The process of rebuilding Squiffy’s engine is virtually complete. A set of downdraft carburettors arrived today from Italy and will be built directly onto the engine. After that it will merely be a matter of adding a few bits and pieces here and there, including the tinware which funnels air over the engine in order to cool it.
Here are a couple of cheeky snaps I took of the engine over at LA Performance today.
Lee has taken lots of photos of the engine being rebuilt (everything from cleaning to balancing) and I’m hoping to have these on the website as soon as possible. Right, now I have to think about cleaning some of the tinware so it matches up to the shiny new engine.
Why the Italian carby’s? and what fuel will be used- do you have a problem with unleaded -leaded petrol being phased out here in Oz Cheers and ever onward TonyT
Hi Tony, thanks for your interest.
The downdraft carbs which we wanted for our aircooled engine are, I understand, actually far more prevalent in Italy due to their use in non-VW engines such as Alfa Romeos. The ones we bought weren’t actually new but reconditioned (exceedingly well I may add). A pair of brand-new Weber downdrafts can retail for anything up to
It’s interesting that Weber is also actually an Italian brand (something I did not know before). And as Nick rightly points out, Weber carbs were fitted by Alfa Romeo as original equipment in Italy. I believe that they were also used by several other Italian marques.
Nick If you’re not too busy- cheered me up greatly to see u running on ULP- leaded petrol being phased out in Oz and ULP actually cheaper- I had given up the idea of a Kombi because of the petrol issue-but now I need to take another look- unleaded not so available in the Outback but that won’t be your major concern right now I reckon- ever onward TonyT
Tony, quite a lot of VW aircooled engines will actually run fine on unleaded petrol. Generally, if your cylinder heads were made after 1968, you should be okay.
But, to be honest, I’d not want to be attempting a journey of this sort with a pre-’72 Type 1 engine, so any post-’72 Type 4 engine would run fine on unleaded petrol. We felt ‘the later the better’ was the way to go on the engine front, to ensure we had an engine that was up to the challenge.
Leaded petrol has not been available in the UK for quite a few years now, so the UK VW scene has had quite a bit of time to get used to it. In fact, I’m surprised that it’s not been phased out totally in Australia yet. But our engine would still be okay if we needed to put leaded petrol in it, so we’ve got a trip to the Outback covered too, if need be!
Andy