Chronic Problem w/ "New" engine

[dr8track]

I have a 74 Westy that blew an engine over a year ago and have had nothing but problem after problem with a rebuilt engine that I purchased from a Seattle engine rebuilder. I heard good things about the work of this company prior to deciding to have my engine done there. Here are the issues I've had. When I first got the engine installed I had two problems related directly to the engine rather than the installation. It was blowing oil out the dipstick tube and it was leaking oil like crazy. I took it back to the rebuilder and they worked on it again and again and againg trying to get the leaking stopped. They finally got nearly all the engine leaks stopped, but it was still blowing oil out the dipstick tube. They are aware of all the typical things that might cause this symptom and addressed them all. After months and months and months they gave up and decided to put a different engine in my bus for me. All they saved from the old engine was the pistons. This is the standard engine that comes in the 74 (1850 cc??), but it is actually rated at 2000 cc, I think because of the piston size? I'm not very mechanical, so not sure about that, but I do know that when done it was supposed to be 2000 cc. Well, guess what, after installing the new engine, it still blows oil out the dipstick. I am certainly reluctant to call this good and accept this engine. I can't imagine trying to sell this vehicle to someone else with this problem. He says he has never encountered anything like this in all his years of rebuilding VW engines. Is there anything that a person extremely experienced in rebuilding VW engines could be overlooking that could cause this problem of oil blowing out the dipstick?
I am not sure what to do at this point. I have literally been dealing with this for 1 1/2 years now. The engine blew in May of 07. I spent well over 2 grand on this engine and had hoped that this would make my bus dependable and almost like new. Instead I have a nightmare on my hands.
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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[Bleyseng]

Usually oil blowing out the dipstick is due to excessive blowby or excessive crankcase pressure. This can be caused by worn rings, unproperly seated rings, worn pistons, etc. Remember a engine is a air pump so if air bypasses the rings/pistons into the crankcase it has to come out somewhere! There always is some air due to the pistons moving up and down but that is sucked into the S boot via the large hose off the oil tower.
Do you have FI or carbs? If you have carbs you must deal with the air some how, usually via a oil breather box.

I don't get out to Bothell too much but I could meet up with you and take a look.
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70 Ghia Black convert-9/69 build date-stock w/133k 1600 SP-barn find now with a rebuilt tranny and engine
77 Westy 2.0L w/Ljet, Camper Special engine-95hp and with LSD!(sold)
76 Porsche 914 2.1L L20c, 120hp Djet (sold)
87 Syncro Westy Titan Red 2.1L 2 knob 100k miles

[Wildthings]

Certainly sounds like a problem with the breather or the breather hose. On a stock 1800 with carbs the breather should be 100% open inside, while on the FI engines there is a valve on the breather that might somehow be causing a blockage. The hose coming off the breather needs to be total open inside, they deteriorate badly with time and the insides can collapse and/or fill with crud.

[busdaddy]

It seems odd that the one item that I would suspect as the cause for blowby is the one thing that ended up in the replacement engine, Were these new pistons and cylinders? Did they rehone them when they were transferred? What oil was used for breaking it in? What was their/your break in procedure?
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[Bub]

The pistons/cylinders, though they are what create the internal pressure, are not the problem with the engine. You could in practice equalize any real amount of pressure with a vent system. Its very strange that a shop would go through the trouble of more or less replacing your engine for a venting issue. I would install vents in the valve covers and vent the crankcase and heads/valve covers to a breather box, that is vented to the atmosphere. I mean...you can vent a 2.8L drag engine that way, so if that doesn't work I'd say they physically assembled something wrong.
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[Karl]

[Bub]

Sorry, I meant heads/valve covers- in case they weren't already. VW didn't vent the valve covers because the heads were already vented in most cases. Though I've seen T4 heads that weren't vented, and in that case it would be simpler to vent the valve covers than drill the castings on the heads out.
Why let a shop, who with repeated attempts at trying to fix the SAME problem on TWO separate engines has had no luck, keep working on it?
My advice would be good luck with them and.. and how is addressing the PROBLEM a band-aid?
Take it back, let them rebuild it again..or vent the pressure and drive.
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[Karl]

Adding additional vents is the band-aid.

I have 2 77 Westies that have over 300,000 miles on them without having to add extra vents.

VW built them correctly. Some clown in Seattle DID NOT.

[1975 Kombi]

Might want to do a wet and dry compression check and a leak down on it. Just a thought but could there be a bad valve guide and the air that is sneaking pass go down the push rod tube and into the crank. Maybe you could do a reverse test and apply shop air to the dipstick tube and listen with the engine off to see if you can hear where is might be routing to. Just some bazaar thoughts to add.
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Brett

“He’s decieving you boy! Reach into his pocket and take what he’s got.” Mr. Crabbs.

75 Westy auto
03 Jetta TDI
71 SB
74 Westy
Licensed pilot (single engine land VFR)
--
Rust In Pieces: 72 Bug, 73 Bug, 81 Rabbit LS D 2D, 83 Rabbit D 2D, 84 Jetta TD GL, 85 Jetta D, 68 Z28 RS 302, 91 Passat 16v

[Bleyseng]

the 1.7L type 4's and the 2.0l 914's had the heads vented but also had a PCV valve at the oil breather. This controled the air pressure inside the engine.
A FI bus has the big hose ported to engine intake manifold to suck the crankcase air into the combustion air. If its blowing oily air out of the dipstick something is wrong...Do a leak down test and a compression check.
_________________
70 Ghia Black convert-9/69 build date-stock w/133k 1600 SP-barn find now with a rebuilt tranny and engine
77 Westy 2.0L w/Ljet, Camper Special engine-95hp and with LSD!(sold)
76 Porsche 914 2.1L L20c, 120hp Djet (sold)
87 Syncro Westy Titan Red 2.1L 2 knob 100k miles

[dr8track]

[1975 Kombi]

There may be a broken ring. It doesn't matter if they are new the guy might have broke one on assembly. Do a compression test to see if this is the cause.
_________________
Brett

“He’s decieving you boy! Reach into his pocket and take what he’s got.” Mr. Crabbs.

75 Westy auto
03 Jetta TDI
71 SB
74 Westy
Licensed pilot (single engine land VFR)
--
Rust In Pieces: 72 Bug, 73 Bug, 81 Rabbit LS D 2D, 83 Rabbit D 2D, 84 Jetta TD GL, 85 Jetta D, 68 Z28 RS 302, 91 Passat 16v

[Wildthings]

Which breather do you have? I think there are pictures on Ratwell's site of the different kinds. Not sure now the FI breather is actually supposed to work, but if you have the FI style I would opt for trying a carb style just to see what happens.

[VWLover77]

Too much oil in the crankcase?
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Don

1978 Westy
1971 Super Beetle Convertible


"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien

[dr8track]

Well, 12 years after my initial post I'm revisiting this issue. Shortly after the original post back in 2008 I lost my master cylender on the way home one evening and the bus was parked until about a year ago when I had to get it running because I moved.
I got the brakes working and got it tuned up, but the original problem still exists. It blows a LOT of oil out the dipstick hole. As a reminder, I'll recap the history:

1. 2007 - NW Connecting Rod rebuilt and installed an engine. Heads were bored out to take a larger piston and incresing the engine to 2000 cc
2. The engine leaked like crazy - Took it back and they got the leaks stopped except the dipstick problem
3.Couldn't resolve the problem so did a second rebuild using only the pistons from the previous engine.
4. Same issue with 2nd rebuild. Engine blows oil out of the dipstick
5. Dealt with trying to get it resolved for a year and a half
6. Master cylinder went out - I gave up

The bus has the Weber Progressive Center mount carb on it.
Many people originally suggested the problem might be improper crankcase ventilation. While it seems like that would have been something NW Connecting Rod would have ruled out in the 1.5 years and two engine rebuilds, I'm not making any assumptions at this point.
I am now wondering if the crankcase ventilation even exists on the engine. Since I'm not mechanically inclined I don't even know what I'm looking for. Should it have a breather box? Where do I look on my engine to see if the venting system is even in place? I took a few random shots os my engine because I didn't know where to look.

I figured a good place to start is to figure out if all the parts are even there.
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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[SGKent]

how long has the engine been sitting since the last time it was run before now.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Wildthings]

The breather box is the rusty boxy thingy sitting in front of the carburetor from the camera's perspective. Remove the hose and pry the bale off and give it a good look over. You should be able to blow through it either way with virtually no restriction. You can soak it in carb cleaner and blow it out if need be. Also check the hose between the breather and the fitting on the bottom of the air cleaner, both need to be fully open and offer little resistance when you blow through them. Bees love building nests in such things and clogging them totally up while they are sitting on your work bench during a rebuild. You can run a dowel rod through them to see if anything is blocking them.

I like to have as much slope on the breather hose as possible and thus run the breather into the top of the air cleaner instead of the bottom. You want any oil and moisture in the hose to drain back into the crankcase after shutdown instead of staying in the hose and eventually blocking it.

No way I can tell the inside diameter of your breather fitting, but if it is constrictive at all it may cause problems.

Don't know what pistons and cylinders you have but AA was selling some real junk a dozen years ago. Since the P & C's were reused, you may have kept your problem when the engine was rebuilt the second time.

[dr8track]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I will check that out in the morning. In addition to the tube and the box isn't there a pcv valve I need to check also? Where is that located?
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1974 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobiles - Lake Stevens, WA

[Wildthings]

[Abscate]

Take a moment and

1. pull the wires off that pulley before they wear through

2 replace the 12 year old fuel line and kindergarten class hose clamp with the right one..closed band or oetiker style. Ask for a “ fuel hose clamp” at your FLAPS ...FRIENDLY LOCAL AUTO PARTS STORE
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.ssS!