Day Four-Let's Split a Case

On the last day of my four-day staycation we split the case open. Split the case open!? Yes, split the case open. Unlike any other engine design I know of (Subaru engines, of course, being of the same design), air-cooled VW cases are composed of two halves, a left and a right, which are machined to fit together exactly. There's not even a seal or gasket between them, they're just bolted together. I remember in high school telling a gearhead classmate, then-owner of a '65 Mustang, about this set-up and he was completely incredulous; it took the shop manual's description and diagrams to convince him. It is kind of weird if you think about it.

Just as I suspected: a broken crankshaft. The fracture rent the flange asunder just forward (front is front!) of the 2nd main bearing, between the rods for cylinders 1 and 4.

Where? Right there, in other words. Apparently once in a while a Type I engine will run--like, still move the car down the road, albeit very noisily--with a broken crank. I can report that a broken Type IV crank generates no power, only noise. The noise of a couple bocce balls bouncing around amongst a full set of cast-iron cookery, in fact.

This is as deep into an engine as one gets. Those who are following Ludwig's story across several vectors are probably sick of hearing this, but I'll repeat it anyway: "If you can ruin [a Type IV bottom end, i.e. crankshaft and rods] with spirited street driving, you could probably destroy an anvil with a rubber mallet."--Tom Wilson, from How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine. I don't know whether I'm to take this as a compliment.