Is he an air cooled specialist mate? Another thought, cos this is really doing my head in now and it's got to be somethiing simple, surely? My engine is fitted with a small diameter exhaust header, looks like it's off a beetle. Could it be possible that it's not big enough for the exhaust gases to escape properly and they are building up in the engine making heat? Or am I being stupid? As it's getting so hot so quick at idle, does it sound like a cooling issue rather than an oil cooling issue? The fan's spinning nice and freely, got a bus fan in now, carbs richened up a bit.
Or a really bad air leak on the intake somewhere But we're guessing blind as it's not in front of us!!
don't suppose either of you guys are passing Birmingham in the near future it's overheating on tickover & the timing is pot on on tickover, so even if it's out at max advance the timing is ok when i ran it for 10 mins the other day. Can't see any obvious leaks & the PO was useless and knew nothing of the history, so i'll never know if there were any previous problems? Going to go for a test drive of a 2052cc bus tomorrow as he's selling the engine. I think it's in a bay at the mo, but I assume it would still drop straight into a split?
if it's overheating at idle it's serious......do you actually know what temperature the cylinder heads are running at , or are you basing your judgement on an oil temp gauge....most of these are inaccurate POS.....
Judgement based on feeling the tinware and engine bay 'floor' and carb manifolds with my hands - not got any gauges actually reading temperature - after 10 mins you can only hold your hand on the carb manifold for a couple of seconds and the tinware is getting quite warm by then. Could it be the exhaust too close to the engine?
The manifold should get hot as its connected to the exhaust - this is how the carb is pre-heated. Can you post a picture of the engine please.
If only one side is getting hot the carbs might need tuning/balancing. As Paul says, we're *******ing in the wind really.
id get a gauge on it , then go for a run , have you felt your dipstick ? top not bottom buy the way ??
As said above its difficult without seeing it. Might be difficult even if its in front of you but im guessing it would be obvious to a pro very quickly. Get it looked at!! Its your only option really. A new engine might be a bit extreme.
The exhaust header is rusty so it looks like it's been on a while - I put a new silencer on it (empi single quiet pack) as there was a massive hole in the old one. Could I get any clues by running the engine from cold & see which parts are getting hot first? Or would a compression test give us any ideas? Not sure even a VW garage would be able to tell much as they probably wouldn't have any more knowledge than you guys and i've tried everything suggested. If it gets hot after 10 mins idling that would seem to suggest lack of air cooling rather than oil cooling i would guess? If I was to drop the engine, is anything likely to be obvious without having to strip the engine apart (although if I did split the engine, I wouldn;t know what I was looking for to be fair!). this is really doing my head in - I don;t really want to shell out for a new engine without trying 'living' with my 1600 first as it does run nice (just a little hot)!
you say it's running hot but unless you have some accurate means of testing just how hot, it may actually be fine....a good quality infra red temp sensor aimed at the cylinder heads after a longish run would provide some empirical readings....a agarge would be able to test this for you
the engine gets too hot to touch...been out in a 2052cc bus today and after a good test drive & ticking over for a while, the engine was barely warm.
But, and it's a big one, they would have it in front of them... We're literally giving you things to look at/for, so we're guessing blind... When you have the actual engine in front of you, you can hear and smell things that a novice wouldn't know about
