Evan’s Garage Built Rod: The Birth of a 2180cc Street Machine

[modok]

Looks great, you're an engine artist
It might also work great tho I don't know for sure

Might want to leak test that pickup tube just in case.
vwJimbo had a leak right at the seam over the "bell" and it really sucked a lot of air.
Now every time I see a brazed or welded pickup tube I wonder why that doesn't happen more often.

[evanfrucht]

[modok]

There are many different kinds of solder and flux, and the same for brazing alloys and flux......the right combo works great, but other combinations do not, and everything causes cancer in california, so, oh well.
If it works, it works.

[GARRICK.CLARK]

Yeah, that sump plate is cool. Put a magnetic drain plug in there to maximise your efforts.

[67rustavenger]

Did you miss this Garrick?

Or are you suggesting an additional drain plug magnet too?

Looks great Even.
_________________
I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[GARRICK.CLARK]

Yes. 😁.

[Apollo21]

[txoval]

Great work and it turned out nice. I honestly worry about the screen(s) and potential restriction though.

[evanfrucht]

I was wary of that as well but these sink stainer screens have a larger mesh size than an original VW oil change strainer/screen so I figured I was safe.
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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[evanfrucht]

Modified some large washers that I got from a local aircraft surplus store. They fit better and help center the head studs. I ground the OD down and then soaked in acid to remove the zinc coating and clean them.

Compared to the head washers that come in the standard repro hardware kit

Before and after / slightly modifying the new washers I got. I lightly surfaced the back side of the new washers on a flat plate in addition to making the OD smaller. I tried to get the fit as snug as possible without it being too tight.

And drain plug, cleaned up and oil blackened/blued. Basically a cheap and easy DIY black oxide type finish. Heat up part with a torch until it gets very hot and darkens in color, but DO NOT even let it get close to red hot. Then simply dip it into oil. Natural oil like olive oil, canola, pure tung or linseed works best.

I was missing two of the six original 12mm case nuts and had a hardware kit so I decided to grind off the nylon portion off a couple of the lock nuts that come in the kit then do the same oil blueing process. I also ground down each side of the hex to make it into a 17mm hex size nut like original istead of the 19mm ones that come in the generic kits everyone sells. No wonder people always run into problems with the mains stud nuts hitting the barrells!!! They look better, almost identical to the original nuts and I can apply more accurate torque now, not to mention they fit without grinding the edges off or clearancing the cylinders. A small nitpicky touch... lock nuts don't look right on an engine case IMO.

The three steps of the process. Top left is what comes with the hardware kits, middle is after grinding off the nylon portion, right is finished product. Bottom left is an original

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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[evanfrucht]

I decided to work on cleaning up and polishing the rockers. I made a couple minor modifications for better shaft oiling. The rockers are perfectly fine to use as they come, considering you do some basic cleaning, prep, and inspection, but I decided to go the extra mile and waste a bit of time

Roughness left over from manufacturing process (I wonder if these arms are cast or forged.) There was even a chunk of metal that was ready to fall off...

Loose little chunk of steel. We don't want that in the engine...

After pulling that little chunk off

Overall surface finish: some sharp ridges, but not terrible

SIDE NOTE* I did notice the rockers DO have the tip hardened even though there is no discoloration to make it visually obvious. (I've seen pictures of the Scat 1.4's with the colored tips and that made me think about mine... I'm sure some people buy Scats simply for the picture with the discolored tips) So, in summary, no need to fret; the tips on these 1.5's from Dan are clearly hardened. I did a file test to confirm. Most of the rocker material is fairly soft but when I got close the tip the file started to skate. I cleaned them up with a belt file sander which worked well. I also wire wheeled and polished them up on the bench grinder

I did the following two oiling modifications:

First, I ground an "S" shaped groove inside of the rocker bushings, connected to the oil hole, with a very small round burr bit on a pencil sized die grinder. The groove is on the top half of the rocker, it runs from the oiling hole to the center point where the rocker "arm" sticks out. This mod is similar to grooving the rocker shafts, but I feel this is a better alternative since it doesn't compromise the strength of the shaft, and more importantly this avoids having a groove in the hardened shaft (which is more likely to unevenly wear the softer bronze bushings inside the arms.)

Then I put a single groove on the sides of the the rockers. I figure this will allow me to run a very tight (and quiet!) side to side end play while still allowing oil to flow freely out or in. I'm shooting for loose zero or ~.001" on the rocker end play. Pauter rockers feature a similar design.

A fine file was used to knock off any sharp edges from the sides of the rockers where they rub up against the shims. There were a few Knicks that were protruding.

I got my rocker blocks from Dan Ruddock. He will supply rocker blocks that have been machined down IF your combo calls for it. Unfortunately, I switched my cam grind choice after speaking with Dan and ordering the rockers with standard height (not machined down) blocks. After changing cams (the one I recently changed too has more lift) it then made sense to shave some material off the rocker blocks to keep my rocker geometry correct (geo will be covered in the next post) Due to these circumstances, I decided to machine them down myself, "freehand." Although it worked fine, I do NOT recommend doing it this way. It took way too long and I had to constantly check my work against a micrometer to make sure I was evenly removing material from the whole face and not sanding it crooked or convex. Flat and level is the goal. I ended up removing 1.5 mm or ~.07" from each block and made sure they were all the exact same height.

Maybe I was too careful but it took forever? The blocks were not even perfect from the factory to begin with. The corners of each of the blocks where all not perfect and some of the blocks varied almost .001" inch in height from each other. It should work well now, but it was major hassle to surface them by hand, without a lathe or mill. I also polished and smoothed the sides of the blocks where they rub the shims.

The rocker shafts were polished and the mounting holes for rocker studs de-burred or beveled slightly to remove the sharp edges.
BEFORE

AFTER

Then I beveled the openings to both oil holes in each cup adjuster using a small rounded cone shaped burr bit, and made sure there was no little metal chips stuck inside any of the passages (there was to begin with in a couple)
Side by side

Hole in pushrod cup gets a mini "countersink," its' a bit hard to see in the photos, look close.

Polishing lash caps for good measure

The rockers are also supplied with some extra shims for setting endplay. I was able to get them pretty close with the supplied shims (~.005") but I wanted to get it tighter. plus it was having trouble getting even or equal endplay for all 8 rockers, so I got some extra shims. Also the china shims that come installed on the rockers have a super sharp ridge and are cheaply stamped steel, so I was glad to avoid using them. I found that three 0.5mm shims make a good substitute for that one.

McMaster Carr has 25 packs of any size shim, spring steel or stainless, whatever you want for about 6 bucks per pack. Take a close look at the package, they are made in Germany too

Here is what I found to work for me, it may be a decent starting point for you too if you have the same rockers. *** After taking this picture and further adjustment a couple of the thin shims got switched out for even thinner ones. It worked out perfect since the ones Dan supplied were thinner than the three extra types I bought and went to use after all. Those shims at the top left are the sharp edge ones that are going in the trash.

And... finally assembled

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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[evanfrucht]

And here is the results of my rocker geometry, it took me a little while to wrap my head around this part of the build and avoid overthinking it.

First checking the travel and finding out what my actual lift is at the valve

Then going through the cycles: up to half lift, then to full lift, and over and over again.

I'm no expert but from everything I gather there are a few basic things you need to consider.

At half lift the rocker arm tip should be square with the valve tip or lash cap (shown in my image with the drawing)
HALF LIFT

Here is a quick computer drawing using the same image as above just to make it simple.

...and ideally you want the pushrod cup adjuster screw to be inline with (parallel) to pushrod at roughly 2/3 lift but that is less important. You also NEED the oil hole in the adjuster screw to line up (give or take a couple mm up/down) with the hole in the rocker. That is very important. If you peer into the threaded hole for the adjuster you can see it.

FULL LIFT

HALF LIFT

A feeler gauge can be used as a visual tool to help get this right. Thanks to Dan Ruddock for giving me this tip.

FULL LIFT

The pictures kind of suck since I used the intake valve.. sorry
but I'm no expert in this department anyway so don't follow my lead to much. This should give a basic idea.
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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[evanfrucht]

Once I got the rocker geometry set up I then moved onto cutting pushrods.

I set up a simple jig on a miter saw. The pictures and video should speak for themselves. I used a standard sharp blade, the kind for making nice cuts into hard wood. Something I learned a while ago is that, for aluminum, the regular toothed blades work much better than the black composite metal cutting blades. It left a nice clean cut. In the video it is hard to see but I am slowly spinning the pushrod with my thumb while I cut it.

Some big nuts to keep it parallel to the calipers for accurate measuring

Using the metal calipers to mark a line. Just put some pressure on one of the jaws while you rotate it and it will scribe a neat line.

Then making the jig

Check to make sure the angle adjustment is squared up

And lining up the scribe line and securing the clamp (end stop)

and finally... the moment of truth

Link


Then beveling the inside edge slightly

And finally driving the tips in. I took and old lifter and lined it with duct tape to add some protection for the already installed pushrod tip. I used a dead blow hammer and a simple tool I made which is just some thick aluminum with a dimple in it. I found heating up the rods to 200F and then freezing the tips made it much easier to drive them in versus doing nothing. I also used a dab of Loctite.

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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[txoval]

The head stud washer mod is great, thank you for sharing. Same with the rocker oiling modifications

[evanfrucht]

[evanfrucht]

I HAVE TO GO BACK AND WRITE DESCRIPTIONS, BUT HERE ARE THE PICS FOR MY CUSTOM OIL FILLER/BREATHER BOX.

Test fitting/double checking to make sure the top fits well at this point

Cutting out a flange shape and welding a double stack of M8x1.25 nuts for mounting studs.

Then I prepared to weld the original gland nut for the stock oil filler to the new flange I made.

And I also made a bracket to give it extra support and make sure it will not come loose or unscrew with vibration, acceleration, etc.

Also adding a breather to an original VW valve cover. Only the 1/2 side valve cover will be vented. It will connect to the lower opening on breather. I am not quite sure how I want to route the breather hoses but will get to that eventually.

They make a nice pair!

And here is a a peek at the finished box.

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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[evanfrucht]

Here are some pictures from the fuel pump rebuild. IMO these original German units are a much better option that the non rebuildable crimp top models, plus they look great right in the middle of the engine. Now that WW sells rebuild kits with high quailty OE diaphragms, those old crusty swap meet finds can now be given a new and purposeful life, snuggled up next to a warm engine block. I pulled this one out of a shit bin and paid a single buck for it.

Blocking out the flat mating surfaces on a piece of glass with 220 grit paper.

Then assembled after a soda blast and thorough cleaning with dish soap and hot water. It is worthwhile to build a simple jig to preload the diaphragm. All you need is a small block of wood, three M8 or even 5/16 bolts, and a drill. You do not even need to waste your time tapping, if you drill the holes a bit undersize the wood is soft enough to get threaded by the bolts. I want to say the preload is 14mm but it might be 12 or 10... I forget right now. two bolts go where the mounting holes are and the other is a "mock" pushrod that you thread in... that one is for setting the preload (make sure that the bolt gets threaded in TIGHT to that hole/don't make it too big)

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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[evanfrucht]

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves here. I was missing the small little tin that go on the underside of the heads. Aftermarket heads don't come with these, but original VW heads came with them from the factory. One has a hole or slot in it for the thermostat rod to go through. The original ones are paper thin sheet steel... surprisingly thin actually. I decided to make the new ones out if some 12 gauge aluminum sheet, mostly because that's what I have in the scrap pile, a few different things would have worked. I used a cut-off wheel to rough it out and finished it with a file. I won't forget the cylinders tins when I get to final assembly, these pics are still mockup.

These peices simply get punched into place (jam the tabs in between the fins) Use a dull chisel or punch and hammer, even a sacrificial screwdriver will work.

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1967 Bug ( the daily rod )
1964 Fury Wagon ( the pavement shredder )

[modok]

Love the big washers with hot blueing.

[evanfrucht]