It's finished!

[Mr Blotto]

Congrats Dick! You must be proud.

All you folks that dive in and complete these rebuilds yourselves really give me hope that I can do it too when the time comes.

[Oregon72]

Awesome job!! Your engine might just be the start of future VW gospel that instructs engine builders years from now, to use 6 shims for the ultimate in engine longevity and performance.

And I agree, ACR and his advice are pure gold!

Cheers to many miles!!

[dtrumbo]

Thanks you two! Yes, Mr. B, you CAN do this. The one thing you must do is find a machine shop/machinist that you TRUST. Even if you have to ship your parts out of your local area. Sometimes you gotta take leaps of faith so you better trust the person asking you to take the leap! By the way, DON'T rebuild your engine because you THINK it's worn out. Drive it and deal with issues singularly as they present themselves. Don't just lump them into the "well this engine is pretty old, so that must be the problem". Remember, it might just turn out to be the coil (see my other thread for clarification).

Mr. O72, I got played off stage before I was able to thank you and Gypsie for the "best supporting handholding" roll you two played in this. I am in NO way suggesting 6 shims is the way to go, but you never know, some of the best inventions were discovered accidentally! I'll be happy if we make it to Maupin and back and we'll take it one day at a time from there.

[RussellK]

Thanks for the write up Dick. I know I have an engine rebuild looking at me some time in the future and I can't wait.... actually, no I could wait. Your write up inspires and encourages me. Question. I read the write up threads religiously and so much of it sounds mysterious. Did it start that way for you and become more clear as you progressed?

[dtrumbo]

I bought and read cover-to-cover the Tom Wilson book How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine before I even bought the to-be-rebuilt engine. This gave me a pretty clear road map of what was ahead of me. Mr. Wilson's book is pretty much a step-by-step but isn't completely all-inclusive. The missing bits I gathered from the Bug Me Video Type 4 Engine Rebuild and, of course, the Bentley manual. YOU MUST CROSS-CHECK and verify any information you receive. Use your best journalistic skills and double-check your sources. Sometimes I had to take two or three different "answers" and using my best judgement figure out what was the best "answer" for my particular situation. Specifically, I always used the Bentley for tightening torque values as I did come upon some discrepancies along the way. Another thing that helped greatly was the fact that I bought the engine I rebuilt from a Craigslist ad. This left a completely intact (mostly) operating engine still installed in my bus as a reference for where all the bits and pieces hook up. I did end up taking a few parts off of the old (original) engine and putting them on the new (rebuilt) engine as they were in slightly better condition and/or didn't need as much time to refurbish. I gotta tell ya, I got to the point where I was spending too much time cleaning and painting and not enough time DRIVING the silly thing! I'm in no way suggesting anyone take shortcuts, especially when it comes to cleanliness, but as the saying goes, everything in moderation. I do intend to re-assemble the old engine and keep it as a complete spare/reference. I just gotta figure out where to store the damn thing. If you don't have the luxury of buying a separate engine, it's not the end of the world. God knows there's a million photos of Type 4 engines floating around the Internet that can easily be used for reference.

I'm glad I did it, especially since it (so far) has turned out the way it has. Last night I did the "ring break-in" which is like taking your newborn baby out and flogging it with a buggy-whip. When I finished I stopped in the supermarket parking lot and let it idle awhile to cool down. I went around back, opened the engine compartment lid and immediately apologized and told it that I really did love it and explained how that was a painful but very necessary part of it becoming a mature adult. Basically the same speech you give your kids from time to time. I guess now all that's left is for me to drive it and enjoy it.

[ruckman101]

Cleaning, oh yes, sometimes it seems that is all I do. Cleaning cleaning cleaning parts parts and more parts.


neal

[Amskeptic]

I gotta tell ya, I got to the point where I was spending too much time cleaning and painting, but as the saying goes, everything in moderation.

Naw . . .






Sometimes, over-the-top is a celebration of the things you love.
Colin

[Gypsie]

I bought and read cover-to-cover the Tom Wilson book How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine before I even bought the to-be-rebuilt engine. This gave me a pretty clear road map of what was ahead of me. Mr. Wilson's book is pretty much a step-by-step but isn't completely all-inclusive. The missing bits I gathered from the Bug Me Video Type 4 Engine Rebuild and, of course, the Bentley manual. YOU MUST CROSS-CHECK and verify any information you receive. Use your best journalistic skills and double-check your sources. Sometimes I had to take two or three different "answers" and using my best judgement figure out what was the best "answer" for my particular situation. Specifically, I always used the Bentley for tightening torque values as I did come upon some discrepancies along the way.

Ayup. I will add that even after the book learnin' and research the actual wrenchin' does have a certain mystery. You kind of know what you will be attending to but the process evolves. Hurdles, roadblocks, challenges and victories and twenty minutes of hell at first fire.... In the end there is great power and swelling of pride at your momentous feat.

Just keep it cool so the Dub Gods don't dish up some humble pie...

This is a fine rebuild and I appreciate the quiet dedication to the process.

I'm glad I did it, especially since it (so far) has turned out the way it has. I guess now all that's left is for me to drive it and enjoy it.

Oh you silly man. Drive and Enjoy, yes, but I'm sure there are already items on "the list" that are poking you in your minds eye saying 'remember me'. It's the thrill of the chase. Run, Rabbit, Run...

[dtrumbo]

Drive and Enjoy, yes, but I'm sure there are already items on "the list" that are poking you in your minds eye saying 'remember me'.

Oh yes, but they're now at the bottom of the collective list. The other two "children" have made their wishes known and demand to be on top of this list after being relatively ignored for the past year and a half.

[drober23]

60mm shims mystery - solution?

Your bus came from the factory with a 40mm "head gasket" between the cylinder head and cylinder. VW discouraged the use of these later, suggesting barrel shims instead. So, with no machining work done, you need a 40mm barrel shim to retain stock CR.

I bet Adrian does some machining when he rebuilds the heads. Perhaps that is where the other 20mm comes from. This is probably why he also includes them all the time. Just a guess though.

DJ Roberts

[bajaman72]

Seems to be a logigal guess. Welcome BTW.

I did this today in a non VW situation. Seems to run better after every mile. It likes to know your "listening" to it. Go figure.

[dtrumbo]

To be clear, the barrel shims Adrian included were .060", not mm. The shims I ended up using were .020". The head gaskets which were included with my gasket set but not used were "paper" thin, much thinner than any of the barrel shims. Even though the numbers line up nicely, I don't think that's the situation. Regardless, welcome to the forum, Mr. Roberts!

So I just clicked over the first hundred miles on the way to work this morning. It just runs better and better with more power than I knew it was capable of. The brand new clutch that had a little chatter has magically smoothed out. Do these things need to "break-in" too? Let's hope.

[bretski]

Well done, Mr. Trumbo! =D>

Klaus has a scant 11 years (and ~22,000 miles) on his heart since it was last rebuilt. Hopefully it'll be quite a while until I need to engage in this undertaking, and I can just install one of these:

[dtrumbo]

I'm looking forward to the Mr. Fusion as well. My lovely and patient wife asked me last night "Now that you're done, do you want to do another one?". I replied. I'll do another one if/when it's needed but I have NO desire to tackle a project of that magnitude again for a long, long time! Whew!

[drober23]

Dick,

I forgot to mention... NICE WORK on getting that engine running again! It must be very exciting to feel the fruits of your hard work as you break it in.

Also thanks for the welcome.

The paper gaskets you mention are not the head gaskets I am talking about (and I meant thousandths of an inch when I said mm, got metrics on the brain at work). . The head gaskets were thicker. You will see them in many engine rebuild gasket sets still. I measured mine (didn't install them when I did my engine), and they were 0.030" or so.

The barrel shim would be to set the deck height. Factors in the deck height are piston shape (dished?), and the volume the cylinder heads add to the combustion chamber. He knows what he is adding, and the shims are probably to compensate. Either that, or he has a bunch he wants to get rid of

Enough about gaskets, nice work on that engine!