TheSamba.com :: View topic - Getting the ball rolling '73 Standard

Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:47 pm

Thats the spirit,youve cleaned all the parts once already so that is done...hopefully if you left a bearing out it didnt damage the crank..Build a tent so you can work in the rain and go for it, dont let it sit... stay on it till it runs right. What ever you find wrong you will never do wrong again its human nature to make mistakes and to learn from them as well ...keep us posted..

Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:15 pm

I am sure we have all got stories on mistakes we've made. On one of my first disc brake jobs I used that disc brake quiet goop stuff- all over the face of the rotors- :x

Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:07 pm

:shock: Well I hope that everything goes smoothly this time, and like Johnny said, no need to clean so that process is cut out and Paul Windisch is right, the knowledge that I'm going to have when I'm all done is going to be great! I just hope I never have to take it all apart like that piece by little piece and figure it out :P

Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:27 pm

I'm not looking forward to this portion of the work on my car if you've been having this much trouble with yours! :shock:
Good luck!!

Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:21 pm

Need some blow by blow teardown updates....aint letting you off the hook easy young man...now get after it,we are waiting

Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:28 pm

Yessir! I have all the tin off, the motor is still in the car, I'm trying my best to keep it out of the rain :D ..But tomorrow I'll pull it out and slit it and I should be getting the new bearings on Wednesday, saying that I don't need to get my crank ground...But I don't think its been hurt at all. But I'll take pictures if I split the case tomorrow.

Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:39 pm

Rain, Rain...Rain...Thunder..Hail...Everything..The engine still sits, its way to wet to get anything done, but I have it have it done by the 20th..My Brother is coming home from the Army for a little while and I need to show him that it runs :lol: ..I think the next opportunity I'll have to work on it will be on Sunday.

Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:57 pm

get you one :roll:

Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:00 pm

I think that I'm just going to do a tarp set up if I can find something to fix it to, but once I can get the engine into my carport, then I wont have to worry about it, and like I said, I'm only giving myself 2 weeks to get it back on the road again. It will be happening here soon! I'll post up pics on Sunday of the progress.

Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:29 pm

Work will commence tomorrow! I hope to maybe even have the thing taken apart and back together with the bearing replace (saying that nothing catastrophic is wrong..I'll take pics and a vid or two.

Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:34 pm

Update... :? So I just drained the oil and pulled the screen and there were some metal shavings in it :? :shock: ..And the oil reeked of gasoline and had almost the consistency of water... :oops: ..So I'll post pictures tonight..But I have a feeling some thing is really wrong :x

Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:48 pm

Better check that fuel pump out. Keep your spirits up patterbon, it will be worth it. I once saved and scrimped to build my dream motor when 17 years old, a 428HO for my Pontiac, it ran 5 minutes and locked up solid, the machine shop installed main caps backwards or something closing off oil to mains. It was frustrating as heck but I eventually got it done right, it ran hard and still have it.

Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:02 pm

I challenge you to a race: you to get your engine done, me to get my floorpans back in. :lol:

I think you're gonna win. :wink:

Sun Nov 08, 2009 6:21 pm

Ok its dark now and I decided to call it a day, but I managed to strip, drop, and take apart half of the engine in about 3 hours! :D I couldn't believe how little time it took this time...But here is what I found:

(Nastiest oil you've ever seen huh?)

Really burnt valves

Burnt piston, but no damage!! :D :D

Nothing, from this angle, visibly wrong with the rod..Hmm :|

So tomorrow, I'll try and split the case, and Wednesday, I'll be going to Vintage VeeDub to get new bearings, but it's not looking near as bad as I first expected! So I guess that's good. But there you have it for today.

Sun Nov 08, 2009 6:22 pm

Beetlebaum wrote: I challenge you to a race: you to get your engine done, me to get my floorpans back in. :lol:

I think you're gonna win. :wink:

:lol: you never know :wink: It took me from the beginning of August up until the last week or so to get it to start up again

Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:14 am

Those valves aren't burned up, just coked up. Clean the heads up and check for cracks

What deck are you running? It seems (given the fact that the coking up on your pistons is shaped the same as your combustion chambers, WTF! ) that your pistons are getting perilously close to your heads and possibly thats where your knocking started.

Did you measure your deck height while your cylinders were bolted in at the correct torque, or did you measure it while your cylinders were held in by hand only? You'd be surprised how much difference it can make sometimes.

Hitting the heads could have caused a rod bearing failure. wiggle the rods from side to side and see if they have any play in and out of the case

Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:49 am

X2 on the pistons, they have met the cylinder head. Probably due to the rod bearings being shot. Make sure you get the heads checked out thoroughly. You may not want to reuse those pistons.

Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:28 pm

I only measured my deck height only when my cylinders were held in by hand, and with the water in the oil, I don't think that helped the bearings on the rod. I'm going to clean the heads and the pistons to see if they are ok..I didn't run the engine long mind you. I also did a rough estimation on head torque when I put them back on :oops: I didn't have the torque wrench when I was putting the heads back on..do that could have been another contributing factor. Rob and Dave's www.vw-resource.com said that an over torqued head can make as much of a difference of I want to say .02" I believe...So if my crank journals are still looking alright, then I'm going to get new rod bearings on Wednesday, along with getting a torque wrench especially for torquing the heads back down again.

Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:12 pm

PatterBon wrote: along with getting a torque wrench especially for torquing the heads back down again.
Good move, you'll use a torque wrench all over the place.

Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:19 pm

PatterBon wrote: Ok its dark now and I decided to call it a day, but I managed to strip, drop, and take apart half of the engine in about 3 hours! :D I couldn't believe how little time it took this time...But here is what I found:

(Nastiest oil you've ever seen huh?)

Really burnt valves

Burnt piston, but no damage!! :D :D

Nothing, from this angle, visibly wrong with the rod..Hmm :|

So tomorrow, I'll try and split the case, and Wednesday, I'll be going to Vintage VeeDub to get new bearings, but it's not looking near as bad as I first expected! So I guess that's good. But there you have it for today.

That top pic of the strainer, just looking at it hurts :shock: Good luck with it. I know your ready to get this thing right for good.