Sooo.... it's 30+ here in Melb, today and for the rest of the week. My 'lil Bug hates it.

What can I do to help my engine since I have to drive to and from work each day??

Currently she's idling like crap, mostly the gen light and sometimes oil light flickering when stopped at lights, until I give her some revs.... does anyone else have this trouble?

:duh

I just got mine back from a service last Friday, has been running a bit rough since and I'm sure they set the idle a bit too low... will up it a tad and see if it helps.

Use thicker oil (like 20w-60) or get Hoodjax.. I've got Jax and they kickass. I can actually touch my dipstick after a long run! Get in contact with VWCOOL - he designed/sells em..

I have been in touch with him about them already! :P

Are they easy to fit? As in, could I do it?? :P

yeh, pretty easy.. just gotta be careful knocking out your hinge pins - my hnges were a bit dodgy already, and i ended up ripping one off the deck lid - but that's only coz the metal was already phuqed. So if your lid is fine, you'll be ok..

You know my lid is fine, it's PBB we're talking about here!

Engines can run "hot" or "hotter" for all sorts of reason/s. And the causes all interact with one another! You can treat the symptoms or the cause, and both approaches can be valuable. Trial and error is good, and logic/common sense too.

Very thick oil can make an engine in good nick run Hotter (flows slower; cools slower; increases friction). BUT it may be just what is needed for another engine with low compression (due to wear). Flickering oil light is meant to be a sign of a worn-out engine, but someone had this recently in TechTalk (I think), & it was cured by just flushing the "crud" out of the engine!

Some of the causes for running hot include: low compression (due to worn rings, or valves with no clearance), retarded igniton timing (over-advanced timing can do it too, but you'll know as engine will be 'pinging'); missing tinware; running lean (due to blocked jets etc. in carb or fuel filter, or misadjustemnt of idle mixture, vacuum laeks at throttle spindle or at maniflod joints, etc. etc.)

I have been 'fooled' a few times by a workshop adjusting my carb. without me knowing, and this mucking up the idle. It's easy to set yourself (for a standard single carb.)

Even if you have your valves adjusted they can change, esp. on a long trip in hot weather. Just on or two tight valves may change the idling behaviour dramatically, which seems more noticable on a standard engine.

Back to the oil thing. Find out what you have and then go ONE notch up. If your mechanic has used 20W-50 say, try 20W-60 or 25W-50 next time. ie. Don't go overboard with big changes.

It may be that your problem is just too low an idle speed, or too lean an idle mixture. Also is it really HOT? AirCooled's can get very hot as they are at the mercy of the weather... and there's hotter to come in Melb!

Hi '76 Camper, yes overheating can be due to loss of compression from what the engine should have (ie. a compression 'leak'), as well as too much - for the fuel used.

Also can be due to retarded OR over-advanced ignition timing. 'Retarded' engines are less efficient, therefore run hotter. I'm running our engines with as much ignition advance as they can stand, with a little bit of safety-margin built in. This means they run as efficiently as possible - for the fuel used. A retarded engine may have NO symptoms, other than seeming a bit low on power. It must run hotter however as it is not as efficient. These sort of settings seem much more critical for aircooled engines than water-cooled. MAybe partly as most air-cooled's are smaller & somewhat under-powered for the weight of car (in comparison) and so need to be working efficiently.

Re the other post, the slightly bigger main jet will enable slightly cooler running on that side of the engine. The bit that seemed strange to me was the larger air-corrector jet as well. This must be to 'even things out' at highway speeds. It seems that a big change in numbers for air corr. jets has a relatively small effect.

[ Edited on 18-1-2006 by ACE_76 ]

im still confused as shit on a lawn.

I guess if your engine has been detuned (retarded ignition and lower compression) you will have to run it harder to get the same performance and thus producing more heat. But if you retard the timing, richen mixture and drop compression (not drastic changes) and still drive the car conservatively (to keep it cool) as most vw owners do then the temp should drop. I would not advise some1 with a hot engine to lean out the mixture, advance timing and raise compression... Bit of a trade off here, thanx for showing me the other side of the argument.. i never really looked at it like that.

cheers

L our semi-autos should have a higher idle than a manual.. maybe they turned it down to the normal idle when serviced? stand off kit/hoodjax is the shiznit!

i dropped adolf today 2 a mates place, to get the weber and alternator fitted! FINALLY :sandrine:vader

Noticed that a couple of the vehicles had just been serviced - have had the impression that the fibre block on the points wears quickly initially, therefore reducing the points gap and retarding the spark. Could this be a cause for the poor/slow idling?

I have got into the habit of resetting the points gap and timing a couple of hundred miles after fitting new points.

Yay Damien, let me know how it is with an alternator! :P

I adjusted the idle up a bit in my Bug this morning, and no stumbly idling or gen + oil lights flickering.... mind you, it wasn't warm so will see how she goes tonight. I don't think my usual Mech serviced her, I think it was another Mech dude, so he probably did adjust the idle for a manual rather than a semi-auto. Anyway, I hope all is good when I drive home tonight. I paid for some Hoodjax last night off VWCOOL, so I hope they get to me tomorrow before this 40-degree Sunday hits! :duh

how awesome is that! -40 degrees this sunday! wooooooooooooooooooooooo!:bounce:bounce:bounce

No... not awesome.... :P

awesome...

If anyone knows Pretty-Blue-Bug, can they ask her to U2U me her address!! I somehow deleted her address when responsing to her U2U and I'd like to mail them today so she gets them for the weekend!!!

I will be back on here later today (thurs) to check

EDIT: SORTED!!

[ Edited on 19-1-2006 by VWCOOL ]

We haven't had much rain in the past year! Was the driest year here last year. It's been 30's here almost all week, and is going to continue into mid next week too. :P

I didn't mean you should necessarily do all those things! I was listing some of the things that can make it run hot, not advising to do them all.
If it is running hot you can:
1. Advance the timing if it's very retarded. OR Retard it if it's over-advanced.
2. Make the mixture richer IF it's a bit lean. Could involve unblocking jets/getting accel. pump to work/checking that idle mixture is correct or slightly rich, etc.
3. Compression would seem hard to increase without dismantling, but you must make sure it's not low by having the right valve clearances (usually 0.006"). If the comression is still low it may be due to wear.

Re Joseph's point, I thought that if the points gap closes a bit the timing would advance - Have I got it backward? Anyway I have found new points definitely do change gap (dwell angle) as they wear in. I don't reset them (as long as still reasonably close to spec.) - but I do reset the timing if it needs it. The timing has a very noticeable effect on how the engine runs. It's easy to check and set the timing yourself.

Driving home tonight she was idling much much better, but oil light kept flickering on and staying when I had to stop at loights or crawl in traffic until I upped the revs.... is this just because of hot weather? What causes it?

the oil gets too thin to maintian adequate oil pressure... that's why it flickers when it's idling coz the oil pump isn't spinning that quickly.. When was the last time you changed your oil? Got enough in there?

Remember, 40 degrees=awesome

my oil was all changed last Friday.....

.... and 40 degrees = definitely not awesome! :P

i got my bug serviced once and they must have put 10-40 in coz the oil pressure was much lower than before, changed the oil the next day back to 20-50 and it was much better. maybe find out which one they put in yours?

Might call them tomorrow and see.... thanx!

yeah needa thicken up your oil... u can cheat and put "stop leak" in lol thats what i'd do, instead of dumping fresh thin oil... but im on apprentice wages haha


40 sunday is way cool.. sorry. Awesome.

how about a gathering at lysterfield lake?

how about some mountain biking at Lysterfield.. not on a 40 degree day though..

although, that would be hardcore and awesome. ay Danmo?

Hey, got my Hoodjax hand-delivered just then by Mr. Postman! :thumb Will put them on tonight after I take PBB back to mechanic so he can work out why she's running so damn hot....

cool.... pardon the pun..