TheSamba.com :: View topic - Expensive-sounding noise, time for a Subaru? heh

Mon Jun 30, 2025 11:11 am

The fine folks at Channelock , in Erie PA, will sell you a proudly
made in USA set of snap ring pliers for a reasonable amount of money

Mon Jun 30, 2025 11:59 am

Abscate wrote: The fine folks at Channelock , in Erie PA, will sell you a proudly
made in USA set of snap ring pliers for a reasonable amount of money

Yes, I think I need to stop and get some! Will make reinstalling things easier. Would have done it yesterday, but by the time in the evening I was working on that stuff, every place was closed!

In the mean time, can someone recommend where to procure a set of good clips for this engine?

The one that seems to be a little bit compressed makes me nervous!

Mon Jun 30, 2025 2:33 pm

You will not regret paying for quality snap ring pliers. These are one of the few tools I own that I bought from Snap On.

Mon Jun 30, 2025 4:03 pm

Got it. Will upgrade my snap ring pilers!

How about the wrist pin retainer? Any leads?

Mon Jul 07, 2025 3:54 pm

More wasted time... Had a couple precious hours this evening, so i figured I'd clean up the pistons and cylinders to take them to be checked and honed.

To be fair, this replacement piston I was sent was a freebie that was thrown in with the heads I bought.

But this is what I found. Ugh. Still on the hunt for a piston, I guess.

I was gonna ignore the pitting given previous conversation here, but I don't think I should use it with that chunk broken!

Still looking for a source for those wrist pin clips.

Tue Jul 22, 2025 8:49 am

Status update:

We have two machine shops in town... I don't remember exactly what happened, but I used one a few years ago and remember coming away from the experience feeling like he'd been not completely honest about something with the work that was done.

The other does a lot of work for a guy who does a lot of Formula V racing and has for a long time.

So you can guess which one I'd prefer to use.

I finally had time to stop by the shop this morning with the pistons and cylinders.

He said that he was afraid that if I just had him hone the pistons a bit, that wouldn't take away the "mushrooming" at the top of the stroke and I'd risk breaking the ring as it.

He also expressed concern that the pistons had gotten hot due to marks on the skirt of a couple of them. Also said that "massaging the skirts with a rawhide hammer" wasn't something they could/would do.

In his opinion, my options are to run a ball hone through the pistons to break the glaze off, use the pistons as-is, put it together and pray.

Or have them bore out the cylinders "1 over" (He said that being metric, that was likely .5mm) and buy new pistons and rings to match that.

That said, the top edge of one cooling fin on Number 3 did crack when removing. Assuming I could have had the work done like SGKent recommended a few weeks ago, I was just gonna run it.

So with all that in mind, I'm wondering what y'all think is my best bet from here? Back to feeling a little dejected at the moment.

Marks he was concerned about:

The cracked fin:

Tue Jul 22, 2025 8:52 am

buy a new set. Using those again is throwing away money and time. They are borderline. Meaning that they have gotten hot. I'd have to see all 4 together cleaned up before saying you have a workable set of used ones. You'll have to glass bead them with good quality beads and not HF junk, then measure and weight them before a shop could say they will work. With labor costs that could be $75 - $100 only to find out they still won't work.

Tue Jul 22, 2025 10:10 am

I suppose at this point, I can agree that a new set is probably the best bet as far in as I am now.

So which ones do you go for?

https://www.jbugs.com/product/029198075B-AA.html?s...9X1j5Z96BW

https://aapistons.com/collections/vw-piston-liner-...orsche-914

(I don't know if the AA pistons from JBugs are the same as the ones directly from AA Performance Products in the second link?)

Any reason to consider or definitely not consider one of these flat-top piston options?

https://aapistons.com/collections/vw-piston-liner-...914-type-4

https://aapistons.com/collections/vw-piston-liner-...linder-set

Tue Jul 22, 2025 11:36 am

Just for the heck of it when my high mileage 1800 finally died, I took a high mileage, never rebuilt 1800 from my pile of engines and decide to give it a go putting the least into it I could. The cylinders had 0.015" of taper and the valves were worn down through the stellite layer. I chose to run with the pistons and cylinders but put $300 into having new valves and valve guides installed into the heads. I honed the cylinders with a shoe style hone until the ridge at the top of the cylinders was gone and I put new rings on the pistons.

At present that engine has 60K more miles on it and it is doing just fine. No oil use and just a bit of piston slap on a cold start that goes away by the time I am out of the driveway. If you don't have the money to do it right then there are alternatives that might work for you, but there are risks in doing so.

Tue Jul 22, 2025 1:15 pm

dave - are we still working on a late, 1978 2L type IV engine? Just want to be sure before suggesting a set.

Tue Jul 22, 2025 1:56 pm

SGKent wrote: dave - are we still working on a late, 1978 2L type IV engine? Just want to be sure before suggesting a set.

The engine was originally from an aircooled Vanagon.

Took the Bus-specific type IV parts off the old engine (e.g. tins, fan shroud, etc) from the dead original 1973 engine and used those parts to fit this Vanagon engine in the '73 Bus.

It is also now running an 091 transmission and fuel injection from a '78ish Bus.

Tue Jul 22, 2025 3:03 pm

so, you have a choice of what to go with. 2L is common and available. AA is probably the least cost. I have not run them but there are many threads here from people who do. A Vanagon would be a 2L. Who did or is doing the heads, and making sure the valve seats are tight?

Tue Jul 22, 2025 8:44 pm

I bought a set of AA heads from a guy a samba member connected me to. They're rebuild with stainless valves.

Pros/cons of the dished pistons for lower compression vs. flat heads? Or the slightly larger ones with flat heads?

Tue Jul 22, 2025 9:03 pm

vwwestyman wrote: I bought a set of AA heads from a guy a samba member connected me to. They're rebuild with stainless valves.

Pros/cons of the dished pistons for lower compression vs. flat heads? Or the slightly larger ones with flat heads? on a bus dished if you can. The 2L puts out enough heat already without the additional heat from a higher compression ratio. You won't notice the power difference but you will notice too much heat.

Mon Aug 18, 2025 9:23 pm

Ok...

I'm tentatively hoping to have time to work on the engine on maybe Friday. Ordered a set of stock pistons and cylinders from AA Performance.

One thing I'm not sure about... I've read about lapping the cylinders to the heads to seal them. And of course head gaskets are an option.

What do you all recommend?

Tue Aug 19, 2025 6:20 am

vwwestyman wrote: Ok...

I'm tentatively hoping to have time to work on the engine on maybe Friday. Ordered a set of stock pistons and cylinders from AA Performance.

One thing I'm not sure about... I've read about lapping the cylinders to the heads to seal them. And of course head gaskets are an option.

What do you all recommend?

VW eventually recommended not installing the head gaskets as they tend to leak eventually. I have followed this advice and lapped them but wonder how you would be able to lap them just the same amount so the head sat squarely on both cylinders. I also add some copper coat to seal them. RTV to seal at the spigots.

Tue Aug 19, 2025 6:49 am

orwell84 wrote: vwwestyman wrote: Ok...

I'm tentatively hoping to have time to work on the engine on maybe Friday. Ordered a set of stock pistons and cylinders from AA Performance.

One thing I'm not sure about... I've read about lapping the cylinders to the heads to seal them. And of course head gaskets are an option.

What do you all recommend?

VW eventually recommended not installing the head gaskets as they tend to leak eventually. I have followed this advice and lapped them but wonder how you would be able to lap them just the same amount so the head sat squarely on both cylinders. I also add some copper coat to seal them. RTV to seal at the spigots.

At the spigots? Unsure what that is referring to.

Tue Aug 19, 2025 6:52 am

Also, these are what I found when I searched "Copper Coat"

Are you referring to one of these or something else?

https://www.jbtools.com/permatex-80697-copper-spray-a-gasket-hi-temp-sealant/

https://www.imperialsupplies.com/browse/chemicals/...ct=9258595

Sat Aug 23, 2025 1:41 pm

That would work. Coppercoat to seal at the head. RTV on the base of the cylinders where they seal to the engine case. Spigots refers to the holes in the engine case where the cylinders go.

Thu Nov 27, 2025 9:23 pm

Well goodness, I owe this thread an update!

Short story is, the engine is back together and in the Bus!

I think part of the deal is I had let myself get intimidated about putting a Type IV engine together... So I got help!

Bustoberfest at Indian Cave State Park in Nebraska has been on my annual calendar for a long time, so I recruited a fellow Buskatier with more experience than I.

I towed the green Bus up with the brown Bus; the engine and it's bits in totes in the center area, along with tables, a build stand, and more. And Jeff and I got to work on Thursday of that week.

The "first start" required a few tries, because the fuel pump had seized at some point, but luckily another Buskatier remembered that he'd loaned his Vanagon to someone (he'd driven his LT) and it had a spare in the cabinet, so that was sorted relatively easily.

Didn't get a lot of pics because I was working on it, but here are a few, including Silas and I on a first drive.

Oh, and one of it set up for Silas' daycare's Trunk or Treat a couple weeks later, where we handed out shave ice and hot chocolate.