Well, it happened!

[johber41]

Hello Club,
It happened! It was so nice out on Saturday, February 3rd, that I put about 50 miles on my buggy. While enroute back home from Kemah, a loud clicking started. No loss of horse power, but loud enough to believe that I had blown a hole in my exhaust. Got home and shut it down. Looked for holes but could not find any. Started the engine again and it ran smooth but still had the loud click! I could hear it coming from No.1 and thought it might have been a valve gone out of adjustment. Then it happened! It stopped! I put a wrench on the pulley and tried to turn the engine a complete cycle. It would stop and I could hear metal-on-metal near no.1. I took the valve cover off and saw that no.1 valve was not moving. I have pulled the engine and too start my investigation. It is 50 years old and I have gotten about 3000 miles out of it since bringing it back to life! Pics for you guys to enjoy.

[johber41]

More Pics

[johber41]

Two More!

[BrianB]

Well now you can have it all freshened up for Fredericksburg. Post up progress pics as you go.

[johber41]

I hope so sir. Might even bump the horse power up a bit!

[johber41]

Started the tear-down of my engine and found some interesting problems. An oil leak I was contributing to bad push-rod tubes was actually dropping through the block from the oil cooler. Nothing bad, just drips, but the oil sure made its way across the block. The second problem I found was that the plastic cone which houses and guides the push rod for the fuel pump is broken in half inside the block. I tried to build a tool to pull the bottom half out but I was unsuccessful. I also thought you guys would get a kick out of my Bosch distributor with a bake-lite cap. Now that is old school! Pics for your viewing pleasure.

[johber41]

Fuel Pump guide broken in the block!

[johber41]

Bosch Distributor

[johber41]

Well, found out what the loud clicking was! It wasn't a lifter, lifters are OK. Somehow, from somewhere, a small square nut moved into the cylinder and the no.1 piston was smashing it into the head. Lucky though, minor damage and no valve damage. Cannot imagine where it came from! Air cleaner? carburator? who knows! Pics of my pain for your viewing pleasure.

[staggerwing]

What the heck is that thing!?

[johber41]

That object found in the cylinder was a small square nut. Looks like it was in there for a long time. Maybe even smashed into the head for a long time. The nut is rounded and smooth like it has been through a rock tumbler. I was able to get the fuel pump debris out of the block using a slide hammer (dent puller) which threaded nicely into the broken part. There may still be some debris in the block but I believe that it will move to the oil screen. I got one head polished and I am working on the other.

[johber41]

Pressure washed the oil and grease off of the block and polished the pistons. Bought new push-rod tubes, fuel pump spacer, and oil cooler seals. Ready for reassembly! Hopefully there is not another little nut waiting to fall in from somewhere else!

[johber41]

Waiting for parts so I thought I would freshen up the tins a bit!

[johber41]

Started getting things back together. Engine is now back to long-block status!

[staggerwing]

If you made that generator pulley cover chinga, NICE JOB! Keep up the good work!

[johber41]

Thank you sir! I spent the good part of my evening reassembling the engine. No big changes besides the polishing and some new seals and push-rod tubes. I am anxious to get the thing started. I am hoping there wasn't any collateral unseen damage to the internal stuff like the crank, piston rods, cam shaft...etc. We will see! I want to spray my mufflers with high-temp flat black paint and then get the car moving again. I am having buggy with drawls!

[johber41]

Ready for Installation. Have my fingers crossed that it will run! I do not have a second bell housing to set up a run on the stand, so, I will have to slip it back into the trans and see what happens. I had a local bug guy tell me that I am running too light of an oil (10W-30) for an engine that old and he told me that I need to use 20W-50. Does anyone have any ideas about that? They told me that the tolerances in the older engines are loose and that the 10W-30 oil turns to soup pretty quick as this engine will beat it like a mixer.

[staggerwing]

Man that thing looks clean!

Yes sir, 20/50 should be fine - I've used it before without any problems; running 10/40 synthetic these days; no problems. Get mine at Walmart as they have the best price on synthetic oil! I get the 5 quart size!

[johber41]

Thanks Staggerwing...I will give 20W-50 a try. I forgot to respond to your compliment on the pulley cover. I did not create it, but, I think it was modified from a former use as an old compressor or generator guard. The mounting brackets were definitely added to meet the mounting bolts for the fuel pump and the generator stand. It is cool looking and thanks for your compliment.

[Bill K]

Hey, I'll Amen that pulley cover.

[johber41]

Back running again! Wow....no oil leaks! A big lesson learned after assembly. I put the distributor back into the block and secured it without checking to see which way the rotor was pointing. I tried to start the thing and got some back firing. Of course, I thought that the cam had jumped timing or something as horrific as a bad lifter or a blown valve! I looked at my 1973 VW manual and watched an internet video. I saw that the rotor should be pointed in the direction for the plug wire for cylinder #1 on the cap when the crank is at TDC. Lesson learned! Did the light bulb timing and now it runs great!

[staggerwing]

Yay! Back on the road again! Awesome! Thanks for keeping us up to date on yer progress.
"No leaks"? You better check to make sure you have a VW engine in there.