Engines that miraculously still ran, but shouldn't have

[Vanapplebomb]

I thought it would be neat to have a thread where people could post up damaged or severely worn parts they have found during tear-downs from engines that were miraculously still somehow running.

So let's have it then. What's the worst wear you have found on an engine that was still a runner, but should not have been?


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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[FreeBug]

I don't know if this counts, but a guy once asked me to try to tune the engine he had assembled. The valve timing made no sense with what the pulley timing showed, so I did valve lash by checking full lift on the opposite valve, decided on a new TDC via split overlap, set timing around that, etc, finally got it to run. When you turned it off, you could hear a squirting oil noise.

When I asked him if he was sure he indexed the cam, he sorta looked at me in a way which made me realise he didn't quite know what I was going on about.

It didn't last long, started to make noise, and on disassembly, turns out a cam bearing had been left out, hence the squirting noise. Cam was not indexed. He was a fast learner, though, and went on to build much better things..

I once worked at a shop where a car was inadvertently moved around for three weeks, driven in and out, 100 feet or so, at least twice a day, between oil changes. Someone got distracted, sump was dry as a bone for 3 weeks... It ran fine, and even better with oil.

The engines where the pulley moves back and forth so much that when you take off the distributor cap, the rotor swings back and forth 20°...

Engines with cracked cranks sometimes still run, with a nasty wobble-wobble.

Did I ever tell you the one where the guy complains of poor mileage since he installed his massive amplifier? It was under the dash of a 1303, and yes, there were four screws going into the gas tank. I still don't understand how it didn't pour out when he drilled..must've done it when the tank was empty.

I'm sure that's nothing, compared to some.

[FreeBug]

Her's one I just remembered: a guy had one of those engines with excessive axial play at the flywheel/pulley. So he builds a frame around the pulley, with a bolt in the middle pressing down on a bearing on the pulley bolt. Voilà! Sure, it fights against the clutch pressure plate, but it was just a 1200. He passed away before this system failed, so game won.

[Brian]

The first motor I had in the bug had a death wish.

I found that it had been timed incorrectly and was set at ATDC and not BTDC. Then it ran with no fan belt for some time. Another time, one of the rockers fell off. It was the exhaust side too so it was getting hot.

Stupid thing kept on puttin'
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Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[GTV]

This was one of the MANY sins this engine was working with. It still ran, horribly. Rebuilt the top end and fixed everything I could find. It is much happier now.

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EMPI Power Rules!

[Axitech]

Dad had a 66 squareback, which was high living for a Baptist Preacher in 1975 in Lancaster Texas. He let me use it but always harped to 'check the oil every time you start it'. I didn't.

Engine quit on me. checked the oil, low. bought a quart at gas station down the road from where it quit. Not enough. walked back, bought another, dumped it in. Nope, not yet. walked back, bought another. Nope, need more. dumped the fourth quart in and FINALLY it was full. Walked back and called Dad and lied that 'it just quit'. He drove out and looked it over. Asked me straight up, "did you keep the oil full?" "Yes, you told me to, so I did". He pulled the stick. " That's some really clean oil."

Then he stepped over to the guard rail and picked up the four cans of oil. "you know, Son, littering an' lying are both sins". Pretty sad day still today, that I had disappointed him really played with my head.
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He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36


The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.-Thomas Jefferson

[modok]

Vw engines are the most screwed up of any engines I've encountered in the industry.

Most recent one comes to mind is a 40 horse I did a lot of the machine work for. The new guy checked out the rods and called me over because he'd never seen anything like it. ONE of the rods had a bearing fail in it, and should have been replaced. Using a new bearing would certainly have just locked it solid to the crank. BUT nope, some mechanic hand ground the big end into a roundish shape with...........who knows, a file? a die grinder? and put it back together and it worked. He left he bearings in the rods (like all humans do for no reason), and I should have kept it. They have guides for identifying bearing wear patterns to determine the problem..........and this one was so unique they should have a picture of it in the guide labeled "hippies WTF"

The owner of the engine had no idea something was wrong with the rod. I told him yes we could fix it but it will be .040 short, so bring us another rod. He said fix it. So I did. And the cycle continues.

[MagmaJctAz]

Got my 74 Super from a neighbor shade tree mechanic. He would fix other people's Bugs, buy, fix, and sell others. That's how I got mine.

He got a Baja the owner wanted him to up-size the cylinders. I was helping him pull the heads off. The combustion chambers were filled with mud. Odd thing too, as the engine seemed to run well.

A former friend of mine had a family hand-me-down 73 Super. I recently wrote about his idea of maintaining brakes here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7685720&highlight=#7685720
The shade tree neighbor had helped him build a 1776 long block. The friend was installing all the tinware, intake, exhaust himself. I dropped by to visit as he was finishing up. I noted he'd missed a few pieces, like the square pieces that sit under the cylinders above the push rod tubes.

He asked, "are they needed?" "Yes," I replied. "Will the engine run without them?" "Well, yes, but how long is anybody's guess." I pleaded for him to backtrack and install the missing pieces. He ignored me and threw them away. He'd show off his ride peeling rubber any chance he got, even in reverse. I'd warned him about that, but he ignored me. His reverse gear started popping out. Gee, wonder why?

Eventually, his engine started making a horrible noise. 18 years later, I can't remember the noise. But the shade tree neighbor diagnosed the problem when he tore the engine apart. Mitosis of the crankshaft. Yes, it was still running up to the point of tear-down.

Regards,
Mike
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1974 Super Beetle. Owned since 1995. Daily Driver. Turned over odometer twice!
1971 Fastback. Check out my Fastback resurrection thread!
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627711&highlight=

[Cusser]

I've posted this before, fits here.

In 2002 Mrs. Cusser drove my original engine 1971 Convertible a few miles after an oil stud vibrated loose after 31 years, and ALL the oil drained out. It stalled out a few miles later, my daughter knew it had leaked oil (oil light and pressure gauge, Mrs. Cusser wasn't talking).

I went there, checked oil level and found none, added 1 quart and watched by flashlight as that oil streamed to the ground from the missing stud's hole. Next morning I took a 6 x 1mm bolt with me, added 2 quarts of oil, and it started right up, and no knocking. I drove it home (1/2 mile).

That weekend I found curved bearing shells on the oil screen as I changed the oil. We ran that engine 4 additional years (yes, with low oil pressure after warm up), and the engine was still running when we retired it, never any engine knocking. The engine was swapped with my then un-used 1835cc engine, and I've not yet done an autopsy on that engine, it is the matching number so I need to keep that.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[Boolean]

While driving home from my parents place in the countryside, the engine suddenly developed a heavy rod knock. I told my gf that we may have to walk, and slowed down to maybe 30 km/h (~20mph). The knocking slowly got worse as we approached the city, and I already made plans for towing the car to work and how I would fix the obvious problem.
Then it just disappeared. I was like 19- 20 y/o at the time, so I just revved it up and made up for lost time.
I never checked what happened, and that car served well several years after this.
Traded it for another beater when it didn't pass inspection for another reason.
I actually traded the car with a friend who had the same problem. We both fixed them up real quick and used them a while more.
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I strive for perfection. Excellence will not be tolerated!
Build thread here:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=529379

[Vanapplebomb]

[awreed]

[gitrdun]

I just rebuilt my engine as i found large flakes of brass on the oil screen and noticed i could rattle the crankshaft side to side by a good margin. Someone previously used under sized crank bearings and put brass shims under the bearings to fill the gap. I have no idea how long it ran that way, i wouldnt have noticed it either if i never changed the oil. Im amazed sometimes at what it actually takes to permanently kill an engine.

[busdaddy]

I had a young guy bring me his 65 beetle years ago to look at, he said it smelled hot and was getting hard to start. One pull of the dipstick was all it took to diagnose the issue. Apparently the day before the weekend his oil light came on, he proceeded to take a 300 mile trip anyways thinking he'd add some on Monday (because that's what the light means, right?). The car still ran, but was it ever tight and rattly
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Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

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[Glenn]

Drove this 8 miles home after a loud bang.

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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[fivelugshortaxle]

[GTV]

[esde]

When I was 16 or 17, a buddy and I took 3 or 4 dead single port engines apart, and cobbled one together with the best looking parts. Nothing was weighed, or measured, and only somewhat cleaned. Mismatched heads, swapping rods from one case to another, robbing a piston and cylinder from this for that, we put it together as fast as possible for a dune buggy, and it ran perfectly. Someone else remarked that it was one of the best running single ports they had driven for a while. The list of new parts were a flywheel seal and oil. At one point it seized, and we desperately tried to break it free towing it with the tow bar, while popping the clutch . When that didn't work, we pulled it apart, and found a giant chunk of carbon had come loose and dropped into the cylinder, locking the engine. Quickly assembled it again and it ran as well as before, for many years. No idea what finally happened to it.

[Frank Bassman]

So, my grandfather owned 12 bugs in his life.

Was always a big V-8 american car guy (40's and 50's vintage)

When he moved to Venezuela he rented a bug and traveled from Puerto La Cruz to Caracas.

Bought it when he arrived to Caracas. No more American Iron in his life after that.

Anyway my dad drove the last of his bugs, the 12th. Many years. Probably about 80,000 to 150,000 miles. A LONG time. Well past the average lifespan of a bug engine that is for sure. (I have no clue how.)

When I told him that that engine should have the valves checked at the very LAZY minimum every 6,000 miles, he told me any GOOD engine in good shape shouldn't need a "valve adjustment" every 6,000 miles.

So that thing never had a valve adjustent, ever.
Also, he used straight 50 weight oil towards the end, exclusively.
And he never complained about it ever overheating. It was, and still is, a 1968 1500 single port.

I'm truly not sure what kind of magic happened here, but that kind of running is truly miraculous. I'm dying to do a valve adjustment on that thing just to see how BADLY out of adjustment it really is. Too bad a whole ocean and a ridiculous totalitarian regime are in between the car and me!

[Erik Litchy]

i had an old subaru beater, the thing was the EA82 engine. it had a leak in the oil pump that i could never fix, even changed the oil pump. i was driving on I55 and ran out of oil. since it was a beater i really didnt care if i had to hitchhike, so i kept driving another 6 miles to the next exit, the engine getting louder and louder, and slower! put 4 quarts in it, ran smooth and silent, power was back.

in top gear it loved to cruise about 4000 rpm at 70. the next week i noticed oil pressure was a little lower, so i changed the oil filter and saw it was full of metal shavings. new filter brought up pressure to normal.

this car routinely ran out of oil and when it did you always had to give it more gas and work it harder. subaru engines may have faults but they are tough.