installing valve cover VW logo upside down? Myth

[NextGen]

Hi I Been around T-4 for years and yes I do have issues with valve covers leaking.

Some guys are saying you have to install the cover with the tiny VW logo upside down ?? Logo looks dead center/

Never thought they go on only one way? I do play with them for a correct fit.

They may have been joking.

[twodollardoug]

I go upside down. Is there a difference? Who knows.

[NextGen]

OK why do you go upside down?? Hey if it is better I am with you, but why, how does it fit better. Never saw anything in any manual.

IF it is a better fit great I am all for it.

[twodollardoug]

Lol... Honestly Joe , I think because I read it somewhere too. They do look like they can go either way. It's probably an old wives tale. Might even go as far back as the John Muir idiot manual.

[twodollardoug]

Richard is an old timer maybe he knows where it came from.

[NextGen]

Richard an old timer, ha. I started on bugs, with my friends in the little known Empi East coast headquarters in The Bronx. Before that I raced MGA Roadsters. That was in 1969 in 92 I wrote the manual.

I but I must admit, those freaking valve covers on the T-4 was always been a thorn in my side, ha. Right after every valve adjustment I would sniff for the smell of burning oil. One or the the other was leaking. The engine in the photos is the same bug I drive today 30 years. nothing else leaks.
Yea I get them to seal but not without a fight.

Are you kidding I hope the upside down VW Logo is not a Myth !!!

[NextGen]

WE all make mistakes and hopefully find the answer. look at the photo of the oil cooler exhaust in VW Trends Book Review, my fist attempt was a dryer hose !!!!!!

[twodollardoug]

I love the dryer hose

[NextGen]

After 30 years this engine can still has fun -- Bear Mountain and 50 bugs. Last fall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkhkOpF7kU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSfdw4eAyLI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap0NeT2Q2vc

[doc]

Great stuff, Joe. Cool pics! 69 was a great year! Went to Woodstock that summer.

[NextGen]

Doc 69 was a great year, I got married and had to get rid of the MGA Roadster, no window or door handles, baby on the way. The guys a Empi Competition Car parts said get a bug, reliable. The money I got from the wedding I bought my first bug new 1969, blue.

Could not get to Woodstock, roads were jambed for miles.

[raygreenwood]

It does not matter which way you install the valve cover.

When you do find differences...when you inspect carefully its typically because after years of previous owners ...un-carefully prying and pushing....the valve cover can get slightly spring or pushed in on one edge.

The other issue....I have not had a valve cover leak of any kind in maybe 30+ years. I can tell people.....quit putting valve cover gaskets on with grease....or...putting them on dry and expecting them to stay in place by themselves against vibration and vacuum.

Why?....because the valve cover rail/lip on the head is generally flat...but if you look carefully at a whole stack of type 4 valve covers....none of the gasket seating surface are dead flat. They all slope inward slightly by about 2*. This means that the pressure on the outer rim of the gasket is greater than the pressure on the inside area of the gasket.

So....when using the silly grease method....the gasket literally wants to squirt inward. When using the dry gasket method...it eventually gets oil under it...and squirts inward.

The best way I have found.....is to put a thin, clean smear of good oil resistant RTV on ONE side of the gasket. Let it tack up slightly...place it on valve cover. Put the cover on the head and bring the bail up to barely apply pressure to the valve cover. The bale should be about 5/8" short of dropping into the notch. Do not clamp it any further. If you do....the RTV acts just like a lubricant and the gasket will squeeze/slip inward and will be wavy...off and on the gasket rail. This method prevents RTV from squeezing out making a solid gasket.

Let it dry like this completely. Like 8 hours. The gasket is now totally sealed and adhered to the valve cover
After 8 hours.... remove the valve cover, oil the gasket face.

To install....you want the bale on teh bottom resting on the heat exchanger. I hold the cover lightly in place....and slide it upward a millimetre or two...until the lip of the valve cover is against the edge of the head. By doing this....the edge of the head rail does not allow the valve cover to slip upward as you are pulling the bale upward.

Typically I install the valve covers with the corner tab and hole on the bottom. It helps hold it in place. I do not even look at or worry about the VW logo orientation.

As long as your bale has normal tension.....these will not leak at all. Typically in hot climate ...I get about 7+ oil changes out of set of gaskets. At 3000 miles per....thats between 20k and 25k miles. By that time they are hard as a rock.

Removing these are easy. Take a razor blade or bx knife and run it all the way around. The gasket just falls out leaving a thin film of RTV. About a minute or less with a brass brush on the dremel and a quick wipe with carb cleaner any they are squeaky clean. Ray

[BugUgly]

2 degrees? You’ve got the eye of a machinist, Ray! I’ve never noticed the slope. Nice guide on a messy topic.

[NextGen]

Ray thanks that sounds much more logical then the Upside down Logo myth.