nicely,
very odd,

so... whats the strangest thing you've come across whilst working on vw's?

PS i've got loads more but i'll save those for later.

[Peter]

maybe not the strangest,
but when i tore down an engine that threw a rod,
i wanted to use the oil plungers and springs for my engine,
whell, when i unscrewed the plugs, there were two springs coming out for each plunger

[Sam K]

Back when I was in high school, went though several used 1600's because I was a poor student. When they blew up, I'd just go downto the junkyard and pull another one. One of them had so much blow by that if you pulled the dipstick out while it was runnning, it would shoot a stream of oil about ten feet behind the car! I ended up having to put a spring  on the dipstick to hold it in. I think that enegine eventually blew up in a big way as I was pulling up my driveway one day. Another one ran kind of funny and I figured out that ti had 40 horse (1 to 1) rockers on one side and stock (1.1) on the other.

[Harry/FDK]

I recently dismantled a 1776 so i could rebuild it, had low oil pressure and dodgy valve train geometry but the strangest thing was the end float shims,
whoever originally built this thing had decided that VW didn't know what they were doing and re invented the whole process of setting up end float by putting the shims on the INSIDE of the case!!, they had spent some time openning up the the shims so they would slide over the number one journal
nicely,
very odd,

so... whats the strangest thing you've come across whilst working on vw's?

PS i've got loads more but i'll save those for later.

Andy, sofar youre the King