Valve train noise

Like I said: "There is no substitute for customer service -- especially when it is not owed or expected!"

Give credit to TR on this one. Their offer to re-do the engine that they didn't build and is out of manufacturer's warranty, at their expense, surely lines up in the "good" column.

Well, at least your car looks really fine! Best of luck.

Ha, Thanks Will... its gotta count for something.

Any updates, Paul?

The broken studfs came out of the case. Had to retract the entire case saver. Installed new case savers. Going back in with 8mm VW head studs. Should have it out of the shop early this week.

Excellent news. Looking forward to seeing that red ride at Carlisle!

You havin' vision problems now, Danny? I know that new paint job of yours is bright, but it didn't blind you, did it? Paul's car is silver, you know, like yours USED to be ;-)

Brain fart! You are right Lane, maybe I was thinking of yours for some reason. Who the heck knows?

The interior is red :)

close enough.

I'm glad things are working out for you......See you at Carlisle....

Great news! Hope it goes back together with no problem.

So, Paul, what is the over plan of action here, I think maybe I lost the bubble somwhere along the way? You have pulled both heads and all of the head bolts You pulled at least one of the barrels, and maybe both on the one side. You extracted the broken bolt/case-saver "assembly", and renewed the case savers as needed. You will check and trim all the barrel/bolt cut-outs to be sure plenty of clearance when assembled correctly. You will check the heads and barrels to be sure their mating surfaces are true. You will reassemble w/ genuine VW steel head bolts. You will (or not??) hone the cylindrs and use new rings? You will tighten it all up just so, and will be on the road in another week or so. You have rec'd a worthy gesture to fix all by TR (Bravo! to them) but will decline all in interest of expediency. Will TR end up participating in any way w/ making your engine whole again?? Just curious.

Roland wrote;
"...the 94 male piston sleeve's were casted a little different were the stud's go through the cylinder"

Is this fixed by stud re-placement , or by machining the barrels ??

I want a Dx here
or as G House would say. "Doctors go to jail ..."

You need to grind the barrel . Also it depend's on wich stud's you have 8 or 10mm how much material you have to take off.

The No. 3 and No. 4 Cylinder have been removed. The No. 4 piston was removed. Drilled out two case savers and broken head studs at No. 4. New Case Savers Installed. New pushrod tubes and silicone seal at No. 3,4 side only. Cleaned carbon off the top of the pistons. All head studs have been removed and replaced with OE German Head Studs (used). I have asked that the cylinders be machined/files in the locations the head studs snapped. Need to follow up and make sure this is done... piece of mind. The mechanic didnt think that caused the failure. Says the studs were over torqued (sound familiar). Re-torque heads, adjust valves and should be good to carry out of the shop tomorrow.

Also replacing main seal for the second time in 6 months. Peak Performance, who installed the rear main previously, would not warrant the work. They did say if I drove it down there they would take a look at it. Not sure what good that would do me... "Yup, its leaking."

$250.00 for labor paid by me, im covering all the parts, gaskets, oil, filter, etc. etc.

SCAT doesnt seem to think they put this long block together, no backing from them.

TR did ask that I ship the longblock to them. When I got the call from TR the engine was already in the local shop. I was not going to go in and pull an engine out from under a mechanic.

I also promised a good friend she could take pictures with her soon to be husband with the speedster this coming weekend. Its cheaper than buying a wedding gift! So, the car must be back together and looking its best by this Saturday.

Good report, I have a good undersatnding of what you are doing.,. Txs.

Oh, and I will not be honing the cylinders that were removed or replacing rings. The rings seemed to be in good shape, not sharp at all.

The washer between the gland nut and flywheel was missing. Either it wasn't on there when Peek Performance changed the main seal and they didn't bother to replace it when it went back together or they forgot to put it back on when re-assembling the motor. Either way it is something i would expect to be taken care of by an professional. At almost $600 i would have splurged to cover the cost of the washer.

I now have the washer.

Things are moving along, glad to hear that.

Think of all the important stuff you are learning about your mighty engine. Too bad it has to come at such a high cost: $$ and PITA-factor. It is a madness . . .

I am very, very glad to hear that, Paul.

Paul, here is one for you: if you could stand to part w/ one of the four broken head bolt bits, I can run some microscope and hardness tests to see what you really got there wrt material. Turns out that in some areas car science and rocket science are pretty much one in the same. n Just drop in an envelop, see PM for addr.

Kelly, his is kewl of you.... ain't rocket scientists great people?

Kelly, you're on. I forgot to grab one of them on the way out of the door this morning. I'll pack one up and get it in the mail tomorrow. Thank you for offering.

Engine is back and tin is installed. Going to get it back in the car tonight. Had to do the work in the back of my SUV... really showing my southern roots here. My garage is sized perfectly to keep a speedster dry, and thats about it. I have become very flexible and comfortable in tight spaces since owning this ride.

Paul, I gotta say that picture of the engine in the back of your mobile "work bench" is hilarious. Yup, y'all's a southern boy all right!

O.K....so now I know I'm not the only one, but I know some of you other VW owners have rebuilt your bug engine in the living room or kitchen!

Paul, like they say...'necessity is the mother of invention'!

Back whenI had hair, I did do a couple of VW long blocks in an apartment kitchen and one chopper too ~Alan

Can't wait for Will Pierson to find this thread and tell his tale of LR engine rebuilds. I have heard this story . . .

Paul, it seems to me that those townhouses were built with Speedsters in mind. Pefect fit for a Speedy, but not much else.

Did you get the engine back in and running last night?

Alan, I thought they were still using steam when you had hair! :)

~WB

HEY! I resemble that remark!

I consider it a form of aerodynamic improvement.

The engine is back in, running strong. Maybe a little too strong. I got pulled over by one of Baltimore's finest. No ticket... but was told next time he would throw every ticket in his book possible at me. Not sure what i did to piss him off. i was in first gear taking off from a stop light. pretty sure i hit 20 mph when he stepped out in front of me.

The valve train seams very noisy. I am going to go outside and put a feeler gauge on them. I am concerned the pushrods were not put back in the exact way they came out.

I installed a stage 1 pressure plate and a mid transmission support... feels pretty solid.

All Valves were tight, really really tight. i could not get the .0025 mm feeler gauge between the valve and rocker arm.

I'm pretty sure you'll want them to be between .003 and .006.
Glad the cop let you walk.

What material are the pushrods you are using now? If chromolly, you should be at 0 to .001 clearance cold. Larry Jowdy or Roland Rascon can double check my opinion on this, but I am pretty sure about this.

yes, Will. it's called Zero lash and only chromoly pushrods get this as they expand at the same thermal rate as the rest of the engine valve train.

Tighten them to "0" They should spin with just a little bit of drag, as if they were riding on thick oil. Not too loose, not too tight but just right

If Jimmy put chromolly pushrods in, I'd be very surprised.

If they are aluminum, they WILL mushroom if you rev it up. Chromoly make more noise than aluminum. Maybe you did get steel. Take off a valve cover and see if a magnet attracts to the pushrod. Simple enough to if you have steel or not.

The Pushrods are aluminum. I adjusted them to .006. Strange thing is happening now. I dont recall it being an issue before. As i approach 80 mph, throttle all the way down the car motor feels like it is beginning to work against itself. I doesnt want to accelerate. I did just install a used german 019 distributor prior to the engine being pulled. Could it be something with timing? Points? Other than that the engine is very strong through all gears at all rpms. I am running a stock diameter exhaust on this 1914 motor.

Al-U-minny-um pushrods should be set at .004" intake and .006" exhaust