Products in this Video:

Video Overview:

With most of the engine tin and fan shroud fit to our 1600cc EMPI Unassembled (but now assembled) Long Block Kit, Sam pulls the fan shroud and some other items off the engine so that the rest of the components can be installed. The fuel pump and alternator stand are installed along with the oil filler. The intake manifold is installed, followed by the carburetor, and then the oil cooler is attached properly with some replacement studs, as the original pieces ended up getting stripped with some faulty hardware. Then Sam attempts to install the fan shroud with the alternator, realizes he got ahead of himself and pulls off the carburetor, and so on and so forth! He even covers some additional modification that is often necessary with aftermarket components, and does some more engine tin trimming along the way. Sam offers some tips about setting the carburetor choke, fitting spark plug boots, explains the difference in upright and doghouse fan shrouds and other little tib bits like making sure that your spark plug air boots are in place properly. By the end of the video Sam has the engine JUST about ready to fire up for a break in run, short of mounting the coil and setting the flywheel end play.

Video Transcript:

Hi, I’m Sam with JBugs.com, and we’re going to take our previously unassembled—now assembled—long block and turn it into a turnkey engine.

In our last video, we got all of the engine tin mocked up, clearanced, cut, ground, bent, and fitted. With everything fitting properly, we’ll now remove the upper components so we can install the intake manifold, carburetor, and related parts. Once those are in place, we’ll reinstall the tin.

Let’s start by taking a few things apart. We’ll begin with the fuel pump and the generator stand—well, alternator stand. The fuel pump kit includes gaskets that are a bit thicker than the original German gaskets, which helps lower fuel pressure slightly. I prefer using the thicker gaskets, so we’ll go with those. To prevent the gasket from sticking to the case, I like to apply a little grease before installation.

We’ll also add a light coat of grease here—even though it’ll get oil later, it won’t hurt. Then we’ll torque everything down. Remember, 14 ft-lbs is actually quite tight.

Next is the alternator stand. Make sure the cooling fins point downward—that’s the correct orientation. If your oil deflector plate has the raised lip, you don’t need to use paper gaskets; they’re redundant. I like to thread the oil filler into the stand off the engine to avoid getting metal shavings inside.

For the intake manifold, we’ll use original-style metal gaskets. The thick paper gaskets tend to seal better, but metal gaskets are easier to remove and reuse—ideal for a test engine where components may be swapped frequently.

If you’re working with original heads that have alignment dowels, they’ll help guide installation, though they’re not very common anymore. We’ll get our boots and clamps ready, install the manifold, and torque it down to 14 ft-lbs. The inner fasteners can be tricky—just take your time with a wrench.

Next, we’ll connect the idle solenoid, fuel inlet, and choke, keeping components protected as we work. Since we already know we’re at number-one top dead center, we’ll install the spark plug wires in order: one, two, three, and four, making sure each wire is fully seated for a solid connection.

On the fuel lines, the inlet side isn’t pressurized and often seals tightly without a clamp, but using one for safety is never a bad idea. The outlet side is pressurized, so clamps are required there.

Now we’ll circle back to the oil cooler. We’ve installed new studs and will torque the hardware to 5 ft-lbs. With the oil cooler and Hoover bit in place, we can reinstall the fan shroud. Because the intake end castings are now installed, it’s much harder to access these fasteners, so we’re using bolts instead of screws.

We’ll check that the fan spins freely and tighten the clamp. I’ve rotated the distributor 90 degrees so the vacuum canister sits in a more familiar position. This also helps clean up the spark plug wire routing.

Since this is a test engine, I’m not permanently mounting the coil on the fan shroud. Instead, we’ll temporarily mount it in a convenient location. If this were a permanent setup, I’d mount it properly to the shroud or case.

Next, we’ll reinstall the carburetor and adjust the choke. Loosen the three screws on the choke housing, rotate it until the butterfly just closes—don’t preload it—and tighten the screws. First thing in the morning, press the accelerator once to set the choke and deliver fuel, then start the engine. As it warms up, the choke will gradually open.

With that done, we’ll finish installing the remaining fan shroud fasteners and seals. The Hoover bit and foam seals help ensure hot air from the oil cooler is directed out of the engine compartment instead of recirculating over the heads and cylinders. This is part of Volkswagen’s doghouse oil cooler design introduced in 1971 to improve cooling efficiency.

Next, we’ll install the spark plug boots. Slide them into place carefully so they seal against the tin and prevent cooling air from escaping.

We’ll also route the accelerator cable tube through the fan shroud and front engine tin. Aftermarket shrouds often have oversized holes, so I like to use a large washer to keep the tube properly positioned.

Now we’ll install the alternator belt—size 11.3 x 912—and set pulley shims correctly. You must have ten shims total. Use the number needed to achieve proper belt tension between the pulley halves, and place the remaining shims under the outer nut. Without all ten shims, the pulley won’t tighten correctly.

With that set, our long block is nearly ready to run—but we still need an exhaust.

We’ll install J-tubes instead of heater boxes since this is a shop engine, along with a new exhaust. The cylinder head on one side sits farther back, so it uses the longer J-tube; the other side gets the shorter one. We’ll install fresh gaskets, loosely assemble everything, then torque the exhaust hardware to 14 ft-lbs.

Next, we’ll set up the heat risers. These often require trimming or reshaping to fit properly. After aligning both sides, we’ll mark the front engine tin where the tubes pass through, remove it, and cut openings as needed for clearance.

Once that’s done, we reinstall the front engine tin, tighten everything down, and verify proper alignment. The exhaust gasket kit includes hardware for stock setups, but we’ll adapt it as needed for this configuration.

And with that, we’ve taken an unassembled long block, added a completion kit and supporting components, and built a fully assembled engine ready for its first start.

That first fire-up will be in a future video. In the meantime, thanks for watching.

Oh—wait. We still need to mount the coil and set the end play. We’ll cover that in the next video.