No engine support bar (T2) ie, beetle engine...

4807 Views 13 Replies 3 Participants Last post by alex1916v, Oct 9, 2006

alex1916v

Discussion Starter · Oct 4, 2006

basically ive lowerd the rear of my bar a fair bit, and the engine support brace is grounding out a fair bit..

before someone says rasie it, ill be doing out rear tosionbar, gearbox and enigne raise, once ive sorted a dialy out.... so ill proberbly re use my brace then... Anyway back to my point...

a mate has done over 2000 miles on his late bay, with no rear support brace, mainly due to it having a beetle engine fitted to his bay!!! The only reson this worked was that bays have moutings on the top of the gearbox, which is then bolted to the underside of the floor, with a stregehern in that area too. but it seem'd fine just hanging there for all that mileage, and who knows how many mile the previous owner did, since the beetle engine was put in.

now moving on to mine... my 68 bay isnt fitted with the bracket on the underside of the floor, to bolt the gearbox to this but it does have the holes in the IRS box, so my idea was to weld a bracket (section of angle iron/channel) to the under side of the floor.
then bolt the gearbox mouting holes to that, then the whole engine and gearbox will hang off that,

just like my mates camper has been doing for ages....

i know ill have to remove the engine etc to so this but ive been meaning to pull it to change the inlet manifold, engine to body seal and possibly a flywheel oil seal, so its easilsy done while i have the engien out for the above.....

the actual welding in of this new mount wont be a problem nor is makinf it and just by knowing my mates bay was fine like this, mine should be ok till ive rasied it up in a moth or so,

so doing mine like this for a while im guessin will be fine too, just wanted your opinion!

and to know if any bay you have/seen/worked on didnt have the engine support brace fitted, ie a beetle engine fitted without the holes to take up onto the engine support brace....

cheers for any info!
alex.

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Bugsy_Malone 666

· #2 · Oct 4, 2006

how low do you have to have a bay to grind the support bar out!

while im a fan of the slammed, i think if its that low you have a high probability of busting your engine!

IMPO volkswagen designed stuff for a reason, on later bays(like mine) its an additional support that works with the rest, if i was going to lower the vehicle that much then something I would so is actualy, get the engine support bar, cut the engine mount brackets off and turn the thing upside down, as it has a slight drop curve to it so this would give a slight raise curve, then adapt the mounts and reweld them to the bar. thus elminating the need to do any welding right under the petrol tank and having to take everything out to do it.

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alex1916v

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 4, 2006

slight problem with that tho, the mounting cast in to the eninge block have all cracked and now wont support the eninge anyway! i know its my fault i proberbly should have modded it for staters it made it narrower like the late bays ones... ah what ya gonna do...

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Bugsy_Malone 666

· #4 · Oct 4, 2006

problem is if you have cracked them, whats to say it hasnt cracked all the way through the case and isnt leaking oil.

are you running a stock oil system? If you are, buy one of the adaptor kits you can buy for running a bug engine in a van, then carefully grind back the cracked casting so that the new steel bracked which bolts in place of the oil pump cover will clear, you`d have to get one to see if its going to work, but its what i would do.

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alex1916v

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 4, 2006

the case must be a recon or summat as the bolts where going into it were m10 which had been previously heli coild, all thats happend is becasue i was only running the top two bolts, not all three, and when ive hit a bump here and there, it has pull the eninge support bar backwards, thus just shearing off the top of the aluminum casting section around the threads, its not anything major, ie its not cracked right theu the block, or leaking any oil!!

my plan was to tig weld the area, then grind it up to to re-tap and therad the block, proberbly when i pull the engine/trans to lift it up, an yeah ill be making a sump gard!!!!

cheers for th einfo on the bolt on engine brace adaptor thing ill look into that!

edit, just bought one, saves me findign a tig set!

cheers
alex.

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Bugsy_Malone 666

· #6 · Oct 5, 2006

i think you`d have a hell of a job raising the engine/gearbox in a bay, as the fuel tanks on a false floor about the gearbox and unless you want to start changing the shape of the fuel tank too, along wit hthe fact the fan housing doesnt have alot of clearance between the floor above it either.

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alex1916v

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 5, 2006

rasie firewall/engine floor? anyway i harvernt really looked into it and nor will i till ive got a daliy for the dialy grind!!! get it grind... se what i did there?

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Juno

· #8 · Oct 5, 2006

What about using one of these and modding the bar to suit??

Beetle to bus bracket

It will solve the probs with your broken mounts

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alex1916v

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 6, 2006

yeah ive orderd omne of them dude cheers..

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Bugsy_Malone 666

· #10 · Oct 6, 2006

alex1916v said:
rasie firewall/engine floor? anyway i harvernt really looked into it and nor will i till ive got a daliy for the dialy grind!!! get it grind... se what i did there?

raising the floor above the engine would be a large bit of work! the firewall would take something moving on the other hand, as the fuel tank is behind it

heres my engine bay minus engine/gearbox...

the fuel tank strapes down to that white floor

with the fire wall in...

are you sure it might not be easier to just not have such a low van :tick:

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alex1916v

Discussion Starter · #11 · Oct 9, 2006

yeah, i know what it looks like matey, ive had my engine out more times than id like to remember.....dam oil seal lol!!!
cheers for the pics...

anyway forderd and fitted my new conversion plate, had to do abit of ctiing on the case to allow room fo the bolts etc... aslo i didnt reolise you had to change the pump cover palte two, no thats leaking a tiny bit two... and i found the paper gasket/seal for it too afew it was all bolted up and droped a tiny bit after fireing it up!

anyway ill fit that gasket and seal it all up good with some gasket sealant stuff when the engines out soon doing my flywheel oil seal proberbly in the next couple of weeks, at the same time in gonna fab up a new engien support bar one out of 30x30x3 m/s box section with the correct ends for the early mounts and the moutning braket for the holes out of 5mm sheet steel and run it in between the lower and upper holes.....

anyway you asked how low it has to be to grind ou the engine support bar welll after grinding down eaither side and seam alding them up, this is what it looks like after 8 weeks of driving with it....

and another pic my mate took today too

the problems not the lownes its the rake angle between that and the rear wheels most stuff ground out on it, so once its raised and ive got the front and rea bumpers attatched ill be making a front and rear sump guard out of 4mm steel with 30x10mm flat bat welded on it to do most of the grinding out and to stiffen it too.....

just gotta get it on some ramps tho. im not making them lying on me back!

cheers for all your help!

alex

fuck knows why the pics aint working... give em time.....lol

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Bugsy_Malone 666

· #12 · Oct 9, 2006

i can see where some of your problem is now. its the support bar itself.

heres my support bar..

it looks alot flatter than yours, its a solid bar and its bloody heavy, which looks like it would give you a couple more inches clearance, and you can see what i mean if you could turn it upside down so it would fit the other side of the heat exchangers, thus giving you the required ground cleanace.

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Bugsy_Malone 666

· #13 · Oct 9, 2006

by the way, got any pics of this van in its fullness?

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alex1916v

Discussion Starter · #14 · Oct 9, 2006

yeah i think im gonna do a custom mout which will look like that but at the ends still bolt up to the early style mounts etc, plan is to run the actual bar between the 2 upper bolt holes and the botom sigle hole if possible, then bend either way around my J tubes then into the mouting points either side of the enhine bay,

for pics look in reader rides, for der sclamscriber bus matey,

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