Is our bus going to ignite!?!?!?! Firemen called.. neighbors mad

[UtahGOgear]

[UtahGOgear]

I just replaced the cylinders and pistons and rings with brand new ones on the driver side, but as I go to pull the head on the passenger side (1 & 2) cylinder 1 looks as bad as freaking cylinder 3 did on the other side! I mean- this sucker is beat to crap and I can't quite figure out why because the valve guide seems to be there still (unlike on 3 where it was just blown to pieces).

Sure enough, the rings seem pretty crappy and have tons of build-up all over them. Lots of cleaning, but luckily inside the case looks pretty clean.

So- what do you guys think is up with cylinder 1? It's not the cylinder really, it's actually just the piston and head where the valves are that is beat like someone accidentally dropped a screw, rock, etc... into it and it beat around in there for a while. I figure there's no way the intake valve seal from 3 jumped all the way up the air distributor and made it's way into 1 and had a good time in there before blowing out the exhaust.... that just seems stupid... so my question I guess- the grand question- the question I take far too long asking is this: what do you think got stuck in cylinder 1 enough to beat up the piston (see previous page of thread for reference of similarly beat cyl. 3), what should I check to make sure I can still use the head, and is it even logical to use the same head even though it's a bit beat up around the valves?

P.S. If you have a spare head laying around for a 2.0 and looking to just get it out of your shop/garage..... there's one broke fool out here in Utah who could really use it!
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RIP:
'82 Westy a/c
'82 Westy 1.6D
'78 Transporter Moon Roof Camper Conversion
'78 Westy Restoration
'85 Westy 1.8T AEB 50* w/adapter plate
'87 Syncro 2.1 WBX
'91 1.8T ATW 50* w/diesel components
Currently enjoying:
'97 Eurovan Winnebago

[Wildthings]

This could be preexisting damage. Probably hard to look the head over for cracks if it is beat up, but heads seem to run this way okay, so its your decision on whether to run with what you have or not.

[Abscate]

OK - we have seen enough to know that the engine is a marginal poop box.

You can probably cobble it together well enough to get the Bus running, but it won't be a reliable long time/distance cruiser until the checkbook gets hammered.

With a new one in the house, enjoy him, take care of her, and come back to the Bus in a year.
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.ssS!

[UtahGOgear]

[UtahGOgear]

OKAY FINALLY!!!!!!

Long story short- she runs great. There was just a little smoke at first, but then nothing! Doesn't shake at all either! I can't wait to get it on the road and take our son on his first camp out! Or maybe just a late night...

PLEASE let me know if what I did sounds right. It's making quite a bit of noise like you can hear all the valves or something... I can't remember if it's normal or not as we haven't had a [running] bus in a while. Here's what I did, please please please any input or advice or correction is very welcome as I'm still learning lots and just really want to run things by you guys before hitting the road. All comments are greatly appreciated!

So- I replaced the pistons, rings, and cylinders. They all came in a set and I took the pistons out of the cylinders just to make sure the rings were off-set as I've seen online. I made is so they're not lined up obviously, but that they aren't on the bottom ether because I heard that if you have a gap on the bottom of the cylinder (like pointing toward the road) it will let oil past slowly and smoke each time you start it up. For sure don't need that....

I heavily inspected the head(s) and put them on, then set the valve clearance on the rockers. I did this by finding TDC of cylinder #1 and marking it on the flywheel. I made sure it was TDC by physically checking the cylinder was all the way toward the top and re-checking it with the head on and rockers, etc in place. I started there and adjusted the intake and exhaust to .006, then rotated the flywheel CCW 180 deg. and did #2. I then rotated it again 180 deg. CCW to my TDC mark and did 3, then rotated it to the 180 deg. CCW once more to do #4. I did notice that the intake valve on #3 was a bit weird- the rod would push into the hydraulic lifter and bounce back a little bit. Perhaps this is what blew the valve guide on this very valve- perhaps it was pushing the valve too far open because of something funk with the lifter and that's what bent the valve and shattered the brass guide. Thoughts? I just set it to .006 like the rest.

I then replaced the clutch and flywheel with a spare one I had in the garage because I had broken the other one taking the motor off like a duface. I checked the input shaft from the tranny just to make sure there wasn't abnormal play- it seemed fine.

I then pretty much just hooked everything up, drained the oil (it came out green because of the mixture of RESTORE and NO SMOKE I put in.... man, $30 down the drain! Actually recycled with the oil, but still...) I filled it up to the top mark on the dip stick with 10W 40. That's what I've always been using for the aircooled vanagon and busses.

*I replaced the oil and air filter as well with new ones, used some newer spark plugs as well. New valve gaskets.... a few other odds and ends.

It fired right up but ran a bit weird and then I realized I forgot to plug in the AFM, so I killed it and plugged the AFM in and it fired up strong and seems to be running great. No wobbling or anything... just seemed a bit loud to me. Nothing in particular though, just louder than normal I suppose. Maybe it's because I was in the garage though? Hm.

Well hey anyway, if there's something that doesn't sound right please let me know or if I missed something or there was something you would have done differently (yeah besides rebuild it to perfection or buy a rebuilt motor...) I'm all ears!

In the end this has been a huge pain in the butt, but I'm happy to have learned a lot from the experience. Thanks for everyone's input and comments, I really do appreciate it a lot!
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RIP:
'82 Westy a/c
'82 Westy 1.6D
'78 Transporter Moon Roof Camper Conversion
'78 Westy Restoration
'85 Westy 1.8T AEB 50* w/adapter plate
'87 Syncro 2.1 WBX
'91 1.8T ATW 50* w/diesel components
Currently enjoying:
'97 Eurovan Winnebago

[Wildthings]

If you have hydraulic lifters, which it sounds like you may. Then after you run your engine for 15 minutes or so you need to go back and set the lifter preload at 2 turns past initial contact. The point of contact can vary greatly from valve to valve and can vary greatly on the same valve if you run the screw in twice. You want to use you fingers to turn the screw in to find the point of contact because it can be very subtle and then turn it in ~2 turns.

If you set your valve lash with the crank out 360° your valves will be very noisy. You want to be sure that when you have the #1 cylinder at TDC and are ready to adjust the valves on #1 that the rockers on #3 are at overlap (rockers moving in opposite directions when you rotate the crank a bit). The rockers on #1 should not be moving.

[Abscate]

The oil ring gap goes up top, the other two go at 120 degrees offset

As long as the oil gap isn’t on the bottom it’s ok, though.
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.ssS!

[UtahGOgear]

Okay I just went out on a test drive and it still smokes bluish/white smoke like crazy. This really sucks... all I can think of is maybe ether there is some moisture getting in the gas somehow? I pulled the tube from the breather and there was for sure some fresh oil that had made it's way up the tube that goes to the intake boot. Perhaps it's just getting sucked up through that now??????

Man, to go through all that work and still have this problem... not fun! It does seem to smoke a lot less though, but still enough where I would probably get pulled over, especially when I gas it it really blows thick.

Time to place bets! Again...

I'm going to go clamp the hose from the breather to intake boot but leave the breather open and see what we get.
_________________
RIP:
'82 Westy a/c
'82 Westy 1.6D
'78 Transporter Moon Roof Camper Conversion
'78 Westy Restoration
'85 Westy 1.8T AEB 50* w/adapter plate
'87 Syncro 2.1 WBX
'91 1.8T ATW 50* w/diesel components
Currently enjoying:
'97 Eurovan Winnebago

[Wildthings]

You need to break your new rings in by doing some hard driving for the first couple of hundred miles. Accelerate hard getting up to speed, pull some short but relatively steep hills. Make the compression force the rings out hard against the cylinder walls.

Don't know what your present smoking problem is, but I would tend to ignore it if it isn't super bad until the rings are broke in.

White smoke can be caused by a valve guide moving in the head.

How much oil are you running in the crankcase? Has someone added valve cover vents to your crankcase ventilation system?

[UtahGOgear]

Also, I just went to start it with that hose pinched as mentioned above and there's no power to the fuel pump. Nada. The PO had it hard wired to turn on with ignition, now it doesn't turn on at all. I wonder if excessive fuel pressure somehow could have done it? Yikes... well, I'm off for the day to visit some family but tomorrow I'll throw in a spare FP and see if the breather was just letting by too much oil. The flap in the breather is gone, so it's pretty much just a straight shot to the intake.... so maybe what's burning now is what's running through the breather. It is a bit better, but not at high RPM's under load.
_________________
RIP:
'82 Westy a/c
'82 Westy 1.6D
'78 Transporter Moon Roof Camper Conversion
'78 Westy Restoration
'85 Westy 1.8T AEB 50* w/adapter plate
'87 Syncro 2.1 WBX
'91 1.8T ATW 50* w/diesel components
Currently enjoying:
'97 Eurovan Winnebago

[UtahGOgear]

[Abscate]

What brand were the pistons rings and cylinders labeled, and how much did you pay for them?

That will tell us if the brand and label match.
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.ssS!

[Wildthings]

The later Vanagons used a 6mm orifice in the hose from the breather to the S boot and tend to run fine with the valve in the breather rotted away. The breather valve in the Vanagon operated exactly opposite of how the Bay breather worked as far as crankcase pressure though.

Note: The Late Vanagons used a tiny heater to keep the orifice from freezing up in cold weather. Since my early Vanagon doesn't see much in the way of cold weather running anymore I just added an unheated 6mm orifice, so far so good.

[UtahGOgear]

[Wildthings]

The orifice would be to control the crankcase gas flow if your breather is shot.
I just stuffed a pipe cap with a 6mm (1/4") hole drilled in it into the breather hose. If nothing else it will keep the air pulses from the pistons moving in and out from reaching the AFM and causing the vain to vibrate.

[Clatter]

I really have to just shake my head in amazement...

Where on earth do people get the idea that you can just buy some wasted/used/hammered 40-year-old light alloy air-cooled motor,
That spent it's whole life pushing a heavy Bus,
And just stab it in and go?


Someone somewhere told you it worked that way?

The seller of the old motor said it was true?


These things can die even if everything is right.

Good Used - That's an oxymoron!



I see all of that muck all over that motor,
And know right away,
That you'll have to go through it.

It's not going to just run like it is; maybe around the block a few times.
That thing is done. Stick a fork in it!


If you're lucky, it's a rebuildable core...
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[UtahGOgear]

[cmonSTART]

Maybe I've missed it in the thread, but is it possible the engine blew a bunch of oil by the rings before you changed them and it's all built up in the exhaust system?
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS