WBX Porno and a head gasket story

[90Doka_Guy]

The engine required new head gaskets and rings all around, so i needed to pull it.

First of all, a big thanks to mr. tencent for a writeup he did a couple days ago about piston ring installation and proper jug preparation. The timing couldn't have been better, as i was installing rings literally the next day. It was a big help and i learned quite a few things from it. What he said can be found here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=360361

Anyway, ill start off with a bit of history of the engine. The original engine kicked the can at about 100,000 miles due to something gone wrong in the valve train. After the new engine had about 50,000 miles on it, the passenger side combustion chamber gasket started to leak. This making the car useless for long trips on the highway, i decided to take it apart and fix it. All was well with the repair and the engine was running like a champ. Well, 20,000 miles after that, the drivers side water jacket gasket started to piss when it was cold out. Since the engine was leaking at the mains, i decided to pull it and reseal both heads and replace the mains. This will hopefully prevent the death of several hundred cats, dogs, and other furry creatures. Taking everything off and cleaning it up never hurt anybody either.

Unfortunately, i dont have any before pics, but i do have in process pictures.

Just before head installation

One of the heads all cleaned up. This picture makes my father real happy. The rebuilt engine claimed to have new AMC heads. Clearly there are some pits filled with JB weld on there. New heads my ass. Other than that, there is zero pitting. This surprised me because tap water has always been used instead of distilled water.

Now i decided to pull and reseal one head at a time to make mixing up of parts more difficult. Well turns out that was sort of a mistake. After i got the one side all buttoned up, i took apart the other side. When i removed the jugs, i noticed the top ring on both pistons was broken in half. After some colorful language i called up my local dealers to see if they had a set. After getting laughed at by the guys at the parts counter, i called up Ken from vanagain.com and drove the 40 min to pick up a set of Goetze rings. Ken is a great guy to do business with and i highly recommend getting parts from him.

It just so happens that the side with the broken rings is the side i repaired 2 years ago. Being concerned it was something i did, i called up my mechanic uncle and asked him about it. He says it couldn't have been anything i did and attributed it to old age. This also meant that i had better replace the rings on all four pistons. Awesome. I had to take apart the other side again. After an afternoon of numb fingers and inhaled fumes, i finally had a clean set of pistons.

I couldnt help but sneak my brothers more than immaculate type III in here.

It was a real beeyatch to keep dirt out of the lifter bores.

Time for the pushrods and rocker assembly.

In the picture, you can see the left hand side exhaust valve stem a bit funky. I stuck the rocker assembly on and noticed it was only riding on half of the valve stem. It turns out the exhaust valve rocker was missing the pre-load wavy spring on the left most side. The more i work with this engine, the more i love the rebuilder.

So what do i do? I go out to the original engine that we have stored in a crate in the backyard. (My mom loves our vw obsession) For those of you wondering what an engine stored under a tree, under a tarp in a homemade crate for 10 years looks like, here it is.

Taking off one of the rocker assemblies...

All buttoned up.

In the above picture, you can see I made up a flywheel stop from a few random blocks of aluminum to i can take off the pulley and replace the seals. I have to take it to the garage for that. I am not sure the engine stand can take that kind of torque and i don't have an impact wrench rated that high.

Tomorrow, its off to the garage to take the pulley bolt off. More cleaning is in order while i wait for a plethora of seals and parts to arrive.

More to come...
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-'87 Westy
-'90 Tintop
-'90 DOKA

[sagebus]

Nice post with the pictures and all. Thanks for taking time out of your work to document it for us here. I have Bookmarked this post, along with many others to refer back to when I have the need to. I will be fixing the leaky heads soon myself. Nice job with the flywheel stop, I will need one of those. Keep us posted.
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1984 Vanagon GL, Wolfsburg Westy 1.9 ltr

[90Doka_Guy]

Well, i have the engine back in the van and she is purring like a kitten. After wrestling her in and buttoning everything up she fired right up like she always does. (This surprised me a bit) The lifters clattered like a mofo for about 20 min, but that was to be expected.

There is one problem i ran into which may or may not be related to what i have done. When i go to start the van, the starter makes repeated clicking noises while the starter is engaged. You know how when you have a dead battery and the solenoid clicks? It makes that sound by continuously until i disengage the starter. If it weren't for that sound, it would start up like it always does. It has been confirmed that its the solenoid, so looks like i am in the market for a new starter now. Fantastic.

Anyway, after i let her warm up i took her out to start seating the rings. I worked her up to harder and harder pulls in second gear then drove her hard. Ive got about 400 miles on the engine since i put it back in, and all seems well. Its so nice to hop out of the van after driving it around for a bit without smelling burning oil, grease, and other nastiness emanating from the rear of the van. She doesn't leave her mark either. We will see how long it lasts.

I'll be taking the van on a 2 week tour of Colorado in the first week of July ( ), so this was in preparation for the trip. My job is to make damn sure that this thing will make it. I don't mind, it just means i get to drive it around a lot until then.

Unfortunately, i don't have any installation pictures because my father was getting pissed off at me for getting my greasy paws all over his camera.

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-'87 Westy
-'90 Tintop
-'90 DOKA

[Mr. Electric Wizard]

Nice Fastback!
Oh, and nice engine work.
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"Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know."
~ Cullen Hightower

(T)exas (C)oalition (B)uses
(H)eidenhammer (B)ully (B)oyz

--1966 De Luxe Camper

[hatchb4ck]

Thanks for the great picks of the work you have completed on the engine.

I'll definitely bookmark this thread for reference.
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1960 Ford F100
2016 Moto Guzzi Stornello


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