So earlier in the fall I took my Speedster in to one of our local VW Mechanics, Scott Sebastian, and I had him install my Setrab oil cooler w/fan. I also had him install a CB Performance oil pump that allows for full flow and added a remote oil cooler.
While the car was up on the rack he pointed out to me that several of the pushrod tube seals were distorted and were getting squeezed out allowing oil to leak. He suggested the replacement pushrod tubes from CB Performance, and even if he hadn't I would have bought them there anyway, so I bought a set and waited for cold weather to come.
Fresno doesn't get super cold but it has been raining a lot so today I took the opportunity to get the pushrod tubes installed. I jacked the back end of the car up as high as I could, put the jack stands under the car, took off the wheels and got to work on the passenger side. Popped the bale and removed the valve cover, took off the two nuts holding the rocker arm on, removed the rocker arm, pulled out the pushrods, inspected them and laid them out in the order they came out of the car. Had some trouble with oil coming out of the number four tube from left to right so I got a rag up in there to stop it.
Got under the car, removed the tins that hide the pushrod tubes, and used some channel locks to crimp, distort, and remove the old tubes. They came out very easily. I used some degreaser to clean up all of the recesses for the seals so I'd get a better seal. Still had an issue with oil coming out of the number four tube so I put a recepticle on the ground to catch the oil.
I opened the package and assembled all eight of the tubes. With the Jaycee tubes you have to put two o-rings on each one of the halves, smear oil inside the tube, put the spring over the o-rings, and assemble the tube. Then you need to put a large washer on one end and add the seals to both ends of the tube.
I got under the car again, compressed one of the tubes and installed it in the number four position and worked my way back toward the rear of the block. I put the tin piece back in place, put the pushrods back in, installed the rocker arm making sure to torque the bolt to 18 lbs, as per the manual, adjusted the valves, and installed the valve cover.
The passenger side took me a total of about one hour and a half since I had never done this before and I was taking as much time as I needed. The lesson I learned on the passenger side was to not have the car level from left to right. I pulled my jack stands out and raised just the driver side of the car up as high as I could and put the jack stands back under the car. I decided this would make all the oil flow back into the block and stay out of the tubes. The driver side only took me thirty minutes including the valve adjustment.
I pushed the car out of the garage and let it run for about twenty minutes and not a drop of oil could be seen from any of the pushrod tubes. There was obvious evidence the tubes had been leaking for a while as there was a significant build up of oil gunk on the tubes and the topside of the tins.
All in all it was a pretty easy maintenance job. Sorry I didn't take photos but the passenger side got things a little messy and I didn't want oil all over my phone, not even Brad Penn oil. But here's the part I used:
