Changing oil bath

[crvc]

http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u63 ... 5c1d37.jpg

The rocky ground here makes the engine bounce a lot and the oil bath spills everywhere. A bug shop owner said this will solve the problem. But now I don't have a way to get hot air from cylinders 3 and 4 up to the carb. I plan to make an adapter that fits between the filter and carb with a port for the tube coming from 3 and 4. Plausible? Will it affect the carb?

TIA

kevin

[FJCamper]

Hi Kevin,

Let me be the first in a line of posters here to tell you to insert a short metal tube (about 5 inches is good) between the pancake air cleaner and the carb.

Find a tin can that fits or make one.

The trouble is, at 3000 RPM and up, there is a "stand-off" condition of air/fuel fog rising out of the carb, and you need the tube to act as a velocity stack to contain it. If the stand off rises out of the carb mouth and breaks up, you go lean and lose power.

Stand off exists in all carbs to one degree or another, but is very prominent in the VW Solexes. Look in your oil bath air cleaner and you'll see you have a stack built right in.

FJC

[helowrench]

I am using one of those on the end of the Ghia/Bus rubber elbow.

[aussiebug]

As FJCamper says, you need a velocity stack above the carb to catch that "fog" which they all make. That would put your paper aircleaner higher and make it more likely to jump about anyway.

The original oil bath cleaners (the larger oval version anyway) had a tie-down strap which bolted to the rearmost carb mount, and held the air cleaner in place. Ovefilling the oil bath will make it heavier and more likely to jumpo around and spill oil. The small round cleaners use 250ml of oil and the larger oval version use 400ml (any clean engine oil will do - it's only catches dirt, doesn't lube anything).

Another alternative would be to use the VW 1973+ paper air cleaner. It's larger than the small round one in the pic so might jump around a bit (strap it down if you can) but it has no oil in it to spill, and it has both the inbuilt velocity stack, and the fitting for the paper tube to get warm air from near the cylinder head.

[Thomas.]

I live in western Pa. where there are lots of steep hills.I have never had an oil spill with mine.Like someone else said I would check for overfill.

[crvc]

http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u63 ... 10412a.jpg

I remember reading Muir where he wrote, buy three quarts of oil, put 2.5 quarts in the crankcase and the other half quart in the oil bath. And that may have been wrong. I found if the oil barely slops over that shelf inside the oil bath then I don't get spillage. That amount is a bit under 400ml. I always assumed the oil level had to be high enough to sop into the filter material.

[aussiebug]

Crvc, the oil level is supposed to be just BELOW the plate under the upper fibre filter section. The air comes down the insides of the outer can and makes a sharpe 180 degree turn just above the oil. The heavier dirt hits the oil and sticks. That plate acts as an anti- splash/ surge plate. The upper fibre filter section does get damp with oil, so it acts as a secondary filter, and also to catch any oil in the airstream, so that drips back down into the oil bath. The oil level will slowly rise as it fills with dirt, so it does need to be cleaned out occasionally - any engine oil can be used as it does not lubricate anything, just catches the dirt.

[crvc]

Thanks, your website is on my favorites bar but I tend to forget to scan it now and then.

kevin