28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

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Aaronslimvw
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Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by Aaronslimvw » 24th August 2020 - 10:56pm

Awesome!! Great to hear that you are having some success.

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veedweeb
Posts: 167
Joined: 13th August 2005 - 2:45pm
Location: Middleton, near Manchester

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by veedweeb » 27th August 2020 - 11:59am

Aaronslimvw wrote:
24th August 2020 - 10:56pm
Awesome!! Great to hear that you are having some success.
It didn't last long :lol:

I took the car down to my unit last night to do some work on one of my other cars and as I was almost there, there was a sudden smoke screen behind me and the oil pressure light came on again. Long story short, the oil line from the pump to the external filter had dropped down and was touching the exhaust. It burned through and sprayed oil everywhere.

So that's my decision made. The full flow set up is coming out at weekend and it's going back to stock.
Steve.

Club member 2268

1972 Squareback
1963 Turbo WBX powered Beetle
2000 Mexican Beetle 'Sedan Clasico'

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broady_6
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Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by broady_6 » 27th August 2020 - 10:29pm

Going back away weber 34 carbs are a bit of a step down from the stock solex 32s. But youve got what youve got. When people have asked me to build engines with, or fit them to theire 1600 1641 size engine ive found the below to be the best balance of perfomance, reliability and efficiency. Obviously the ranges there are to help tune the engine depending on the valve sizes, distributor, exhaust system ect. But its basically a mix of your before and after.

135-145 mains
160-170 air correction jet
55 idle
F6 Emulsion tubes

Please to hear you are removing the external oil system. It is usually recommented to increase the pump capacity when fitting these systems. It does depends where the tappings are, but most people take it from the core plug on the pump outlet. I ramble on, but its not needed on a stock engine. I have a 1600 stock lump and I can lay my hand on the tinware or dynamo after at 70 mile motorway run with out issues. A properly installed original cooling system is ample good enough. When you installed the cooler did you glue a piece of foam over the top? this seal the cooler to the tin, forcing the air through the cooler rather than over the top.

You can just about make it out in these photos.

Image

Image

Keep up the good work!
The sultan of swing

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veedweeb
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Joined: 13th August 2005 - 2:45pm
Location: Middleton, near Manchester

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by veedweeb » 28th August 2020 - 9:40am

broady_6 wrote:
27th August 2020 - 10:29pm
Going back away weber 34 carbs are a bit of a step down from the stock solex 32s. But youve got what youve got. When people have asked me to build engines with, or fit them to theire 1600 1641 size engine ive found the below to be the best balance of perfomance, reliability and efficiency. Obviously the ranges there are to help tune the engine depending on the valve sizes, distributor, exhaust system ect. But its basically a mix of your before and after.

135-145 mains
160-170 air correction jet
55 idle
F6 Emulsion tubes

Please to hear you are removing the external oil system. It is usually recommented to increase the pump capacity when fitting these systems. It does depends where the tappings are, but most people take it from the core plug on the pump outlet. I ramble on, but its not needed on a stock engine. I have a 1600 stock lump and I can lay my hand on the tinware or dynamo after at 70 mile motorway run with out issues. A properly installed original cooling system is ample good enough. When you installed the cooler did you glue a piece of foam over the top? this seal the cooler to the tin, forcing the air through the cooler rather than over the top.

You can just about make it out in these photos.

Image

Image

Keep up the good work!
With regard to the carbs, I have got a pair of stock Solexes somewhere but they need a rebuild so the quick fix was to try the Webers. With the jets I fitted to them, it seems to run well, albeit on a very short journey at least. I don't like the air filter setup though.

The oil cooler that was in the car, which I took out and subsequently have put back in again, still had the foam piece attached and although it's not perfect it's good enough. The external setup is problematic for a few reasons and it makes the simple task of dropping the engine a bit more of a struggle too so I'm actually looking forward to getting rid of it.

My '63 Beetle is a very complicated beast by comparison to the Square. It's got a 5 speed transaxle, 1.9 waterboxer with megasquirt EFi, water to air charge cooler, sodding great big turbo etc etc. It makes well over 300bhp and is a lot of fun but it's not exactly what you'd call 'pleasant' to drive. The Square is simple, quiet, comfortable and a much nicer vehicle all round. Ditching the external oil system will simplify it even more and I'm all for that!

Here's the Square and the Beetle together:

Image

And the reason the Beetle is so shouty:

Image
Steve.

Club member 2268

1972 Squareback
1963 Turbo WBX powered Beetle
2000 Mexican Beetle 'Sedan Clasico'

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veedweeb
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Joined: 13th August 2005 - 2:45pm
Location: Middleton, near Manchester

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by veedweeb » 1st September 2020 - 9:19am

Well that didn't exactly go according to plan!

The oil pump on the car appears to be a CB Performance or EMPI maxi pump with an inlet and an outlet on the cover. I thought I could just swap my stock cover onto it (after checking clearances etc) but no there's no oil pressure at all. It looks like the Maxi pumps are engineered differently to stock ones and only work with their own covers.
So it's engine out for the 4th time and I'll just throw a stock pump in it and be done with it.
Steve.

Club member 2268

1972 Squareback
1963 Turbo WBX powered Beetle
2000 Mexican Beetle 'Sedan Clasico'

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broady_6
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Joined: 13th January 2009 - 8:55pm

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by broady_6 » 12th September 2020 - 9:59pm

Crikey thats a great way to make a simple job difficult! I do love a well sorted stock engine :)
The sultan of swing

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veedweeb
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Location: Middleton, near Manchester

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by veedweeb » 27th October 2020 - 1:56pm

Finally had chance to do a bit more work on it!

I dropped the engine out again and decided to stick with the CB oil pump, but to redo the external filter. I have removed the extra oil cooler though and I'm just using the stock one - it was tucked away above the gearbox and I don't think it would have got much airflow where it was anyway.

So, I made a new bracket to hang the filter on the bumper mount and tidied up the pipes. It all looks nice and neat and won't be too much hassle when I take the engine out again. With that all done, it's now got good oil pressure (I don't know how many psi, but it takes a good 10 seconds or so for the oil light to come on again after the engine has stopped) and it's not making any worrying noises after it lost all its pressure so I don't think there was any damage done in the few seconds it was running.

I've finally got round to editing and uploading a video that I actually filmed in August before I started messing with the oil pump. It's just a very quick walkround of the car but if you're interested, here it is: https://youtu.be/x_RjUP_pxd4
Steve.

Club member 2268

1972 Squareback
1963 Turbo WBX powered Beetle
2000 Mexican Beetle 'Sedan Clasico'

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veedweeb
Posts: 167
Joined: 13th August 2005 - 2:45pm
Location: Middleton, near Manchester

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by veedweeb » 19th January 2022 - 1:32pm

About time to update this, I think.

Over the last year or so I've been doing bits and pieces on the car and I had a pair of old calipers refurbished by Bigg Red. They came back looking awesome:

Image

So along with a new master cylinder I replaced the ones on the car but I absolutely could not get them to bleed at all. After wasting over £40 worth of brake fluid I gave up and shipped the car off to a local specialist who sorted it out. It cost me another £90 but it was worth it.

I also swapped out the spun aluminium fuel tank for a stock one which obviously looks better but it has the added bonus of a fuel gauge.

Driving back from the specialist who sorted the brakes, I stopped for some petrol (first time since swapping the tank) and noticed that the fuel gauge worked a bit, but not properly.

After that I didn't really drive it very much because of the oil light coming on at idle.

Last weekend, I took the square down to my unit to try and sort it out a bit more. First up was a simple oil pressure switch swap for a correct 0.15 - 0.35bar one. The old one was higher rated and was also 1/8npt instead of the correct M10 thread. Simple enough job so I then looked at the fuel gauge.

The sender itself seemed to be working when I tested it with my multimeter so I turned my attention to the gauge itself. Long story short, I finished up removing the glove box so I could get the dash top off because I just couldn't get the fuel gauge instrument out any other way. I think my hands are too big or something. It turned out that the needle was bent and fouling on the back of the gauge so a little tweak and that was fixed. I cleaned it all up inside and refitted everything.
The dash top had not been fitted correctly, presumably when the car was painted, and the chrome trim is missing, but a mish mash of different screws had been used. I spent a bit of time getting it fitted properly and changed the screws for matching black ones so it looks a lot better now. I'd prefer the chrome trim but it'll do for now.

Then out for a test drive - it runs perfectly and the oil light stays off even after a blast up the motorway so that's all good.

Well, it's not all good because now the wipers don't work! Big hands digging around under the dash - I think I've knocked a wire out somewhere.

Here's a pic of it next to my daily. You don't realise how small these cars are until you see them next to a more modern one

Image
Steve.

Club member 2268

1972 Squareback
1963 Turbo WBX powered Beetle
2000 Mexican Beetle 'Sedan Clasico'

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jmarkha1
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Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by jmarkha1 » 19th January 2022 - 2:46pm

square is looking good - was probably considered a roomy car back in 70s :-)
I like the early bumpers and lights
The variant Project

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veedweeb
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Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by veedweeb » 19th January 2022 - 4:52pm

jmarkha1 wrote:
19th January 2022 - 2:46pm
square is looking good - was probably considered a roomy car back in 70s :-)
I like the early bumpers and lights
Thanks :)

It was considered a roomy car as recently as last Sunday - until I parked next to the Audi that is! :lol:

Back in 1991, Volksworld had a feature on a '68 Square and it was exactly like wanted mine to look, but of course at the time mine was a stock late model.

Image

Over the next 20 odd years, someone else did all the hard work and fitted the early panels and the Fuchs wheels.

The bumpers were picked up for cheap from someone in Blackpool a couple of years ago. They're really badly pitted but I had them powdercoated and they look a lot better but not perfect by a very long way. I have a plan to get them chrome again though...
Steve.

Club member 2268

1972 Squareback
1963 Turbo WBX powered Beetle
2000 Mexican Beetle 'Sedan Clasico'

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jmarkha1
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Joined: 25th July 2006 - 9:02pm
Location: Surrey

Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by jmarkha1 » 20th January 2022 - 1:05pm

It looks great.
I love early and late cars equally - late cars are probably rarer now which is ironic.
I managed to find a late car with very low milage imported from US and added early front bullet lights but left the big bumpers and rear lights on it - one day I might do the same and go early - but for now - Ill focus on finishing the car :-)
The variant Project

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broady_6
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Re: 28 years later: Finding and buying back my old 72 Squareback

Post by broady_6 » 1st February 2022 - 1:18pm

Good to hear your still at work on the car. Sounds like youve made good headway on the known issues! Summer is just round the corner
The sultan of swing

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