Friend working on customers 356B couldn't add oil...

[Larry Brooks]

A good friend of mine works on 356's out of his home shop. Usually resurrecting cars that have been neglected and/or stored for extended periods. The car he's working on now must have went to a turkey farm for its "restoration". The car was barely operable when it came in. Every step of the way he's found errors and sloppy work in the wiring, fuel system, brakes, etc.

He finally got to the engine and the first thing he did was drop the oil. It was nasty and about a quart low. Adjusted the valves, put in a fresh filter and started adding oil. After less than a quart of oil was added from the first new quart oil started over flowing from the filler can. Waited a bit and the oil was still right at the top. Sucked all of the oil back out and removed the gen stand and found this homemade gasket:

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[Ron LaDow]

I have a hard time believing that was done by a sober person.

[Mike Wilson]

Factory-recommended to prevent blow by?! Ha!

Mike

[steven mclean]

Way too much 420 available in Oregon.

[David Jones]

One has to wonder how the oil got into the engine in the first place. Makes me think of energy conserving oil but this is an oil conserving gasket.

[Steve Turino]

Easy fix, mount car to a rottiserie, invert and add oil through drain plug.

[DonCichocki]

I think those guys worked on my car!

[Wes Bender]

Was the engine possibly pickled and in storage? That would be the only way I could get close to justifying that gasket. Of course, if you did that, you would want a brightly colored tab sticking out as a reminder.

I suspect that it was simply a "turkey" mistake. Should have resulted in some oil leaks too.

[George Hussey]

this must some kind of joke, and it is not even april fools!

[Mike Wilson]

Interesting theory, Wes. That would make sense but without an indicator that this is sealed, I can only imagine when oil is attempted to be added...

Mike

[Spencer Harris]

Easy fix, mount car to a rottiserie, invert and add oil through drain plug.

Hmmm, can't find that in any of my early manuals. Must've been a B or C mod...

[Bill Lawless]

To Funny!!

[Tim Berardelli]

VW mechanic probably did the engine-air-cooled up-right VW engines used a gasket between the top of the generator stand and the generator-this was as close as he/she could get. As HCP used to say-"Beware the Ides of VW"

[Martin Benade]

VW also fills the oil the same way. The person who did that doesn’t even have a feeble excuse. It is quite amusing though.