Anyone want to play guess the source of the oil leak?

67westy · Mar 22, 2015

My mission for this year is to try and get my engine oil tight. Its been sat over winter and has marked its territory, pics below. I'm thinking oil cooler, mounting plate for a beetle engine and possibly flywheel oil seal although this was changed about 18 months ago. Anyone else fancy a guess from the pics?

Overview

dazza1975 · Mar 22, 2015

Beetle mounting plate as they never seal tight!

Mine weeps but nowhere near as much as that, I hope :shock:

Trikky2 · Mar 22, 2015

Agreed. Beetle engine mounting plate.

The oil pump was never designed to take such a strain.

On a late bay, with the intermediate mounts on the bell housing, its not so much of a problem but on an early bay you are suspending the entire engine and gearbox assembly from a single mount in front of the gearbox and a single mount behind the engine.

If the engine mount is reduced to only the size of the oil pump there is not much to resist the torque effect, where the assembly wants to twist under load. These forces are transmitted into the undersized fittings on the oil pump cover which then tend to move around and come loose.

Driven gently on smooth roads hmm... I wouldn't want to take a bus with such a conversion to North Africa for instance :lol:

six · Mar 22, 2015

wise words there trikky.

i think that goes for alot of van mods. for the most part users tend not to use their van to its designed potential. Therefore never see any issues.

67westy · Mar 22, 2015

I'll have a good check of the mounting when the engine is next out. Might have to revisit the idea of building up a new engine..... Can the beetle cases be tapped for the engine mount? Sure I read something about it before

Trikky2 · Mar 23, 2015

67westy said:
I'll have a good check of the mounting when the engine is next out. Might have to revisit the idea of building up a new engine..... Can the beetle cases be tapped for the engine mount? Sure I read something about it before

Depends on which case has been used. Universals are no problem. Some cases have the correct castings which can be drilled and tapped. Only way to tell is when you look. Sorry I can't be more helpful.