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Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:40 pm

Finally the weather has cleared up and I'm tackling an engine rebuild on my bus.
Engine was so tight that I could barely turn it over by hand. The starter would not crank it over. Bus has not been run in two years so I'm tearing it down to find out why.
1st thing I found was Hydraulic cam was worn out. Those crappy lifters had cut a groove in the lobes about the thickness of a fingernail. It might have been one of the reasons I could never get a good valve adjustment. :roll:

These are pics of the old engine coming out. A dual Solex 1983.

The intial teardown...Muffler and flywheel, ect. Pic of my backyard workbench. --Plywood on sawhorses.

The core engine. I wasn't too sure if case was egg-shaped from crank so I am switching to a GE 1979 case that hasn't seen as much miles.

Pic of crank in new case (GE). Also replaced cam with new solid lifter and new lifters. :roll: Hopefully now I can get better valve adjustments. Will be changing pushrods and adding solid lifter rocker arms and new adjusters and nuts. I marked the stud pattern on table, then drilled holes with wood bit to make a jig to hold case while mating other half. 8)

New case buttoned up. Trying to set end-play.

Pic of my homemade end-play tool. ---All-
thread rod and SS nuts with 1/4" Aluminum plate.

2 days later...back to work on it. Today I put my used cylinders and pistons on as they had less than 400 miles of wear since new. Deck hieght seemed in the ball park. New metal shims and permatex 3 to save from leaking.
That's it today. Next up... heads and completing long block.

Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:22 pm

Looks good so far. This will be an interesting thread.

(by the way, your plywoods upside down. :P )

but otherwise, yeah looks good. Keep up w/ the results and pics.
dp

Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:39 pm

Nice progress Donemoto. Watching with interest.
Not plywood Dweller, particle board or some such name.

Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:36 pm

OSB, I think.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:53 am

You did hone cylinders before installing new rings AND check ring gap in ea cyl with the rings going in there??? Tight end gap could have caused hard turnover,since not run in awhile a quick pass with hone will help seat rings.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:13 am

TheTominator wrote:
Not plywood Dweller, particle board or some such name.

yeah, i know. . . but donemoto called it plywood :D
and if i told him his OSB was upside down, he'd be looking for a part :-k

dp

Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:45 am

Patrick199 wrote: OSB, I think.
Yep, it's OSB (Oriented Strand Board ... in case anyone cares).

Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:59 am

What about the bearings? Why was the engine so tight? Anything wrong with the old case? Whose cam and lifters did you use?
Must be hard working like that , but do what ya gota do!

Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:25 am

To clarify a couple of things:

The OSB was upside down because that is the smooth side. 8)

I changed out the 83 case because I was not feeling lucky. I did not mike it, but, the #4 main bearing had walked out of its dowel pin and showed wear and crush on bearing and case. Also 2 cylinder studs broke off of the case during teardown. The 79 case was given to me by a neighbor 10 or more years ago whose son had taken his engine apart then gave up on fixing it. I had run the 83 case for at least 7 years after buying van it in 95. It had been the victum of dropped valve seats. After changing heads it was a pain to crank over.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:54 pm

Looking good, working outside is kinda fun unless if the weather co-operates, watch out for crows stealing shiny parts while you are off getting a beer though.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:08 pm

Working outside looks nice, especially when you have such a huge yard, it all looks like its coming along nicely.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:22 pm

I had a squirrel add a Douglas Fir cone to a WBX engine once. Didn't even know it was in there until the engine was torn down later do to an unrelated problem. I worry about some kind of fly or bee we have around here. It likes to deposit its eggs in small holes and then stuff them full of mud. Not too cool it they do it to an oil drilling.

Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:59 pm

Cool 8)

Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:14 pm

donemoto wrote:
These are pics of the old engine coming out. A dual Solex 1983.

.

Dude sweet OSB looks to June 08 vintage.
Your wife let you dig a hole in the grass to pull the motor. =D> wow

Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:08 am

domo, of course you realise you've ruined the grass :shock:

Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:46 am

Guess you guys see it all. :lol: That piece of wood was the cheapest I could find at Lowes($7.57).

Yes the grass is ruined for a while. It was worse when I had 4 busses lined up like a car lot in the yard. I just take the pieces of grass I dig out of the sidewalk edges and transplant them over the bear spots.

NOW...back to the world of VW's......The cam and lifters for those wondering was---A reground solid German cam from Cip-l and solid lifters. This, again, is an economy rebuild. More pics this afternoon when I finish longblock. I have gone into my basement to retrieve a set of solid lifter pushrods, springed washer rocker arms and new valve tappet screws and bolts and my set of 1800 S Heads to replace the 79's. Will posts pics as soon as I'm finished. Have not tried to bore u (pun) with step by step that is covered better in manuals. Just the facts, folks. :lol:

Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:42 am

Your my idol!! I am attempting to do the same thing that you had. An '83 2.0L into a '75. Only FI and not carbs. Great work. Kept the pictures coming.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:11 pm

Up next are pics of the old cam. If you look at the tracking pattern you will see it is a hydraulic. It was comepletely worn out. Check out the grooves in the lobes.

R&Ring the heads is next. Heads for this project are 1800 S heads.

Purists, turn your heads away. Don't look, really.

These are low milage heads that passed my visual inspection and valve leakdown test. I have had these around for years for an emergency rebuild. Guess this is it. :roll:
My plan is to use them to get a better powerband and cruising a little cooler on the road. Yes, I know they should be flycut; but, I have neither the money for flycutting or a complete rebuild.
There is some pitting in the combustion area. I handsanded it down with 120 grit machine paper until it was slightly proud of the damage. At that point I took an old cylinder and used valve grinding paste to lightly cut gasket seal area. With new gaskets and head shim my deck height is around 0.048. Flycutting would drop it down too much in my estimate.

The 3-4 head was missing a stud. I went to the junkpile and found a donor head. After removing the stud; I took it to the wire-brush bench grinder and cleaned it up. Then, I chased out head threads with a tap and applied locktite to the stud. A clean repair.
If you have trouble unlocking doublelocked stud nuts; take a medium flat screwdriver and hold against stud and head. A little strain on it will keep the stud from backing out with the nut.

Now it is time to put the cooling tin on head. It is easier to get on before placing head on cylinders.

A quick pic of donor head. This is the results of setting an engine uncovered over the summer. Whole engine was destroyed had to beat cylinders and heads off. Again the result of water damage. :cry:

The rain is coming. Time to cover up. Guess I'll go inside and watch the "X-files" on SciFi. 8)

Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:15 pm

be careful using those 1.8 heads with 2l pistons. the compression ratio will be affected.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:17 pm

Thanx. Got it. 8)