2.1 MV rebuild

[4Gears4Tires]

Also make sure your coolant pipes are connected the right way. I had my van down for 9-10 months and mixed them up coming out of the motor and overheated my good replacement motor.

After that I have been pretty careful about filling/bleeding coolant. For the first fill I would use a vacuum coolant fill kit. The nice thing about this is that if the system is not holding negative pressure, you have a leak to find. That's nice to do before it's filled.

Filling it up regularly, then starting it, partner holding throttle @ 3000rpm, then adding continually adding coolant until it's completely filled, and capping it, has also been an effective way to fill it. I find that this actually overfills it a bit, but that is totally fine. Your overflow tank just needs to be drained down a bit later.

Before I installed Vanistan's front heater valve mod https://intrepidoverland.com/shop/t3-vanagon-front-heater-valve/ I would use a windshield wiper fluid reservoir and pump to fill the radiator from the front. This was fairly effective. I don't do this anymore. With the Vanistan mod you can confirm the 3000rpm method fills the radiator by looking at the clear coolant bleed tube and observing that it is filled with coolant. https://imgur.com/uhgBeQp Removing the grill and looking at this coolant line is really great peace of mind. I would recommend the mod. https://imgur.com/PJBahWe
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'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[T3 Pilot]

Mornin’

After all the work you’ve put into the engine, you should want to have an oil pressure gauge screwed into the engine at a minimum for start up. You can borrow these from the auto parts stores. Even better would be a permanent installation at the drivers position.

Good job in any case.
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1988 Vanagon

The most important part in every vehicle is the nut behind the wheel......

[90weekender]

Marc,
I will follow your steer. And I like the idea of using plain water first. If my track record continues...I expect the start up process will take tries before I get it right.

4Gears4Tires
After 12 years with this beast, the burping procedure is familiar to me. I would have purchased Vanistans front heater valve...which is very clever...but I'd already replaced my front heater valve with the Heavy Duty unit from GW. I do have a spare windshield washer pump and hoses...so will fill the rad as you described.

T3 Pilot
I've purchased the MansiSpeed oil pressure relocation kit which puts a T junction at the front drivers side of the engine. So I'm thinking what you are thinking. If you have a favorite oil pressure gauge you have successfully used, please share a link. It would save me and others hours to researching which one to buy.

[DanHoug]

[90weekender]

Dan,

Wow! That cam elevation detail is news to me. I'll read the article.

WRT high Zinc oil:
I've looked for this cat delete tube a few weeks ago with the same idea in mind...but gave up or lost track in all the details. Can't remember.

I'm really under time pressure now. It's Summer and I've got to get this baby dragon to breath fire.

Do you know who sells this pipe?

[DanHoug]

CIP1 is where i bought mine from i believe. they can be drilled and an O2 sensor bung installed for further testing. but yeah, be aware you'll loose your O2 sensor and the mixture adjustment benefit. to me, this is important to prevent an overly rich or lean condition.

if were you, under the time constraint and just dang anxious to fire it up, i'd pull the breather off the intake boot, plug the boot hole, and light it up. your oil blowby will decrease in a short time as the rings seat.
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-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

[MarkWard]

Search "Test Pipe". Legally, no one can sell a CAT delete pipe.

edit: no affiliation. https://vwparts.aircooled.net/Vintage-Speed-SS-Cat-Delete-025-131-701-VS-p/025-131-701-vs.htm
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[90weekender]

Thanks guys,

Vintage speed is shipping from Tiawan...3 weeks. Plus they are in Covid spike hell. So CIP1 has it in stock and ships in 3-7 days. $65 shipped.

According to the cam break in article, the mechanism for degrading the cat is the oil vapor that is reintroduced to my intake air stream from the crank case breather hose.

So Dan's suggestion now makes sense. Disconnect that hose and plug the inlet port. I prefer to keep my O2 sensor working and will follow Dans trick until the engine is broken in.

[DanHoug]

[MarkWard]

I’d leave the oxygen sensor disconnected. It can hide a problem. With the engine in open loop, you’ll know exactly how the engine is running. How much zinc you planning to pass through the cat? I wouldn’t worry about it. Break in is an hour max. Dump the oil and replace the filter. Engines had cats long before the cut back on zinc additives. We use Brad Penn break in oil.
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[90weekender]

One of my drivers side rocker studs snapped off at around 8 ft/pounds while torquing it down. It’s the last open item on the mechanical side of the build and is quite frustrating.

How to remove it? Not enough threads to double-nut it. It may be in with red lock tite. I don’t recall. (This is why one should keep build note books).

Any ideas?

Only a 3-4 threads left

[DanHoug]

a good old fashioned pipe wrench with sharp, clean teeth will grip the smooth part of the stud and turn it out. if red loctite was used, just heat the stud base up with a propane torch.
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-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

[MarkWard]

Bummer. That’s plenty of material to work with. I have some stud extractors that don’t depend on threads. They have internal rollers. I think they are Hazel. You have to wonder why it broke. It’s possible something is binding.
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[90weekender]

Bought one of these at Orielly for $25 ish bucks. Worked perfectly...I cant believe I did not already have one of these. Embarrassing. See pic below.

Mark,
Your comment has not gone unnoticed...it worries me. What could be binding? The through holes in the rocker is clean...I chased the stud threads my die tools. Installed the new stud easily...

My first guess is the stud might have been stretched by me when I put 2 nuts on it during the original installation into the new heads.

Tool of the week:

[MarkWard]

Install the rockers with the adjusters fully backed off. In theory, if the pushrod tube was on the edge of the lifter and the piston was at TDC in the overlap cylinder, you’d compress the valve till it stopped at the piston, at that point, something has to give. For some reason, the pushrod does not want to center in the lifter, you need to apply some pressure on the rocker and pop the rod up into center. I always look down the tube with a flashlight to be sure it’s centered in the lifter.

Normally the lifter would compress as well as the valve spring as you torque the rocker. I also don’t know what I’m talking. Just thinking out loud. Double nutting the stud should not have damaged it. Studs with shoulders should not take more than 5 ft pounds to seat.

Edit: are you running higher ratio rockers? Technically they’d add more lift. If something was out of position, the ratio rocker might contribute.
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[90weekender]

Mark,

I’m running 1.35 ratio rockers.

It took many small tests to feel the difference between a push rod that has seated correctly in the lifter vs. fallen out. And the lack of oil pressure in the lifter means you can only feel a very subtle pressure from the spring inside the lifter. But I believe they are all installed correctly and with the adjusters nearly all the way out.

Once the rockers were back on correctly, I completed the following today:

Filled it with oil

Filled with water (tap water for the initial start up). I use the front washer pump to fill the radiator but it started overflowing at 3 gallons...I was expecting to put in 4.5.

Bypassed the oil breather line to the intake and plugged the inlet at the intake boot.

Cranked the engine over 6 x 30 seconds (the oil light in the instrument panel is blinking while cranking the engine and turns off when i turn the key back to “off” position....does that mean I have no oil pressure? How will I know I have oil pressure?)

Pics:

[MarkWard]

I can’t help with the oil pressure indicator light. But you can temporarily make one with a test light. Connect the testlight to the bat stud on the alternator. Then trace the wire that comes up from the pressure switch between the pushrods on the l/s of the engine. It should meet the other switch wire at a 2t connector near the coil. Disconnect that wire and probe it with the test light and it should light. The switch is grounding the circuit. When it gets oil pressure the testlight should go out.
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[DanHoug]

if you left your pushrod tube shields off, make a mechanical oil pressure gauge with 3 hardware store parts... grease gun extension hose, a 1/8" female coupler, and a 1/8" 150psi water pressure gauge to thread into the sender hole.

the 1/8" NPT thread DOES thread into the M10 sender port without damage. i chose to use an M10-M to 1/8" NPT female adapter but you don't have time to source one!

good luck, you're so close if not there already!!
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-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

[MarkWard]

Or, if you left the pushrod tube shields off, unplug the switch, attach your test light probe to the switch and touch it to the alternator stud. It should light. Have an assistant crank it as you have, short bursts while you watch the testlight.

Also, did you take my advice about going through this step with the spark plugs removed? Doing this takes the load off the starter and the rod bearings while you verify oil pressure.
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[90weekender]

Thanks Guys,

Spark pugs are out as suggested.

I will try the test light trick as it is simpler and requires no trips to the store $. But I will keep Dan's gauge instruction in mind for a longer term solution.

As mentioned, I'm using the MansiSpeed oil pressure switch relocation kit, so access to the switch is from above now.