'72 Fastback - Oil leaking from Fanshroud bottom

[NotSoFastback]

Hi,
New here . Have a '72 1600E Fastback that I've had for 3 weeks, but I am having a few oil related issues. Thought this was the best place to ask for help

Basically I'm getting oil dripping from the bottom of the fanshroud. I suspect it's coming from the back of the pulley, and it only leaks when running at high speed, or just been parked up after a good run (leaves a few drops on the floor when parked up).
Main problem is that the oil in the 'shroud is getting slung all over the engine, and splashing through at gaps in the tinware etc. Makes a right mess when doing long journeys. What could be causing this?

Another problem that I was having (most likely related) is that the oil filler cap was leaking a fair bit, filling the boot space above the seal with oil and running down the rear of the car. The neck was also leaking into the fresh air box-section, filling that with oil and dripping onto the exhaust tail-pipe through the drain hole. Seemed to have fixed the leaking by putting on a new filler cap cork seal on, and fitting a jubilee clamp around the filler neck join just outside the air-box (someone told me there was meant to be one, there wasn't so I put one on).
At first i thought the oily fanshroud was due to the filler neck leak, sucking oil in from the air-box and distributing it around the engine. But after driving it today, I still have the problem (the air box is dry too).
Another thing is, when i take the filler cap off when the car is running I can hear a quite loud gurgling noise. Is that normal?

Checked out the case ventilation system, and all seems well. The pipe runs from the underside of the little tower thingy (where a beetle alternator pedestal is) and on to the inlet manifold (post throttle body). When i remove the pipe, the revs pick up and it sucks quite heavily, so seems normal. What also seems normal is the pressure coming from the breather hose connector, just a light putputput feel from it.

It's quite an annoying problem, as I'm losing a fair bit of oil, and my engine's getting covered in it, which is a pain in the arse.

Does anyone know what this might be? Would appreciate any help .

Engine is a 1600 Fuel Injection. Re-built around 1000 miles ago so I'm told.

Thanks for reading,
Max

[miketyp3]

Hi Max,

It does sound like a lot of crank case pressure and / or way too much oil in there to me.
There is no seal at the pulley end, just an oil thrower (at least there should be) so the oil could possibly escape there if the level was too high and had some pressure behind it.
They usually tend to blow off the plastic cap on the breather tower if there's a lot of pressure so check its not been glued on or something.

Personally I've never heard the gurgleing noise, or any decernable sucking or blowing from the breather on a good condition engine, so I wouldn't describe that as normal.
In fact I don't even understand why there could be a vacumn... The crank journals are timed in pairs 180 degrees a part, so in theory the internal volume would remain more or less the same, surely.

I'm afraid unless the crankcase is completely full of oil, it doesn't sound good... I hope I'm wrong though.

Mike

[NotSoFastback]

Thanks for the reply.
Oil level is fine. Showing just under half way on the dipstick, so that's fine.
Crank case pressure seems good, when i removed the breather there wasn't much coming out of it. Felt fine.
The sucking is from the breather connector on the inlet manofold, and after the throttle butterfly. That 's just natural, but should scavenge pressure from the case at least i thought.
Caps on the breather tower are good and pop off easily. Not wet with oil around them either...
Really confusing me!

If I can't sort it, would a sand seal be a good option? Will my standard pulley/fan work with this? Or does it need machining smooth?

Again, thanks for your reply .
Max

[miketyp3]

Ok... sorry I presumed you meant a vacumn from the crankcase.
I don't know much about the FI system, but the carb air filter is very free flowing, I wouldn't have thought it would generate much of a vacumn at the breather.

Maybe someone else will know the cause, but my opinion is anything you do like fitting additional seals is covering up the problem - and in any case the leak will probably just start somewhere else.


Mike

[Editor]

This sounds like crankcase pressure build-up, and has been reported before on the email list at vwtype3.org. It's usually on late USA vehicles with breathers in the rocker areas on the heads. The breather system is different from the usual sort. The oil thrower is only a thread than winds the oil seepage back into the crankcase, and can't cope with the amount that can be blown past.

I don't know much about the different breather circuit for these engines, and my parts book doesn't cover them, but Jim (jadney@vwtype3.org) in the USA does know and can probably explain what's what.

Basically, the crankcase ventilation maintains a low pressure in the case by sucking fumes back into the engine through the air filter.

[NotSoFastback]

Thanks for the link, signed up for the register a while back and Jim helped me with my woes. Now running a breather fitting on either rocker cover, each running to another breather fitting on the air box. Works a treat, and my Fanshroud is bone dry :].
Max

[Editor]

So pleased to hear that.
There's not much that Jim doesn't know about Type 3s - he's been enthusiastically maintaining other people's for decades as well as his own, and rebuilding various components. I got some first-hand tuition from him on engine building - went into the University workshop and balanced a set of pistons to 0.1 grams! Shame there's 3,000 miles of sea between us though, as I could do with some encouragement on engines in the near future.

[Aaronslimvw]

I have this exact problem... on my 73’ fastback. So your saying that if i run seperate breathers from both heads it should be fine?