So what are peoples thoughts about waterproofing the Kombi engine bay. Now I've had no problems with our Baja Bus up until tonight........what happened you may ask?? Well I just happened to drive through a flooded creek that was deep enough for the headlights on our raised kombi to go under water......drove through at a steady pace to create a bow wave and got through no probs at all, much to the disgust of the Charade driver I had to drive around to get into the water I'm sure....Now I pulled up on the other side to stop at the traffic lights....drove another 10mins, all with no probs, it wasnt until I stopped that it wouldnt start again...I sprayed everthing in the engine bay with RP7 water dispersant and made no difference, I ended up having to tow start it down the road for about 2klms and then it finally fired on 2 cyls.....so what I'm thinking is that the water has got under the plug connectors where they join the plugs....
Any ideas?
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
You can run a bead of silicon around the distributor cap to base join and also where the leads go into the cap and the plug connectors. With a bit of thought you can just about make 'em run under water. Some dissys have a vent in the bottom, so you may need to seal that also.
they took me away haha, hope the medication works
mmmmmm its a tough one but i think you should just lift it up higher...........
Mick used to sell (probably still does) a rubber boot that covers the dissy + wires to seal it up.
Not sure what options for cars, but most jap trail bikes had long plug connectors that sealed over the spark plug. I know they do seal well from experience. :thumb
About the only other thing would be a good coating of RP7 type stuff BEFORE entering the water 😀 (actually I grease all terminal connections)
The next bad thing for a type 4 is the fan. Being at crank level means it's in the water doing god knows what quite quickly.
Happy river crossing :thumb
Yeah I've picked up a new front beam for the kombi, so I reckon the best option is just raise it up a bit further.......😀
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
tonyg wrote:Some dissys have a vent in the bottom, so you may need to seal that also.
mmm don't think so .. if you do this it will not fire as no air means no spark means no go.... this is why we run magnetic pickup in teh buggies casue it don't need air so we can seal them up.
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx AustraliaBrad, I think the spark in the dissy is only the "visible" aspect of the switching process. I don't think you need the actual spark to trigger the switch from coil to ground thru the plugs. I am unsure if the spark (which is not actually "burning" anything (in the sense that burning is a fast form of oxidation) is necessary, but is merely the visible ionisation of air molecules when current is discharged across the gap. I seem to recall that welding with the right gear is possible under water, and there is no air there either.
Your thoughts...?
they took me away haha, hope the medication works
I will start with what I know... Welding under water is a differenat kettle of fish, there is oxygen in the water and you use certain flux coated rods when doing it. I can look up the techo reasons if really needed as it has been a few years since I was doing it.
If you seal your dizzy your spark will get weak and you engine will run like crap. I know this as I have tried it several times in various ways.
Without the spark the dizzy will not work. If you remove the ability for the points to spark then you will creat all sort of issues with your coil and condensor from what I have been told. I had some guy explain it to we once but never paid enough attention. I stopped listening after he said unsela your dizzy and all will be fine.
Proof is in the pudding, if you could seal them and no effect the operation then they would all be sealed from factory. If you look at a factory electronic dizzy they are sealed. Points ones are not.
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx Australiammm! OK I'm on unfamiliar ground here regarding the welding stuff, but my belief is that a sealed dissy WILL work fine. The points gap being so small and potential (voltage ) being such that the HT will arc across that gap. Are you saying that HT needs air to jump a gap? I don't believe so. Vacuum tubes (radio valves) being one example. I do not understand the necessity for air (oxygen contained therein, anyway) to be present. The dissy after all is a simple mechanical method of switching HT from the coil to the plugs. That is all it does. The presence or otherwise of air as a dialectric is immatreial imho.
The spark seen at the low voltage side of the points is simply the visible evidence of the make a break needed to collapse the secondary field.
Whatever...
Mine (baja) certainly ran for several years thru all sorts of deep water crossings and torential rainfall 29 years ago when in cairns. My baja was not up the standard of these days but sure was fun... had no cage around the motor... I not only sealed the dissy but ran all my H/T leads thru clear plastic tube sealed to the dissy spark plug lead posts at one end and the plug connectors at the other. same with coil lead which was mounted vertically with outlet down. Of course I may be completely wrong and only thought the dissy was sealed, may have been sufficient gap in the silicon to allow some air in, but no probs .... I reckoned it would run under water and indeed it did on occasion. Once I screwed sufficient water thru the crank oil thower behind the pulley to have to change the oil when i got home.. it went all frothy and white
looking... no apparent long term effects...
maybe a compromise would work, close up the vent under the dissy with a bit of open cell foam, should stop enuf water getting in to keep running, while allowing the dissy to breathe, altho I don't know why it needs to..
thanx, I enjoyed the contact and watch the development of your buggy with interest
best wishes
tony g
they took me away haha, hope the medication works
Instead of sealing the dizzy, wouldn't it make more sense to seal the tinware (use rubber instead of the foam) to stop the water getting into the engine bay in the first place?
1959 red & white Beetle
1975 Kombi camper
I dont believe the water got into the engine bay, I'm using a standard foam seal, I'm sure the water got under the plug connectors at the spark plugs which is under the tinware. VW used a rubber boot on the plug connectors that sealed around the spark plug itself. As for air gaps etc, the points dont need to spark to be working, the sparking is actually burning the points, you do however need the spark to jump from the rotor button to the leads.
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
I always wondered - if water did get into the engine bay, would the fan just pump it out again? The fan spins pretty fast, it might pump the water out faster than the water can get in.
1959 red & white Beetle
1975 Kombi camper
Never mind the waterproofing.... have you made it sand and spoodge proof yet? :P
Kruizin Kol
i thought spoodge only attacked wiring and brake boosters 😀
Hmmmm.....farkin wise guys huh??
Nah I'm still getting freakin spooge out of it......
So how ya been Col, havent heard from you in a while....
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
i LIKE THE IDEA OF GOING HIGHER, SOUNDS MUCH MORE SIMPLE
Yeah good mate. I've been focusing on work and the new family situation. I have been sussing out tyres to go on my new 16" wheels though, photo's soon... 🙂
Kruizin Kol
Graeme
What about using the electronic ignition set up instead of points, will this be any better. Then seal up the dizzy as no more need to pull it apart to change points ??????
Mike
MIKE.
VW'S DON'T LEAK OIL, THEY JUST LEAVE THEIR MARK !!!
KruizinKombi wrote:Never mind the waterproofing.... have you made it sand and spoodge proof yet? :P
I use a mattress-protector under the bedsheet in my Kombi to keep it spoodge proof
😉1959 red & white Beetle
1975 Kombi camper
Purple, our spoodge is on the underneath of the Kombi.....I drove through some seaweed shit at high speed coating the underneath.........I don't possibly know what you're talking about..........:thumb:thumb:thumb:thumb
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
So, is it waterproof yet? I got my tyres on, what's keeping you? :P
Kruizin Kol
No I still have a few months before we head up the beach yet.....and haven't had any torrential rain for a while.......
65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab
