New year - new project!

Hi to all my Blog visitors - I have to admit, my attempt to blog more in 2019 failed miserably!

This year I try my best to improve! With the ongoing Corona virus I guess there will be plenty of time to do updates and new stories.
The biggest modification for the Volksback is an improved oil cooling system. Especially on those hot summer days, the oil temperature raised - and in parallel - the oil pressure dropped to levels which are not healthy. 130°C oil temp @ 0,2 bar oil pressure even triggered the oil pressure indicator light, which makes me nervous every time!

The plan for this season is a vast improvement in the oil cooling. After countless hours of reading forums like thesamba.com (for me, still the source of great info!), checking Google for pictures and talking to friends and "experts", I made my own plan. It involves better cooling, but without the hassle a full flow system brings along, like a special oil pump, routing the oil line between engine block and the fan - which is tricky on the type 3 engine - and so on.

Here are some parts involved:

A huge oil cooler with electric fan, numerous AN8 fittings, an external oil filter, hose clamps, an adapter for the external cooler and another adapter block, to connect all this stuff to the original oil cooler passages on the engine block.

After I knew what I wanted, I started ordering parts (mostly on ebay and from Hoffmann Speedster). Which sounds easy, but actually wasn't. The external cooler adapter came with the wrong fittings (LH threaded) and after the seller sent new ones, which was actually no big deal, he admitted to have sent wrong parts and send "correct" ones free of charge. Unfortunatelly, the new fittings were really rough in the threads and not usable. So, I had to order some more black anodized fittings from another supplier. Also, the package with fittings and braided line got lost by DPD and it took almost 2 weeks before I finally had those parts on my work bench! There is also a new breather box, especially for the type 3 "pancake" engine, just for looks.

Talking about looks, the engine is running great, but currently, the looks of it leave a lot to be desired. It is a bloody mess of wires and lines - more like a snake pit:

During the oil cooler modification, I will also upgrade to an electric fuel pump, for even cleaner looks in the engine compartment.

... more to come, soon