Hi just bought a 67 split from Gnarly and on the way home to Glasgow the spark plug blew out from overheating after about 200 miles. Contacted RH Insurance (ERS) and they were brilliant and got me home O(after a 3hr wait on the M74 verge.....very cold at night).

Anyway back to the point, the engine is a 1776 with dual 34's and a tuckaway exhaust and oilcooler (engine was bought from Smiffy210), and was fairly new done 2000 miles since bought. ....the sparkplug blew has traces of aluminium on it. Looking at the back of the van the cylinder is the nearest one on the left side(Passenger side) ..is the engine gubbed is there a fix?

Where are the good VW air-cooled garages or nmechanics in the Glasgow / Paisley area.

Looks like I am not going to the meet next week in May then ;-( ....was looking forward to it)


Cheers

VWMO...... New SSVC Memeber

Have a look at 'spark plug repair kit' on Amazon - there are various kits available - I'd be trying these first before writing off the head.
Its wehter you can do it in-situ - but as its the nearest one to you I would have thought it's do-able.
If you use lots of grease in the tap lands I would imagine you'd catch most of the swarf too

Thanks for the response,
very much appreciated.

Why do you think it overheated? Why do you think overheating caused the plug to come out?

Helicoils can repair the thread, but they're never as strong.

Drove 200 miles and at some point the belt came off....do not know when.
Next day (today) on closer inspection found the plug had blown with what looks like melted metal sprayed on the plug.
I assumed that as the belt was off the fan was not turning and as a result the engine overheated to a critical point.

All that said....just my assumptions...not an expert.

Any Glasgow/Paisley mechanic recomendations

Cheers
VWMO

When you put the key in the ignition, do you not get two warning lights? If so, did they not come on while you were driving?

If you drove more than a mile or so with the fan belt snapped you've killed the engine. There will be bigger issues in the engine now than just the spark plug.

A green light came on just before the engine conked out.....due to three cylinders. The green light confused me...a wee bit...... in my mind not a warning colour.
The red light cames on when lights were on.....perhaps wired up wrongly when rebuilt.

I assume the belt came off not long before the engine stopped. ( hope so)

Cheers
VWMO

Red light is the charging light, so it comes on when the engine isn't charging the battery which is also when the fan belt breaks.

Green light is oil pressure warning light, so you lost oil pressure, so bearings / crank / CAM could all be damaged.

Never drive with the idiot lights on. You've now learnt your first and rather expensive mistake.

Try big Doods at lesmahagow ,rebuilt my engine after previous owner forgot to tell me about the low oil pressure blew on the way to bug jam ,he's a real nice bloke and won't screw you .

mine did the same they day i bought it and also used Rh's breakdown cover, mine had been helicoiled in the past, i fitted new heads

Just a wee update vwjim was completely correct
Engine gubbed as described
Lesson Learned
Take note and stop if a light comes on.

vwJim wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:05 pm

Why do you think it overheated? Why do you think overheating caused the plug to come out?

Helicoils can repair the thread, but they're never as strong.

Not true a steel helicoil is stronger than the aluminium casting it sits in, FACT, back to engineering school for you, however this can only be 100% true where the Helicoil is put in the casting from new as often if a thread pulls it can damage the surrounding material making the area weak for the Helicoil

I've had a couple of belts break on me, and you feel it, you then look at the dash and red light is on. STOP!!