...so I was on vacation in So Cal last week (stay tuned for an eventual post in "Camping&Fishing") and I decided to visit Adrian and my engine...which is in his shop now...if you're looking for a recap of the epic that has resulted from the initial purchase:
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=12582
So, I was sitting on the beach in Carlsbad last Tuesday morning and I decided to call Adrian's shop. He picked up on my 4th try and we chatted briefly. He was trying to tell me that he had run the engine for ~4 hours the previous day and it had no problems...and started to launch into a further explanation...I said: "Adrian, I'm 20 minutes from your shop...why don't I come over and we chat in person." He thought this was a good idea...and I visited him.
So I drove to Vista and eventually found his shop....wow...talk about 10 lbs of VW stuff in the 5 lb bag! He has
a lot going on in that shop. Again, Adrian is super nice...very friendly...he always has been...he's just tough to get a hold of!
So...maybe ~4 hours of run time had been had been an overstatement...maybe not...who knows.
He fired my engine up and we started talking. He told me that my valves were way out of adjustment...I told him "I know, last thing I did was try to run with them adjusted as if they were solid lifters...to see if that was the problem". He said "oh, that explains it". So, I asked: "by the way...are these definitely hydraulic lifters? I'd like to know, for future adjustments...". He said yes, but that one should never need to adjust them...I said that I understood that point of view, but that
sometimes, one has a push rod tube that leaks a tablespoon of oil every 2 minutes...and one
has to readjust them...he agreed that that could happen...and reconfirmed that they were hydraulic lifters.
That conversation ended...he started revving my engine up...which had now been running for 5-10 minutes...he mentioned how he didn't like the rough idle...and attributed it to the "performance" cam he'd used "sounds like a muscle car idle", he mused...he revved it some more and and we listened...then...
Lo and behold...it smothered and died!
He restarted it...it ran for ~ 2 minutes...and died again...then he couldn't get it restarted.
"You see..." I said, "...this is what it does!".
He mentioned that it hadn't done that when he'd run it earlier in the morning...for a while...
He told me he thought there was a bigger problem here and that it had to do with the
cam .
He said that he had been re building VW engines for over 20 years and he had always had success with his cam supplier until just recently...there had been 5 engines (or so) that he had sent out in roughly the last year that had problems...all related to the cam. He said he suspected this was the same issue my engine was suffering from.
"I'm not buying any cams form that guy anymore" he told me."You have a recipe for success and you stick with it" he added, "...until one of your ingredients is no good and it ruins the whole thing". He noted that he had a few very disappointed customers because of this problem and that it was damaging his reputation. I commiserated, briefly.
He mentioned that he had a new cam supplier he'd been working with (in Stockton...or someplace "up north") and that these cams had been working quite well. "They're a lot closer to stock cams" he said.
I mentioned that I had heard of this possible problem...and gave a brief, anecdotal and anonymous synopsis of what I understood to be the THall story. He said..."oh yeah" ..."that was about a year ago...here's that guy's cam". He picked up the cam in question and pointed out a
visible flaw in one of the lobes that could only have come from machining, in his opinion. He mentioned that he had put one of these "new" cams in "that guy's" engine...and that he seemed to be happy. He looked down at the old cam and added something to the effect of "these ones are not made well any more" and then proceeded to show me another defective cam from the same source.
"I've got 5 cams on the way from the new source", he told me, "...one of them is yours; I'll get it put in and have your engine sent back to you before the end of April". He continued: "this kind of stuff is inconvenient for you and it's inconvenient and expensive for me...I know you don't want to pull your engine and ship it...you want to be driving your van!"
So we left it at him "making this right" for me...and chalking the incident up to a bad cam and an unfortunate experience altogether. He was
very, genuinely, apologetic.
I hope he gets the problem sorted out quickly with this new, non-performance cam...and my engine will run well.
...and that's the rest of the story...
Sorry...needless to say: the jury is still out, with regard to my final level of satisfaction with this engine. Of course, I will continue to update the appropriate threads...that said...to answer the big question, I'd say "hold off" for now...
-miz