Raby CS Kit / 82 Westy- The Build

82WestyMan · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:46 pm Post subject: Raby CS Kit / 82 Westy- The Build

Hello one and all
I decided to start a separate thread devoted to just the actual build of my Raby Camper Special (CS) kit for my 1982 (Fed) Air Cooler Westfalia

There is another thread (Raby CS Kit for my 82 Westy) http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=320759
that I started and it got to be 4 pages long before I even had the kit in my hot little hands

I am hoping I can keep this thread only about the actual build and any other side comments or conversations would be in the origina thread
That way, if someone in the future wanted
information about the build, it would be here, while
information about the kit, would be in the other thread
(that make any sense?... lol)

let the adventure begin
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

82WestyMan · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject:

Here we go...

Got the kit delivered late yesterday (6 boxes) by FedEx, signature required.
I have to say it came extremely well packed. once I had it all unpacked and out on my workspace,
I had a mountain of styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap left over

Here's what I got.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

I spent today organizing things, doing the inventory and doing cleaning and prep for the build.
The only two things I couldn't find were the crankshaft woodruff key and "PP>FW bolts".
Send an email off to Blake at RAT and quickly got a reply that the key was in the crankshaft already and the "PP>FW bolts were holding the pressure plate (PP) to the flywheel (FW)...
boy do I feel like a dumb ass... lol

I should say I have a fairly limited work space:
1-1/2 car garage with my Westy backed in, jacked up and the eng/trans pulled.
For a workspace I have a couple of plastic sawhorses from the local Lowes. They have a notch in the top for a 2x2.
The workspace is a 4x8x3/4 piece of MDF with two 2x2 screwed in the bottom and a piece of acrylic on top

I spent best part of the day cleaning the case halves really well, installing the cyl/head studs in the case with Loctite blue and prepping the cases.
I finished off with installing the rods on the crank.
I did have to go out and buy a 3/8-12pt 3/8drive socket for the rod bolts (all my sockets are 6pt)

Tomorrow I'm going to start with getting the gears on the end of crank and working on installing the crank and cam and closing up the case

FYI - at the end of the day, I cover all the parts and 'work-in-progress' with plastic
The key word in any engine build... KEEP IT CLEAN!!!

more to follow tomorrow
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Jake Raby · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:55 am Post subject:

Paul,
WOW that kit is huge when it's all spread out over the bench!!! People never understand just how thorough this package is until they receive the parts and un-pack them.

If you want you can bring those peanuts and foam back to us when you visit in a few days and we'll re-use them in the next kit we ship Smile

You have been excellent to work with and thats always appreciated on this end to say the very least.

Make sue that you start a duplicate of this thread over on my forums, thats where the people that REALLY appreciate what you are doing hang out most often Smile

_________________
Jake Raby
Raby Engine Development
www.rabyenginedevelopment.com
"I've never given anyone Hell, I just told them the truth and they thought it was Hell"

ChesterKV · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:03 am Post subject:

Dude,

Close your electrical panel box cover. I want to see you complete your project injury-free Surprised

Best of luck, even if I think you should stick a Subaru EJ22 in it Not talking

- Chester
_________________
1984 Wolfsburg 7-passenger stock sunroof
1992 Subaru Legacy EJ22 boxer motor installed.... van is now sold.... currently playing with a 1987 Toyota MR2 with 1.6 liter twin-cam motor. Better than the Subaru boxers....... I'm impressed. Well, okay, in an "apples and oranges" kind of way. Smile

tencentlife · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:13 am Post subject:

So does the kit include the case? Has it been machined for big jugs, etc.?

Like those squishy pistons. I wanna see the heads, too.
_________________
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Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

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airkooledchris · Samba Member Joined: January 25, 2005 Posts: 2720

I can't tell you how inspiring this is to see. AC Vanagonauts rejoice!

Jake Raby · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:24 am Post subject:

Randy in Maine · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:35 am Post subject:

tencentlife · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:43 am Post subject:

82WestyMan · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject:

Just got out of the shower...
Pretty much got the short-block finished up today, only have to do the 'taco-plate' mod done for the oil temp sender.
Will have to update my progress tomorrow
... I can already see 'trick 'o treaters' in my cul-de-sac

Happy Halloween All....

BOOO!!!
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Jake Raby · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject:

Thats great progress for a day.. Follow the supplied time line and contact us as needed. I will be away on business through Tuesday, but Blake will be around to answer any questions you may have or snags you may hit... Just post them on the kit owners forum and he'll take care of them, if they occur.
_________________
Jake Raby
Raby Engine Development
www.rabyenginedevelopment.com
"I've never given anyone Hell, I just told them the truth and they thought it was Hell"

82WestyMan · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:59 pm Post subject:

to bring everyone up to speed on my progress

below is my progress getting the case internal put together. i've been following jake's video that came with the kit on how to assemble things

after i got the rods installed and the full bearings marked for position (great trick for when you're installing crank into the case...), i had to install the cam and distributer gears on the crank.

i did this first thing in the morning so the crank would be nice and cold. had to use a little yankee ingenuity to heat the gear so they'd slip on so i broke out my coleman camping grill and let them warm up for about 20-30 minutes. then i took my 'ov-glove' from the kitchen to pick them up... worked like a charm, they both slipped on easily

after i let everything cool back down, i made sure all the surfaces were really clean (brake clean and some lint-free rags) and lubricated all the moving metal2metal surfaces with engine break-in oil and set the crank in the case, making sure all the bearings were full seated.

then i install the cam bearings, lubbed them up and the appropriate cam surfaces and lubbed up the cam lobs with the cam break-in lub supplied with the new cam then set the cam in the case, making sure the cam marks lined up with the crank cam gear

after making sure everything moved freely, i prepped the other half of the case with the one split crank bearing and the rest of the cam bearings

i install the oil pickup, taking special care it was aligned for the thru bolt

i installed all 6 'thru-case' bolts, putting the recommended (and supplied) sealant on both sides of the bolt head washers
then using the 'Curil-K2' supplied with the kit, i sealed in the cam plug and the case mating surfaces and installed the other case half
i put more sealant on both sides of the washers, installed the nuts on the case bolts and torqued them down.
before continuing with the rest of the outer case bolts, i made sure the crank (and cam) spun freely

i finished up by installing the oil pump, the filter housing, the distributer & drive, strainer & cover and the drain plug

next up... cylinder and pistions
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Vanagon Nut · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject:

Nice to see the pics and useful I'm sure for all the air heads.

Seeing the case halves and bearings etc. sure brings back memories of working on my 36 and 40 HP Beetle engines waaaaayy back when.

Neil.
_________________
"VW gas I4 Conversions" Google Group is being shut down.

1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

tristessa · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject:

Looking good, and you're getting things together a lot quicker than the only local-to-me CS kit I know of got his put together.

Question, though --about that Bosch Hall-effect distributor I see in that last picture. I thought those only came on the California-spec air-cooled .. and I also thought the non-vacuum Mallory was recommended (or required?) for the Camper Special..? Though that was before I started hearing that QC on the Mallory's was slipping.

Jake, any input on teh distributor? Reason I ask is because the last time I saw Westy78, he said there was still timing instability/scatter going on with his Mallory despite everything. If the curve in those "California" Bosch electronic distributors is acceptable for the CS kit like he's got, I've got a couple of them squirreled away in the garage (plus module and harness) and could get one to him pretty much any time -- he lives about a mile away from me.

82WestyMan · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

good question about the distributor...

i had a second 2.0L engine I used as a core for the kit and it happened to be a Cali engine and thats why you see that distributor
i'm only using it to install and keep the distributor drive in place.
when i get to point of installing all the peripherals on the completed long block, my Fed distributor (w/Pertronix modual) will go back on
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

Jake Raby · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:44 pm Post subject:

At the present we are recommending the SVDA dizzy for all CS engines. Our development work on this topic is being kept behind closed doors until we decide exactly which dizzy we'll be sticking with.
_________________
Jake Raby
Raby Engine Development
www.rabyenginedevelopment.com
"I've never given anyone Hell, I just told them the truth and they thought it was Hell"

airkooledchris · Samba Member Joined: January 25, 2005 Posts: 2720

this is all very very cool, thank you for sharing this process with us.
im chomping at the bit thinking about the process, and love hearing more than just the usual 'its awesome' but actual build up progress shots.

makes me want to find a j'yard motor just to tear up and pick through. =)

82WestyMan · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:35 pm Post subject:

Now where was I?...

Well, got the short block put together last weekend but couldn't get back at it until this weekend.
Spent the best part of yesterday and today working on the project and got pretty far.
Decided to call it a day, take a shower and put some football on and update the thread.

Started working on the pistons and cylinders.
Because of the Level-2 prep I had done by RAT, all the cylinder already had the correct shims matched to the piston.
I used the supplied Curil-K2 as the sealant between the cyl's, shim and block.
I applied it with a small paint brush to keep the build as clean as possible

Install one circle clip in the piston, lubed up all the piston and rod end surfaces and installed the cyl/piston.
The pins slide right in, used a brass drift to make sure they were well seated and then install the other circle clip.
Just took my time and had all 4 cylinders and pistons installed in no time at all.

Once they were installed, it was just a matter of installing and torquing down the heads.
The heads are new AMC units reworked by Len Hoffman of Hoffman Automotive Machine and they are things of beauty.

Time to assembly the valve-train.
I worked on one side at a time, starting buy putting cam lube on the face of all the lifters (sorry about the bad pic), then putting lube on both the lifter bores and the side of the lifter and then putting them in case.
Then I installed the o-rings on the ends of the new pushrod tubes, lubed them up, slide them thru the cylinders and down into the case.
Taking a large set of channel-locks, I slowly rotated them back and forth while pushing down on the tube until they were fully seated in the block.
Then it was just a matter of installing the rocker-arm assemblies, installing the push-rod tube retainer springs and adjusting the valves.
(The last pic shows the rockers with the replacement spacers and shims instead of the stock spacers and spring washers)

Then I ran into a bit of problem but it wasn't a 'show-stopper'. It seems the Vanagon engine carrier bar support is different than the bay-window unit. When I went to bolt up the carrier, the Type 1 HD pump cover with the kit interfered with the carrier. An hour later, after a bit of cut-off wheel, hacksaw and file work, the carrier bolted up the block

Before I started hanging some tin on the engine, I installed the Cyl Head Temp sender under the #3 cyl spark plug. Remembering a tip from a previous thread here, I install the CHT sender under the plug and put a bit of J-B weld to keep it in place when I service the plug in the future

Not bore you with the details of all the little things that have to installed once you get the long block together, I spend the rest of the afternoon putting on the fan shroud, tins, etc and then installing fuel system, ignition and intake

I'll probably spend the rest of the week (after work), installing the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate then doing all the rest of details I need so I can bolt the tranny up and get it ready to be installed back in the van next weekend.

I'll add some more next weekend (hopefully) showing the rest of the process
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell" - Harry S. Truman
82 Westfalia - w/ a Raby 'Camper Special' engine

iltis74 · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 3:59 pm Post subject:

You're cruising right along and the thing looks very sharp, but I wonder; could you not have trimmed the carrier support itself?

Randy in Maine · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

Be sure to test fit the valve covers to the heads.

Some of the AMC castings are to large and do not allow the valve cover to preperly seat on the heads and they will leak.

Jake, Blake or Len have probably already checked them for correct fit I would imagine.

Looking good!


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