diff --git a/src/h3_blackwell_runtime/vae_encoder.py b/src/h3_blackwell_runtime/vae_encoder.py
index be2096e..9ea30b1 100644
--- a/src/h3_blackwell_runtime/vae_encoder.py
+++ b/src/h3_blackwell_runtime/vae_encoder.py
@@ -55,9 +55,6 @@ def _causal_conv3d(x, weight, bias, *, kernel_size, stride, spatial_padding):
     #   if x.shape[2] == 1: return super().forward(x, autopad="causal_zero")
     #   x = F.pad(x, (0, 0, 0, 0, (k-1), 0), mode="constant")     -- temporal
     #   return super().forward(x)
-    if spatial_padding > 0:
-        x = F.pad(x, (spatial_padding, spatial_padding, spatial_padding, spatial_padding, 0, 0), mode="reflect")
-        x = x.permute(0, 2, 1, 3, 4)
     if x.shape[2] == 1:
         # Keyframe path (matches reference's `autopad="causal_zero"`): truncate
         # the temporal taps to the center 1 and run as an effective 2D conv.