Itinerant Air-Cooled

tommu wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 22, 2018 10:01 pm

Is a firm pry to just make .003 a dangerous place to be?

If no o-ring in flywheel recess, yes, a firm pry is not acceptable.

If there is an o-ring in the flywheel, then you are at the edge, but not over the cliff.

The minimum minimum is .00275". That is what I had with the Road Warrior in 2007 at VWBusrepairman's house. I was so nervous, I started the engine with my foot on the clutch to "burnish" the shims and shut it down at 1 minute to check rotational friction. Then I ran it another minute with my foot on the clutch and shut it down to check rotational friction. With no difference at a two-minute warm engine, I decided that it was going to be OK. This with a #1 main bearing red loctited to the saddle because it was loose in the case. The things we have done . . .
Colin

No o-ring so no good. I will buy another true .24mm shim from Bus Lab.

Amskeptic wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:20 am

Use the Heiko 10mm adjusters. Then you can have the 17mm locknuts.

Bringing this thread back from 2018 to say that after a paltry 1200 miles one of my Thorsten Pieper (once sourced by Heiko) swivel foot adjusters has failed. It feels gritty - but is not dirty. I spent several hours cleaning, blowing and rotating the foot with no improvement. I'll see if I can get just one replaced. Wondering if anyone else has suffered an early failure? I am running a stock adjustor on one valve for now - the rest seem free and ok.

I want to also note that the shimming problem I had above was due to a lack of bearing dowels in the case. It caused the bearing to move just enough to screw up my measurements..

tommu wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 19, 2019 3:45 pm

Amskeptic wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:20 am

Use the Heiko 10mm adjusters. Then you can have the 17mm locknuts.

Bringing this thread back from 2018 to say that after a paltry 1200 miles one of my Thorsten Pieper (once sourced by Heiko) swivel foot adjusters has failed. It feels gritty - but is not dirty. I spent several hours cleaning, blowing and rotating the foot with no improvement. I'll see if I can get just one replaced. Wondering if anyone else has suffered an early failure? I am running a stock adjustor on one valve for now - the rest seem free and ok.

I want to also note that the shimming problem I had above was due to a lack of bearing dowels in the case. It caused the bearing to move just enough to screw up my measurements..

I had a gritty Heiko that I just washed and greased with Valvoline DuraBlend and it worked itself smooth. How did you find this outlier? Do you still respect Prince William?
Colin ...
(1,100 miles on my Len Hoffman heads in 13 days ... 59,000 miles on the Heiko adjusters)

(should we move the more technical posts here to a thread in Engine Forum?)

A routine valve change. The foot would not rotate and was firmly stuck at its angle. I loosened the threads enough to feel a nasty gritty resistance to any rotation of the foot. I was driven to do this due to a lifter clatter at first for a very brief time after first start. Maybe 3/4 seconds. I wonder if that sound was this 'foot' being forced to move?

These posts should really move. There are a few disparate topics that would be better being joined together.

tommu wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:44 am

I wonder if that sound was this 'foot' being forced to move?

Was this sound on a cold engine only? If you picked up groceries and started it up, would the adjuster clatter?

How perfect was your valve train geometry in the building process? Though I don't know what an acceptable tolerance/margin of error would be.

Fascinating, the things we deal with for quiet engines…
Robbie

Yes, and literally the first few seconds of running. It would quieten down so quickly that I don’t think it was heat related.

tommu wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 21, 2019 6:45 am

Yes, and literally the first few seconds of running. It would quieten down so quickly that I don’t think it was heat related.

Lack of lubrication in the swivel socket is a possibility both for sound and damage. Remove rockers, unscrew adjusters, and GumOut spray-with-straw the holes in the rocker bushing that points up to the rocker arm's adjuster threads. See that all rockers have good clean open galleries to the threads. The rocker/valve train can be susceptible to heat-soak coking, though it is more rare in today's We Can Set Our Own Mixture world.
Colin

Were these swivel-feet part of the original grit-blast engine? Or any parts of the rockers/shafts?

Greetings from SoSeattle,
Robbie

They were all new. Only one feels gritty. But it is not actually contaminated. I’ve cleaned it with solvent, detergent, ultrasonic and air! I think the surface of the ball or the cup itself has failed a little. I have a replacement on the way.

Valve geometry is fine. Everything is stock on the valve train with no spacers or anything bespoke.

tommu wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:51 am

They were all new. Only one feels gritty. But it is not actually contaminated. I’ve cleaned it with solvent, detergent, ultrasonic and air! I think the surface of the ball or the cup itself has failed a little. I have a replacement on the way.

Valve geometry is fine. Everything is stock on the valve train with no spacers or anything bespoke.

After GumOut Carburetor Spray blasting, and a thorough dry, I inundated my swivelfoot adjusters with Valvoline Durablend Molybdenum Disufide Fortified Semi-Synthetic grease upon installation.
Colin

I'd go with the Porsche swivel feet on the rocker arms as they will ignore the slight blemish. You have to modify the rockers for them to fit!

This was an odd one. After clearing the oiling tubes in the pushrod and cleaning / lubricating the swivel foot I’ve had no more problems. I guess the valve adjusters rely in just enough lubrications from the pushrods.

tommu wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:20 pm

This was an odd one. After clearing the oiling tubes in the pushrod and cleaning / lubricating the swivel foot I’ve had no more problems. I guess the valve adjusters rely in just enough lubrications from the pushrods.

Well, there you go. Onwards.
I say that a lot right now.
Colin