I've got a 1963-ish 1200 40HP engine which means the valve gaps should be set at .008 on both intake and exhaust. Previously, I think I had them set at .004. Would this have caused the engine to run hot? With the deck lid down and about 30 mins of easy driving on a mild day (say, 25 degrees) it would be a bit uncomfortable to hold onto the dip stick. Or are my hands too soft and lady-like coz I spend too much time on the computer and not spinning spanners?

would not affect temp........................lady hands.

i thought the early engines were supposed to be set at .004?

my manual says .004 for the older engines up to 1600tp. and .006 from then on. however they recomend setting older engines to .006 as well to put less stress on the valves.

my two manuals say .008 from 1962 onwards, though, the time the manuals were published, 1500's and 1600's haven't been made yet..

In the mid 70s Volkswagen put out a amended service letter to set all tappets on air colled VWs to 0.006"

ok, .006 it is then...

006 actually turned out to 007's nemesis...

service desk/layby hands

One question which hasn't been asked is "are the heads original 40 hp with the long rocker shaft studs"? Early 40 hp as well as the first 1500 engines of the same era had these long studs which had a great habbit of stripping out. They had a clearance of 0.008" on both inlet and exhaust although some books had the exhaust at 0.012".. These stripped studs were replaced with short ones which screwed into the boss/shaft mount and were set at 0.004" as per 36 hp engines. Late recommendations seemed to aim for the 0.006" which gave a bit more rattle but prevented tappets riding when we were too lazy to check at the recommended intervals! The original setup didn't change much when at running temp whereas the 36 hp and modified 40 hp and 1500 increased at running temp. The 1300 and 1600 heads had the modified setup from the start hence the 0.004" clearance.

That was long winded!!! Hope it helps.





[ Edited on 7/2/2006 by 1500S ]

The oricinal rocker studs were around 100mm long with an M 8 thread on each end. The hole in the boss was close fitting on the stud just below where the rocker shaft mounts on the top of the stud. This hole didn't take long to wear and the bottom thread soon became loose and stripped out. Many were replaced with "locally made" short studs with 9/16" UNF threads. The production modified studs had M14 threads from memory.

If you remove the rocker shaft you will soon see which stud is there.