21st June 2013
The Heat Exchanger had been removed with the bottom plate attached so the plate was removed. It is held to the H/E by two cheesehead screws which appeared impossible to remove with a screwdriver. A good grip with a pair of Mole grips undid them easily. These two screws had their ends cut (vee'd) which is presumably to 'lock' them (anti-vibration?)

Heat Exchanger

The Heat Exchanger was cleaned up with Gunk but in one place has seriously rusted leaving a hole. Plenty of time to think what to do about this. New ones are quite expensive and, I suspect, nowhere near the quality of these originals.

Removing Heat Exchanger

19th June 2013
We had a big problem with one of the nuts holding the J-Tube. The lower nut & stud nestles between the J-Tube and the heat exchanger so not much room to swing a spanner. Added to that the nut was very corroded and although the size should be 13mm it was smaller and more like 1/2".
Various suggestions from Volkszone and we contemplated buying a set of cheap spanners from Halfords which included a 1/2" (AF?).
We thought if the ring spanner is not a good fit then it would be a waste of £13 or so.
In the end we opted for a nut splitter.
The nut splitter was a bit fiddly and could only fit on to about 2/3rds of the nut which it duly split.
The remainder was butchered off with a sharp chisel. Not ideal but it worked.
There were two cheesehead screws under the crankcase holding a piece of tinware to the heat exchanger and two more at the back of the engine holding the same plate.
Two of the bolts are plain and the other two have their ends v-eed.
Didn't notice which were which but the v-eed ones presumably hold two plates together while the plain ones bolt into the casing (?)

Inlet Manifold

15th June 2013
The carburettor had already been removed and the manifold came off easily. There are two bolts on each tube to be undone and the manifold just lifts off.

13th June 2013 Removed exhaust pipe/silencer

After much hammering at the exhaust pipe with no effect we realised the manifold had to be unbolted! The nuts came off relative easily although one stud had been sheared off previously. The clamps holding the silencer to the manifold were losened and with a bit of tugging and wiggling it came off relatively easily.

Engine on Sealey stand

The mounting plate from the engine stand was bolted to the engine. The main bolts holding the arms of the mounting plate were left loose and the mounting tubes lined up with the engine case holes and the bolts screwed in loosely. The mounting tubes were lined up to fit outside the flange on the engine casing. When everything was in alignement all the bolts were tightened up.
 The top two holes in the engine are not threaded so any length M10 bolts will do. The lower two bolts, however, are threaded. The first bolts used were 100mm M10 but when bolting into the engine we must have passed the threading in the case, which chewed the ends of the bolt thread and were difficult to extract. It was tight all the way out and we were worried that the engine threads would be damaged.
Bought more bolts from Namrick www.namrick.co.uk and found the 90mm M10 were just the right length.

Picture 6: Stand fixing plate.

Picture 7: Mounting 'tubes' & flange

Picture 8: Is it safe?

Hmm. Is it safe. Hope so!

Getting engine onto stand.

Picture 5. Flexplate removed.

The next task is to get the engine onto a stand to make disassembly easier. A Seeley stand had been purchased. The four 'arms' need to be attached to the engine-to-bell housing holes (see Pic.5).
Two are threaded and two are plain. Four 10mm bolts have been purchased which will hopefully do the trick.

Removal of Flexplate

The Beetle automatic has no flywheel but, instead, a Flexplate, that connects the engine to the torque converter. The flexplate is connected to the engine (crankshaft) with a gland nut tightened to 282 lbs/ft.
The flexplate is attached to the torque converter with four bolts that are accessed one at a time by rotating the engine until they are visible through an access hole.
The four bolts are, I think, undone with a 10mm socket and the gland nut with a 26mm socket. (to be checked).

Picture 1. Bolt, flexplate to torque converter.

Picture 2. Flexplate on engine with gland nut removed.

Picture 3. Flexplate showing captive nuts for bolts to Torque Converter

Picture 4. Flexplate with 8mm bolts to remove from engine.

Removing the flexplate gland nut appeared to be a difficult job. There were several methods suggested but warnings to take care over the flexiplate as damage would render it useless and difficult to replace. In the end a cheap 1/2" Air 'rattler' gun and a pair of feet stopping the pulley end from turning did the trick. The gland nut came off very easily. To remove the plate two 8mm bolts are screwed into the two threaded holes and gradually tightened to force the plate outwards and off.

Type 1 Beetle engine strip

Let the fun begin! The boys are about to embark on a mission of which they have no prior knowledge. Or, presumably, of which they have no fear.
No doubt that will quickly change, as anyone with experience of old engines (and rust) will know. Although, I am a Beetle:
Vorsprung durch Technik
Hopefully the boys will be able to complete the task and I will have my innards replaced, once more to hit the road.
No doubt notes will be taken and progress photographed in minute detail.
Ok, so I will bow out now and let the story tell itself.