Intake Manifold

Hello All
I'm fairly new to the beast that is the Aircooled VW Engine and have not had reason to look any deeper into it... Until Now.

Having our beetle (64, or 65, 1200, 28 Pict) sitting dormant for a season, the time (and weather) is right to start it again, however It doesnt seem to run on Idle, the engine will run at WOT only. Experience on other cars suggested an air leak, closer inspection revealed the likley cause as a blown carby gasket. Upon removing the carby there was a 1/2 inch or so block sitting between the carby and the manifold that was broken. Looking through the muir book, there is no mention of this and the local (Adel.) VW shop said that it should just be; carby -> gasket -> manifold. I havent been able to find anyone who stocks, or even knows what this block is/is for and any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
- Adam

The block is there to raise the hieght of the carbie. Probably to make sure that there is clearance between the generator and the choke heating element.
If your car has been converted to 12 volts, the generator is larger and the block may have been added to get the proper clearance.

It will run with or without it as long as the gaskets are good and sealing.

If your car has been sitting for 12 months then I would suspect that one of the jets is blocked with fuel residue. Pay to clean the carb out replace the fuel in the tank with new stuff and replace the fuel filter.

[Edited on 21-9-2003 by Grey 57]