Itinerant Air-Cooled

Oregon72 wrote:No fair - you're going so fast!!!

Yeah, but he's not getting enough pictures.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. [Ecclesiastes 9:11]

chitwnvw wrote:Yeah, but he's not getting enough pictures.

... can't believe I botched the img code earlier.

Tough crowd, I intended to take more pics but got so caught up in the work, that I spaced it. There wasn't much too see, As I just basically just cleaned inspected and reassembled it. Yes I did change out the cam and lifters and added a windage tray, but those are not really photo worthy....I'll do better with the top end. I'll take lots of pics of setting up the heads and the valvetrain....to try and make up for my lack.

tonight it grew P &C's...Make sure to clean your parts before you weigh them, the difference was not small a gram or two...After the pistons were clean the opposite ones weighed exactly the same. 1&3 454.2 grams and 2&4 454.7 grams, the pins only varied by 1.3 grams from 110.8g to 111.1g so I just swapped 2 pins, to lessen the the diff from the heaviest set to the lightest. 1.3g is good enough for this mostly stock engine that wont see over 4500 RPM.

The Mahle pistons waiting to be put into it's cyl.

I painted the studs gloss black.

You can see the marks I found all ready in the pistons from the prev builder, and the remainder of the factory paint marking. (The yellow and blue paint) The yellow was a complete circle around the blue dot before I cleaned them.

I used a regular cheap sheet metal ring compressor and put the pistons part way into the cylinders and then put the pins in. It's probably easier to just get a VW specific ring compressor that'll let you compress the rings after the pins are in. No big deal I needed to get this engine together, to make room on the table for Hemi parts. Upgrading the cam in my 528 Hemi to larger solid roller one, from a flat tappet, the new one is also much more EFI friendly, with a large LSA. Should be good for about 100 more HP too, to 700! This is in a 68 Charger.

Anyway next to fab something to hold the clys down so I can check deck heights and equalize if necc. And get on with grinding on the heads. They are no where near ready, I've just taken them apart (removed the valves) and cleaned 'em.

Lookin' good.

My local VW mechanic rocks....I needed a flywheel as the one off the old engine had it's dowel holes all wallered out. So I called him. Yea I got nice one he says, $75. Great I answer, you got a type 1 thermostat too? Yea I think I got 2 brand new German ones I'll sell ya one for $20, I just gave him $100 for the stuff. When I got their I asked if he had a gland nut poof a new one. No additional charge. the thermostat is real nice shiny and real tight.

RSorak 71Westy wrote:My local VW mechanic rocks....I needed a flywheel as the one off the old engine had it's dowel holes all wallered out. So I called him. Yea I got nice one he says, $75. Great I answer, you got a type 1 thermostat too? Yea I think I got 2 brand new German ones I'll sell ya one for $20, I just gave him $100 for the stuff. When I got their I asked if he had a gland nut poof a new one. No additional charge. the thermostat is real nice shiny and real tight.

For me, when these kind of things happen, it makes up for all the times I used to take it up the tail-pipe when I had to take my car in for even the slightest easy repair. Nice score!!

RSorak 71Westy wrote:My local VW mechanic rocks....I needed a flywheel as the one off the old engine had it's dowel holes all wallered out. So I called him. Yea I got nice one he says, $75.

Is this the flywheel that is eating up your endplay? I know VW switched from paper gasket to rubber o-ring between the flywheel and the crankshaft at one point. Get this nailed down.
Colin

Yes it is they both have rubber o rings....and appear to be identical. Except one has wallered dowel holes...

What's the latest? I haven't been following the threads around here too diligently.
Colin

OK folks this has been on a back burner for a while. But now it's on again! I got the engine installed and have been trying to start it....It won't. I'm figuring out what's up now....I think the cam maybe bolted to the gear wrong. What is the reference mark for this? I cant find my red VW book ATM. Just that the slot should line up with a bolt hole? It makes compression and even tries to fire a cylinder.
But only 1 cyl seems to be firing consistently. Im going to rotate it by hand and note when valves open and close and compare this to the cam card.....Should verify if the cam is bolted right. Since there's only 3 choices, right, 120, or 240 degrees off, I dont think it would make compression if wrong. Does anyone know?

OK I just checked, and the exhaust valve starts opening about 15 degrees after TDC (way too soon) about 25 degrees after it fires.....This why it wont run. The cam must be off. The crank and the distributor agree, but the valves are outta sync. Oh well it needs to come out for many other minor issues and The case leaks between the halves by the oil pump....So i can fix all this stuff I guess.

Ok got it apart, (had to build a engine stand adapter 1st), the 2 marks on the gear on the crank appear to be in the wrong place. On my crank gear when #1 is at TDC the 2 marks are 90 degrees off, they are at the top, rather than 90 degress rotated in a clockwise direction, which would get them in the position to match the cam gear. Anyone have a possible explanation?

Or to phrase this another way. When the 2 marks on the crank gear are in position to match the cam, the #1 piston is 90 degrees away from TDC.....
Is this right?

How do know the cam is bolted to the gear right? What is the reference mark? I cant find this is info in any of my books?

Replying to my own post.
I found this on the web, "The way I set them up is look at the camshaft from the front (the cam gear end) take the timing mark and put it straight up, and the look at the rear 2 lobes on the cam, they should be pointing to the left (away from #1 cylinder which is at the back of the motor) "

Set my cam this way and it appears to be right. i.e. my cam was bolted to the gear wrong, problem found......Whoops.

Not that anyone seems to care, but I made it run today....Now I need to finish the breakin of the cam and drain the oil and fix a couple minor oil leaks. It runs fine and makes no bad sounds at all. The old stock Thing exhaust sure has a lot of rust in it though...