Spotted on A14

Heading home today and spotted some Volkswagens, think they were enjoying the sunny weather as much as I was. 

Lovely evening for a road trip once you get through the traffic..

New barrels and pistons

Took the opportunity to replace the barrel and piston set for a better quality Mahle set. 

Also upgraded the pushrod tubes to a set from CSP which have a wider head opening. 22mm up from 19mm with the scat tubes, which should avoid the pushrods "touching".

The seal sits out a bit due to the width but presume will seal ok. Makes you wounder why the aftermarket heads don't have an increase hole size for greater clearance with higher lift cams. 

 

They come with a fitting tool which maks the install super easy. 

A view from inside the head:

Wing bolts

To complement the original, genuine wing beading managed to get some VW bolts with the deeper head section and correct sprung washers. 

Whilst could have gone for a "generic" stainless bolt and it would have been cheaper, preferred the idea of using the correct part. 

Gear selector refresh

The old gear selector rubber bushes had perished through age. Interestingly the rubber had transformed itself to an oily mess that smelt of pungent marmite!

Ordered a genuine VW part however the central spindle in the part was far inferior to the original resulting in lots of play, which I was trying to avoid. Even so called genuine parts these days seem questionable and in the spirit of maintaining originality and quality, reused parts from the old with the new bushing to complete. 

Now a great fit with no play, feels like a new gearbox...

Who said beetle parts are cheap...

Some bling for the engine!

Motomec fittings a lot easier than cutter style. 

XZX fitted