It's stripping time!

thank you a very lot for the good photos.

Well managed to get the rockers built up, but forgot to take pics(trying to get engine back in this evening), the mounting blocks I linked to from VWHeritage are the wider ones which do not require the extra washer like the original ones fitted to the engine.  So if your needing rocker shaft mounting blocks and you want to replace like for like get the narrow ones it's what was fitted from the factory.  My wider one's just replace the original block and nylon washer altogether.

Glad I cleared that up

So the engine went back in this evening once the tappets were adjusted.

Front pic


Left pic


Right pic


and Back


...and were in, going to connect it all up tomorrow fingers crossed it'll start

Looks amazing. Going to be a bugger to keep clean

Brilliant stuff ST but can't help but feel there's a bit more blinging needed. Those inlet manifolds for starters

This is the final sump guard pics painted and fitted

Front and rear bracket


Close up of front bracket with towing eye thread


Close up of rear bracket


Altogether with sump guard and towing eye screwed in


without towing eye


....and a side view bear in mind bus is still jacked up

This must be the definitive guide for whoever's clutch goes next and wants to upgrade a bit!

Well an update is long overdue.....

First I have put Phileas back up to normal height for our island hopping adventure in summer 2016 not many photos as I was on a time crunch.  Basically it was swapping my dropped spindles for MarcusH's standard ones off his beam.  This was all so we could get on and off ferry's and were glad we did.

So it went from
Original


After Dropped Spindles


Then back again just slightly lower than original as I have smaller side wall tyres still fitted.

When we were leaving the ferry onto Vatersay it was quite steep and I had a lot of revs when I bumped down off the ramp, this is when the engine started producing a rattling sound when we stopped in this layby at the top of the hill to investigate, but couldn't find anything obvious so we drove on.


During the rest of the trip it would not go away and seemed worse at idle. When we got to the campsite at Balranald we started to investigate, we discovered that the tin ware bolts had come loose with the vibration of the engine, and found the exhaust was rattling inside the silencer boxes, but this wasn't the root of the problem. It seemed to come from the fan housing so I disconnected the fan belt to determine if it was engine/alternator(A new one was just fitted)or fan related. It stopped so it was either alternator or fan or both.  The alternator felt smooth when spun by hand and I couldn't do anything with the fan unless I removed it and that involved removing the engine which I wasn't going to do.  So we lived with it for the duration of the island hopping and will check it out once home.

So once home engine was taken out and we removed the alternator and fan assembly


I put the old alternator back in as the new one seemed to not spin as freely as it. So engine went back in and it was still vibrating , so engine came back out again and as I was dismantling the fan off the alternator I noticed the crack just behind the washer and nut holding the fan on.  So fan was junk new one ordered and alternator sent back for testing.



When I received the new fan and alternator they were fitted and everything was running smooth again apart from the exhaust which is the next instalment.

Oh before the exhaust while the engine was out I discovered another broken spring washer on the rocker shaft. So I swapped both out for bolt on one's.

Before


After with bolt on rocker shafts installed


Another upgrade to give you piece of mind for longer trips.

So onto the exhaust I took it back to Stainless Creations where I got it fitted and they agreed to swap the one box  making the noise under warranty and for a small fee swap the other one as well.

Before


After with new boxes and sounds so quiet again however does need a polish

@Skytiger wrote:

Oh before the exhaust while the engine was out I discovered another broken spring washer on the rocker shaft. So I swapped both out for bolt on one's.

Before


After with bolt on rocker shafts installed


Another upgrade to give you piece of mind for longer trips.

Oooh. Which is the broken washer? I can't see it, and where did you get the bolt on units ST? I'm interested.

Sorry hope you weren't looking long that's the other side which hadn't broken. I got the bolt up rocker shafts from vw heritage Tim along with some extra shims. It is a bit time consuming getting the correct float but then no more broken rocker shims.

All looks good ST

Yipppeeeee Photobucket reinstated the picture links, saves me adding them again. More time to work on Phileas

Started some rust repair on Phileas's offside front wheel housing where the seat runner is

a before





Seat runner cut out but will need to enlarge tommorow to remove all rust

Wow
Always amazed what you can doo!
Will watch with interest - as always

Skytiger
Any tips on how this arises and how to prevent it?
Is this area a double skin layer?
osg

Yes osg it's double skin it has a 2mm plate underneath in the wheelarch positioned under the seat rail for reinforcement I guess but it is spot welded throught the seat rail then the wheel housing skin and then the 2mm plate. It is not seam welded around the edge of it underneath so if the sealer fails water gets in and rusts from the inside. So check your sealer around edge of plate is intact to prevent moisture getting in. My wheel housing skin under the seat rail was pretty much rusted away.

I had to cut out more to get rid of the rust


So this is what I have cut out so far


As you can see on the first pic there is more rust at the bottom so this had to come out aswell.


Thats me back to clean metal no more cutting yeah


Started to make the new patch hopefully get welding tommorow

FAB pics of the work being undertaken - scary though!

I'm trying not to think how scary it is Scooby cutting a big hole in my kombi where I normally sit

Patch is in and started to weld, I did weld all the way round not completed yet though, forgot to take pic afterwards, so here is the start.


The fit is lovely at the back hopefully get welding tommorow if it stops raining

@Skytiger wrote:

Patch is in and started to weld, I did weld all the way round not completed yet though, forgot to take pic afterwards, so here is the start.


The fit is lovely at the back hopefully get welding tommorow if it stops raining

top job I use that type clamp very good tool

@Skytiger wrote:

I'm trying not to think how scary it is Scooby cutting a big hole in my kombi where I normally sit

Have you considered pop rivets?