Yet Another Rebuild Thread -- 2.1 Wbx

[mbwesty]

I got a 2.1 engine from a friend who went Subie, and I am in the slooooow process of tearing it down and rebuilding it.

Question...

This is cylinder 3/4, what's with all that buildups on/around the water jacket seal? Calcium buildup? Head corrosion stuff?

The 3/4 head is in the front, and the 1/2 head is in the back. What can you tell from the buildup in the combustion surface? Why is the 3/4 head looks to be a bit oily? These are both VW heads with the VW/Audi stamp, u think they were rebuilt heads and probably junks? I am gonna clean them up but just thought to get some experts advice before I spent too much time on them...

Next I am gonna split the case and take it to a place (European Motorworks in Hawthorne--it's between my work and home) that's specialized in Type I/IV engine to have it dip/cleaned. Any word of caution as I found them online and the are close by instead of being in Orange County...I probably will use them for other machine shop services too...

Thx so much for your comment/advise! Tim

[DanHoug]

plan on new AMC heads. i think you'll find that the surface of those is extremely pitted. scrape off the gunk with a putty knife... it'll look deceptively smooth. then take a dental pick and start working some of the pits, it can be quite deep! walnut shell blasting is also great but not necessary if you're replacing them.

that granular fluff is corrosion and i think the neoprene water jacket seal degrades creating more pockets for corrosion. the block lip can be smoothed out with 3M pads and maybe use some JB Weld filler. the jacket seal covers both sides of the lip and with adequate sealant in the groove of the gasket, eg Dirko or The Right Stuff, it will seal up. not so much on the flat head surface.

bottom line: save yourself grief and buy new heads.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[dabaron]

[DanHoug]

this is one case where the new heads, made in Spain, are of better quality than the OEM German ones. metallurgy seems more resistant to corrosion at the jacket seal and mabe a tad less cracking between the valves.

the weak area of the AMCs are reportedly the exhaust valves and GW sells them with upgraded exhausts. price might be very close to rebuilds. at least rebuilds done right with a new sealing surface built up then machined down, crack between the seats fixed, and new guides and valves.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[16CVs]

If you are not going to buy AMC heads. Have yours rebuilt. Why buy someone else's issues. Yours were functioning before it came apart.
Have them checked for cracks, put new Exhaust vales in and possibly guides. If the heads are pitted, clean them out real well and the sealant will fill in the pits. Filling the pits with an Epoxy is a bad idea as it will expand and contract at a different rate and become dislodged and bring its own set of problems.
I cleaned up a set of heads on 1.9 and expected to get a year os so from them and they lasted over 5 years. I built a proper engine for it and sold the running 1.9.

Stacy
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Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[mbwesty]

[dabaron]

[mbwesty]

[dabaron]

[mbwesty]

[mbwesty]

Yes, today I went ahead and split the case and found that the distributor drive gear was all chewed up, and also I found the saddle of bearing no.1 with a groove that I could felt as I ran my finger nail across it. I am clueless on if I may have damaged the distributor drive gear as I was trying to rotate the crankshaft with the engine side way and with the distributor removed (it did not come with the engine). It was hard to rotate the crankshaft as I was working on remove the pistons/cylinders, so I did not force it neither as I had sensed something wasn't right. I am also not too sure how's that groove on bearing no. 1's saddle had gotten there neither.

So this is not my engine and the only thing that I was told was it had timing issues. I know I am totally lack of experience and the trick of the trade and etc. on how to rebuild a wbx, but I have read hundreds of times on how to do so by others and especially info from tencent. His info on smacking the main pulley bolt three times with a 3lbs hammer and then zip if off with a 1/2" impact at 100psi had worked like a charm. Yeah, so I thought I could take this on...

Now, so do you think I may have done the rookie mistakes and damaged the distributor drive gear and nicked the bearing no. 1's saddle as I was working on splitting the case? I did not find any metal pieces in the oil yet, but just some small rocks and a piece of small glass, and I would not be able to say if they were there before or had fell in as I was working...I really appreciate your comments!!!

Oh, BTW, my flywheel lock tool didn't exactly fit without shimming, and I don't recall that was the case with the engine in my 2WD Westy now. I think this engine had came from a Syncro, so perhaps Syncro and 2WD flywheels aren't the same?


Chewed up distributor drive gear.

The other end of the distributor drive shaft, where it was chewing on each other.

Obvious deep groove in bearing no. 1 saddle, left side of case??? (cylinder 1&2 side)

I think this was a bearing no. 2 pic, looks ok?

Flywheel lock tool fitting, and is this the same flywheel for 2WD?

Why the cam lobes have these weird alien looking burnt marks on one edge?

Case split...next time I would loosen the pulley bolt before mounting the engine to the stand though...

a 3lb hammer and a 1/2" impact worked great with that pulley bolt...