Amskeptic wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 8:15 am
I hate those butting oil rings. I like the old high-quality Mahle one-piece rings.
Where are you stationed?
ColinPowerBrakesAreNifty
Wow, it seems I have abandoned this thread… Since my last post I have driven some 5,000 miles…
For the first time in my life, I have a Volkswagen that can go 2,000 miles without adding oil. Is this what they were really like back then?
It started when Gary, of "Yes, That Vanagon" fame and I met at Maupin this year… We chatted about my annual vacation near him in La Pine, Oregon. Then I found the chunk of piston ring in my oil change just as I was entering La Pine, Oregon to visit my parents for a week. I sent Gary a message, and he offered the clean and wonderful* workspace to perform the necessary yet exploratory surgery. Got a flat tire on the way through town! (Screw in the tread…)
*Did I mention clean and wonderful? Workspaces like this make major surgery as simple as building a LEGO set.
I pulled in at 9am.
By 11am I had the right side head off. The #2 spark plug was the only one fouled of the bunch, after all… But the rings were completely intact!
So it was off with the second head!
Why didn't the plugs show this level of carbon build-up in #3? In the moment, I was also asking why did I use a combination of Roman and Arabic numerals? But I could not dwell on such trivia.
Well, there is is. Nothing to hide.
Cleaning of carbon and reassembly was only slightly harder LEGO set. The only setback was an intake stud that pulled. REALLY, VOLKSWAGEN, four and a half threads?!?
I truncated, Dremel©'d, died, and thread-locked an old bolt in:
My parents came by around lunchtime to bring me a GumOut restock, and to take my tire to Les Schwab for a free patch! I took no pictures, but my mom actually chased, cleaned, and oiled all of my head studs. Really.
*I can not thank Gary and Evelyn enough for their perfect hospitality. They knew when to chat and jostle, and when to leave me alone to contemplate and measure the new ring gaps (worse than the old ring gaps booooo) and shoo the family dog away from my open cylinder spigots. You two were angels in my plight.
I broke the new rings (#3 oil only!) with a drive up and down a few thousand feet back to camp out at the family spot for one more day.
The next three mornings, I performed valve adjustments.
I changed the oil two times zones later. Now, for the third time, I consider this engine fully broken in.
Robbie