Aircooled VW South Africa

Hey Guys

I hope you can help me out today. I have exhausted all self help avenues. On BMWFanatics all the online guys seem to be too young to have had real experience with these motors. They all just swap out to M40s and the like.

I recieved this car from my grandfather. He used it maybe 100km per month for the past 5 years and he used to fiddle on it as long as I remember because it never starts right away.

At the moment this is what I have done.

New Fuel Pressure Reg.
New Plugs Leads Dizzy Cap Rotor Air filter Fuel Filter new Coil

Timing is spot on
Cold start injection is working correctly.

Every time I start it cold it cranks for about 8 to 10 seconds before stumbling to life and then smoothing out.

When warm it starts up right away.

Any advice please?

Make sure you keep your battery healthy?

Air flow meter could be faulty or got dirt, I had a simillar issue with a Nissan GXi 200.

Does it have K-jetronic, (like the 518i of the same era), or L-jet or Motronic?
If you switch on the ignition without starting, the fuel pump should run for a second or 2 and then stop. Switching on/off the ignition a few times after the car stood for a while may help to build system pressure before starting.

If it is K-jetronic then it should have accumulators on the fuel line at the back near the pump. If they seize or leak then you don't have anything maintaining the fuel pressure once the fuel pump stops, also nothing buffering the fuel pressure while the pump is running and this causes similar issues. This is what I found on the Porsche 924, once I swopped them out the cold start problem went away and the car ran better. Just a thought...

brianj wrote:Make sure you keep your battery healthy?

New battery

calooker wrote:Air flow meter could be faulty or got dirt, I had a simillar issue with a Nissan GXi 200.

Cleaned out AFM. Still moves freely and very clean inside.

Dawie wrote:Does it have K-jetronic, (like the 518i of the same era), or L-jet or Motronic?
If you switch on the ignition without starting, the fuel pump should run for a second or 2 and then stop. Switching on/off the ignition a few times after the car stood for a while may help to build system pressure before starting.

L Jetronic
Tried cycling the pump like that with the ignition with no joy...

JamesD wrote:If it is K-jetronic then it should have accumulators on the fuel line at the back near the pump. If they seize or leak then you don't have anything maintaining the fuel pressure once the fuel pump stops, also nothing buffering the fuel pressure while the pump is running and this causes similar issues. This is what I found on the Porsche 924, once I swopped them out the cold start problem went away and the car ran better. Just a thought...

When cranking and not starting the car starts flooding. When she starts up she burns away all the excess fuel...strong fuel vapour smell allround.

I am pulling my hair on this one.




Dragging starter could cause this? It feels like she turns over slower than my beetle used to...

Whats your opinion?

On a side note I get the heater working. Heatercore was clogged with mud? Washed it out. Heatervalve stuck closed.

Removed it and found huge airlock in cooling system.

Replacement part 4500 from bmw germany.

Hacked in a ford HCV from a bantam and bob is your uncle. Even works off the rheostat in the bmw dash...runs much cooler now that the cooling is airfree.

Ill run compression test on all4 this weekend and test fuelpressures.

Waiting for cooldown now.

Compression 149 150 150 150

Fuelpressure is constant. Off the guage... used a cheap equus kit, pressure exceeds the guage by 50percent...builds up with ignition and stays constant even when running.

Removed ICV and soaked with Carb cleaner. Let it dry. Fitted again.

Proceeded to check timing with light.

Car started up first turn but was still popping at muffler.

Set timing. Adjusted idle by means of screw next to cold start injector on intake.

Popping is gone from muffler. Idle is 100percent smooth.

Test drove.

Ping under load, very very little however. Checked timing again, slight adjustment amd increased idle to 900rpm.

Still smooth idle and acceleration. No more ping. Still starting within 1 second of cranking at temperature.

As in start of post, letting her sit for a few hours now to test cold starting duration of cranking.

Lets hold thumbs!!!

I am going to burn this car to the tar soon.

Still after cooling down not starting immediately. This is pissing the shit off outta me.

Whats next guys?

Try some valve ease put it in your tank and drive the car around and see what happens, this should fix sticky valves and clean up all the gum . I've had a problem with my k -jet mk1 golf cabriolet seems to start up better now still a little and car runs much better.

Penns? Or is there a specific brand you can recommend?

I used holts

When cold, disconnect the cold start injector (on manifold), and see how it starts then. The cold start jet can spray huge quantities of fuel, and is mainly meant for very cold conditions well below freezing. East London is not that cold.
The 4 main injectors already have warmup enrichment.

Sometimes the thermo switch can be over-active and enable the cold start injector during moderate temperatures. (What we in SA call a cold engine). Causing flooding and difficult starting. If engine gets slightly warmer, this switch is past it's threshold, does not operate and therefore no longer floods the engine.
This is also a problem with some older fuel injected Porsches in South African climate, and disconnecting the cold start injector solves this.

Dawie wrote:When cold, disconnect the cold start injector (on manifold), and see how it starts then. The cold start jet can spray huge quantities of fuel, and is mainly meant for very cold conditions well below freezing. East London is not that cold.
The 4 main injectors already have warmup enrichment.

Sometimes the thermo switch can be over-active and enable the cold start injector during moderate temperatures. (What we in SA call a cold engine). Causing flooding and difficult starting. If engine gets slightly warmer, this switch is past it's threshold, does not operate and therefore no longer floods the engine.
This is also a problem with some older fuel injected Porsches in South African climate, and disconnecting the cold start injector solves this.

no change

Did you try the valve ease yet.