tencent is my hero...

[j_dirge]

[noza]

ben- nice call on injectors! getting new injectors, hence the waiting...
saw your write-up after the fact

and for the tins, it's a lot easier to find any leaks with them on. Now that motor is worry free, they are getting put back on.

Gotta love this forum.

[tencentlife]

Nortenos rule, ese!
_________________
Shop for unique and useful Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/
also available at VanCafe.com!

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is death to doctrine.

[Van-go108]

[kevtherev]

Tencent saved me a fortune..
he stopped me getting into a mess with a rebuild.

"Abandon it..!"

I did, and have a great engine now.

In England he'd be given a round of "HUZZARS!" and "frees a jolly good.. "
The Queen would have him round the palace for tea.

such is his fame for being a jolly decent chap.

[PocketRocket]

I don't know of a way the check the stretch of the head studs as they are not like a rod bolt that you can put a gauge on. Just got off the phone with Randy at raceware. He says he no longer has the WBX head studs and last cost was $350 a set. He said he would make another batch if he could get 20 orders with 50% down. Working on and building WBX engines for years now, I have seen through my shop over 10 engines that have had broken head studs that came in on the hook. I have seen from customers sending me their blocks another 40 to 50 broken head studs. I inspect each head stud with a magnifying glass and a strong light to check for any pitting from rust removing and replacing any that show signs of being corroded, the area closest to the block is where most of the studs corrode and break, the engine I removed the stud for 10 cent (Chris) was outside top #2. the outside ones are the ones I see broken most of the time. I buy core blocks from shops that don't or won't deal with removing the broken studs & replacing them with good used ones. When 10 cent was at my shop I had over a hundred good used studs in stock of all three sizes. As these engines get older the head stud problems will get worse. Its just the cost of building better than the run of the mill engines. Thanks Rocky

[tencentlife]

Thanks for the offer, Damon. To begin with I would need to get new ones to have the original length. Measurement in-hand is easy, but the whole point is there needs to be a way to accurately measure the length while in the case, since the biggest bear about changing them out isn't the price of the studs, although that is considerable, but the labor of extracting them; they do not come free easily, as Rocky will attest. If I make up tubes that can fit down onto the taper at the root flare, then they could be slipped over each stud in situ to see if the stud has lengthened. How much is safe would be based on what is considered safe for other highly-stressed stretch-type bolts, such as are used on other cylinder heads, and allowing a proportional change in length. The changes would be very small, though, I would think at most a few thou on the longest ones, so the machining of the measuring tubes would have to be pretty precise so they fit down onto the root flare consistently.

Don't know if it would actually be useful, it's just an idea at this point, but you can see why I would be motivated to figure this out.

Oh, and I don't want to forget to say thanks for all the very kind remarks made by everyone; I'm glad if I helped anybody, but mostly I'm humbled by your praise!
_________________
Shop for unique and useful Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/
also available at VanCafe.com!

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is death to doctrine.

[wbx]

[shadetreemech]

Hey, where's the tin on that engine?


_________________
'84 GL 1.9
'01 Volvo V70 T5
'88 Westy - "MZDRTHY"

[tencentlife]

That's exactly right: stuff happens. Rocky has built more of these than I have, even, and he said he has had a few studs break after some time in service. It's just one of those things that's hard to control. I would think the odds would be improved by use of all-new ones, but the increased cost of a blanket approach would mean I would sell very few engines at all. It doesn't do much good to build a perfect product that no one can afford.

Ben, the overtorque test is a good way to assess the threading in the case, because aluminum threads will shear or not shear, pretty much, but I'm afraid that overtorquing studs like these might just stretch them and put them closer to potential failure even though they don't break under the test. Their construction seems to be a stretch type, and there's no doubt that as the engine expands they are put under much higher tension than the basic torque applies. So I'm thinking that an accurate length measurement as is done for other stretch-shank bolts might be the way to weed out the ones that have given up some of their strength already. Because they are not seated in the case at consistent depths, it would require making a tube of accurate length that could be slipped over each one until it bottoms on the root flare. There would have to be three different tubes for the three lengths of studs. This will require some more investigation.

Sanchius, since you're not far away, I'd like to talk with you about those parts. I've had offers of similar but from so far away the shipping cancels out a lot of the potential value. I'm not hard up for good cores, but the Albuquerque VW wrecker where I score a lot of my working stock is going to go out of business at the end of '09, so I should try to get ahead somewhat. Look for a PM.
_________________
Shop for unique and useful Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/
also available at VanCafe.com!

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is death to doctrine.

[FNGRUVN]

Even if you did replace all of the studs with new ones, who is to say one of the new ones couldn't break. Stuff happens. The space shuttle is a good example of this. The best of everything, tested and retested and the thing still breaks. Stuff happens.
_________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

[sanchius]

[quote="tencentlife"]

[ftp2leta]

Bravo but i wound's expect anything less from him

To tenc, i sometime test the strength of the stud by putting a very strong metal bar with a hole in it across the water jacket, put the stud in the hole and over torque it to 42-3. On a old case that i didn't care about i was able to but 55 before the stud stripped.

By the way noza, i see normal hose clamp on those injector!!! And i see original hoses on the injector.... you don't want that beautiful engine to burned down!

Cheers, Ben
_________________
Working with rust, grease, dirt and dust is a sad truth.
------------------------------------------------------
FI part for sale: http://www.benplace.com/parts_sale1.htm
My site: http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm
Subi conversion: http://www.benplace.com/vanaru_eng.htm
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ftp2leta

[CasaDelSol]

If tencent don't rock, ain't nobody rockin'. Assuming I am around long enough for me 2.1 to kick, the next powerplant will be a tencent deluxe.

[Bruce Wayne]

I plan on going with a tc engine when my time comes.

[errolprowse]

i wish we could have a online donation box for tencentlife, i mean i barely have enough money for fixing my vanagon but i would totally give him a couple bucks here and there. and if everyone did that too i think it would work out great.

his posts are like 5 times as long as others and tell in exact detail how to fix a problem, i like bookmark his postings just for later on reference. (not excluding everyone, there are some other really smart guys on this forum)
_________________
'89 Vanagon GL
The ultimate kiteboarding/surfing/skimboarding van!

[Spezialist]

I'm pretty impressed by much of what I've read.
_________________

[fairweather]

This isn't "good" customer service it's, ah well, is there even a name for this?? Something beyond exceptional for sure.

I have always stated in the various "swap" threads to just install a 10c or GW engine, well that list just got shorter by 50%.

[shadetreemech]

Criminey, the things some people will do just because its the right thing to do.

I'd like to buy you a beer, or a nice glass of wine, one of these days, sir.


_________________
'84 GL 1.9
'01 Volvo V70 T5
'88 Westy - "MZDRTHY"

[tencentlife]