Club 80-90 Forums

Gunslinger wrote:Not sure where you can get cheap J tubes from for a type4 square port engine. Be interested to know though although I've already got mine on order from Turbo Thomas. However that does mean I will have a set of heat exchangers for sale soon if you're interested

Type 4 engines are always a bugger to get bits for and always more expensive than Type1 engines. I assumed you must be able to get them albeit probably more expensive than T1 ones but must still be cheaper than Heat Exchangers. I think I saw them at Bug Jam a few years back on a Type4 stand but cannot recall company. My friend was looking for a nice custom exhaust and struggled to find one under £700!! (gulp)

Turbo Thomas is great, they produced a fantastic stainless exhuast for my friends Baja. They are not cheap but again gotta be cheaper than heat exchangers surely!

Granted they are cheaper than exchangers but still not cheap lol.
I still need to get some more heat in the van though so it'll be a diesel eber for me I think

LA Performance also make them, might be cheaper than Turbo Thomas bearing in mind that I think Turbo Thomas only do Stainless Steel.

http://www.laperformance.co.uk/blog/?page_id=339" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm worried about fire now No doubt I'll need to locate the source of the oil leak ASAP and hopefully I might be able to stop it dripping on the heat exchangers for the short term.

I'll update as soon as I've found the problem.

I had EXACTLY the same smell when I first bought my 81 air cooled a year ago. The smell of burning inside the cab made your eyes sting. So I disconnected the cables as per Ian's recommendation and thesmell went. I then found my heater exchangers were covered in oil from leaky pushrod tube seals, replaced them (seals), cleaned everything and reconnected cables and voila no smell. However, I think these engines stink anyway as they get so hot or is that just mine!

A quick update. I've disconnected the cables to the heater pods which has cured the smell symptoms. There's a lot of oil on the heat exchangers but they don't look corroded to me so I'm wondering if oil is actually getting inside them. On the other hand where would the pods be transferring the smell from. Here are a few picks showing the oil and the exchangers, maybe you can see something from these that my untrained eye can't.

I will be fixing the rocker tube gaskets should that be the cause but it'll be a job for autumn I think.

Yep welcome to the world of air cooled vans.....

One option is to seal up around all the holes where the casing of the heat exchanger fits around the solid exhaust components, I used a high temp silicon sealant used for wood burners, but you still need to reduce the oil leaks as they will always give a strong smell and bgets through to the cab, not a problem on an equally oily 1600 Bay seems to be the way the joints and pipes are arranged ?

Mike

There they are, leaky pushrod tubes.
Easy and cheap enough to do. Probably do it in an hour or two first time.
You say in your first post that you don't have much experience in fixing vehicles but if you bite the bullet and go for it you'll save loads of money and great a great buzz of achievement.
Theres loads on here and the wiki on how to do it.
I would put on new rocker cover gaskets at the same time.
Good luck

Thanks for the replies, you've all been a massive help and had set my mind at rest as now I know what the problem is and how to fix it. I would've been at a total loss without you. Admittedly I can't for the life of me figure out how to change the seals using my Haynes manual but I've found the odd link on the web.

I've got another thing though, is it normal for the rear bumper to become rather warm with heat from the exhaust? I don't have temp gauge installed (YET) and I don't want my baby to burn

I'm doing a set of push rod tubes tonight.

Gunslinger wrote:I'm doing a set of push rod tubes tonight.

You fitting stock tubes or uprated ones?

paul66beetle wrote:

Gunslinger wrote:I'm doing a set of push rod tubes tonight.

You fitting stock tubes or uprated ones?

Just stock ones Paul. I wasnt even aware of uprated ones. What are the advantages of those? Its hard to imagine there being any performance improvements!

There are a few types.

Stock ones have a compression type end. Performance ones can have either an adjusting nut or spring loaded.

The spring loaded ones put pressure on all the time and make a good seal regardless of movement heat expansion etc etc

These are the ones I like but not cheap! http://www.machine7.com/section.php?xSec=1640" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Take a browse here http://www.machine7.com/section.php?xSec=43" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can only see the stock ones listed for the Type 4 engine

http://www.machine7.com/product.php?xProd=222&xSec=44" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Surely u can get performance tubes for these engines?

paul66beetle wrote: I can only see the stock ones listed for the Type 4 engine

http://www.machine7.com/product.php?xProd=222&xSec=44" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Surely u can get performance tubes for these engines?

I dont think so