Compression/Deck Height

Since the new engine was installed in December, it has been running really well.  The weather has been cold and rainy.  I noticed that once it was warmed up the starter had a hard time cranking it over.  I made a mental note to pay more attention and initially thought about compression.  Then the weather warmed up in January.  We had temperatures in the mid to upper 70's, and even close to 80.  Gotta love Southern California, except for the Santa Ana winds.  Along with the increase in ambient temperature came some knocking noises in the engine once it was warmed up.  It even had increased head temperatures, and the oil light flickered at idle after a freeway run.  Argh!

When I built the engine, a machine shop owner told me not to worry about the piston to cylinder deck height since the new AMC heads had a built in raised gasket area.  I measured the gasket area in relation to the thickness of the cylinder wall and decided to take his advice.  The added compression gave the bus a bit more power to get up the hill. 

Unfortunately, once the engine warmed up on warmer days, it appeared I had a clearance problem between the piston and cylinder head.  The metal parts, especially the aluminum piston, expanded and then there was contact between the piston and cylinder head.  Not enough to stop everything, but enough to cause some noise and concern.  With this problem, there is no way I am going to be able to take the bus to the beach for a fishing outing.

Today after the yard work was completed, I removed the engine and tore it down to the short block.  I replaced the rod bearings while the case was still together, just in case there was wear from things banging around.  They looked ok, but not perfect.  I had never replaced rod bearings in this manner before, so I was a little nervous, but everything worked out okay without any parts falling inside the case.

I then shimmed the cylinders and managed to get .055 inch in deck height.  I reassembled everything and installed the engine just in time for Diana to get home from running her errands.  I had to use a work light since the sun had set partway during the install.  The engine started right up, without any hesitation by the starter motor.  I sounds smooth so far, but tomorrow should tell how it runs on a warm day.  The weather is expected to be sunny and 72 degrees.

Next time a machine shop owner says, "Don't worry about deck height," I think I will follow the book.

Happy Bus Motoring!

( o v o )

Ron

Speaking of Oil!

One particularly boring rainy day, I was on-line and visiting some of my favorite informational VW bus websites when I discovered a growing number of tips on modern engine oils.  There was so much information out there that I wondered how had I missed this information before.  Apparently, a few years ago the motor oil industry changed the formulation of their oils to be more in line with modern air quality requirements.  This included the removal of certain elements like Zinc Dialkyl-Dithio-Phosphate (ZDDP for short).  Phosphates can shorten the life of the catalytic converter.  The new formulation works well in modern engines with roller cam lifters and the like, but not so well in older technology engines with flat cam lifters, since the elements provide the ability for the motor oil to adhere to the metal parts, providing lubrication and separation.  VW Air-cooled engines, with their old school flat cam lifters are not a good fit with the new motor oil formulations, and result in prematurely worn camshafts and lifters.

Again, how had I missed this information.  This was suspiciously suspect when compared to the camshaft and cam bearing problems I have been experiencing:  Cam bearings that last 5,000-10,000 miles before needing replacement.  When I think back to the time my camshaft and bearing problem began, it offers much to ponder.  Perhaps this was the government’s way of secretly ridding all the older cars and engines from the road in an effort to clean up the environment with newer smogless vehicles.  Or, perhaps this was the automotive industry’s way of doing the same in order to sell more new cars.  Maybe someone in the oil or auto industry got stuck in traffic behind a VW bus going up a steep grade and concocted an evil plot of revenge.  Must research further!

Anyway, this was enough to sell me on the idea of changing my bus’s motor oil.  New engine = new oil, perfect timing!  Once again the informational websites pointed to “Brad Penn” Green Oil, with plenty of ZDDP for older engines (Take that, government and auto industry!)  It is not easy to find locally in stores, but plenty easy on Amazon.com at $4.80 per quart.  That’s okay.  Even the store brands are close to that amount and if it means a longer lasting camshaft, lifters, and cam bearings, well then…

After a couple of weeks of running the Green Oil, everything seemed to be going along okay, except for the oil leak mentioned in the previous post (bad Chinese Flywheel seal).  I happened to be speaking with a neighbor who has been a mechanic in the auto industry for a few decades and specializes in 1960’s American cars such as Ford Mustangs, Galaxies, and the like.  He asked me what motor oil I was using in the bus and asked if I had heard of the “Zinc Problem.”  He said that new motor oils were no good for older style engines because of the lack of Zinc, and that there are problems with Camshaft and Lifter wear.  He said he believed it was a government conspiracy to get all the old cars off the road.  I told him, “Funny you should mention that.”

Happy Bus Motoring

Ron ( o v o )

Bus your bus leak oil, or does it just mark its spot?

I decided to replace the engine in the bus in early December.  I had built a new one with good parts, new AMC heads, Webcam Camshaft, used and polished standard crankshaft, reworked rods with all new bearings.  I had good used pistons and cylinders, but replaced the rings with new ones.  I didn't realize there is currently a worldwide shortage on VW Type 4 crankshaft bearings, but fortunately I have a couple extra sets stored away.  (Word on the street is that a company is tooling up to reproduce the bearings in China - Go figure!)  Crankshaft bearings that used to sell for $50-$60  are now going for up to $400, if you can find them.  This is an excellent running gem of a motor, smooth, with a good power band.  It should last many years - hopefully.  The three month old engine is now the spare, and is also an excellent running motor.

Well, within a short time of replacing the engine, a small oil leak developed.  In the old days, that would have meant immediately pulling the engine out and fixing the leak as quickly as possible.  Now, given my busy work schedule, coupled with the fact I have lived with leaks for so long, I have grown accustomed to their presence (as much as it still irks).  Still, new engines should not leak oil, period!

This new leak was suspiciously in the area of the center and flywheel end of the engine, meaning it could be a flywheel seal, crankshaft seal, or oil galley plug seals. Type 4 VW engines are notorious for leaky oil galley plugs.  That’s why, when the engine case was inspected by the machine shop, I had them remove the oil galley plugs and drill and tap the holes for threaded plugs.  The thought of the possibility of one or all of these new plugs (or even one of the new seals) leaking was enough to keep me awake at night.

So, on the first Monday evening after Christmas, I pulled the engine out of the bus and removed the flywheel.  The oil galley plugs were dry.  What a relief.  The lip of the flywheel seal was suspiciously wet.  I inspected the surface of the flywheel where the seal rides and it was perfectly smooth.  Not a scratch.  It just did not make sense.  I pulled the seal out of the engine case and inspected it.  I compared it with a couple of extra new seals I had in my spare parts pox (it’s always good to have spare parts).  This seal has a black outer rubberized surface, with a brown inner rubberized surface.  According to the molded-in manufacture information, it was made by “Elring.”  One of the extra new seals was identical.  The second new seal was a bright orange rubberized seal made by Victor Reinz.  The Victor Reinz seal was much thicker, and in fact was similar in thickness to the engine case surface that it is set into.  The Elring seals were much thinner than the corresponding engine case surface, causing it to be possibly installed slightly “cattywampus.”  Aha! Perhaps this was the problem.

I searched a couple of trusted Internet sources for information on the two seals and discovered the “Elring” seals used to be made in Germany and were considered to be of high quality.  Sometime in the recent past, the company outsourced their manufacturing to China and the quality dropped significantly.  In fact, several type 4 engine owners have now begun complaining that their engines leak oil because of the thin Chinese Elring seals.  The Victor Reinz seals are made in Brazil.  The thought that I had been taken again by cheap Chinese parts was too much to bear, and I had to take the rest of the night off.

Early the next morning (about 6:00) I was back at it.  I installed the new orange Victor Reinz seal, along with a new crankshaft seal (the round O-ring inside the flywheel flange).  The flywheel (five bolts torqued to 80 foot pounds) and clutch parts came next.  I installed the engine and by 9:00 am, the bus was running again. 

I have since driven the bus about 100 miles without a single drop of oil leaking from the engine.  That hasn’t happened in years.  Since cleaning up the garage floor (yes, the bus is parked in the garage while Diana’s new Honda is outside on the driveway), there is no longer the usual telltale sign that a VW even existed in the garage, err, except for the spare engine and parts, that is.

If you are tired of your VW bus marking its spot and can’t figure out the problem, try checking for the cheap Chinese flywheel seal that may be the culprit.  It will make your New Year less oily, as it has mine.

I was going to post a photo of the seal, but it is a pretty boring part to look at. Please feel free to use your imagination, or visit one of the other informational Internet sources for a good view.

Happy bus motoring

Ron ( o v o )

Type 1 Oil Pump in Type 4 Engine

All Right!  The new CV Joints came in the mail a couple days ago, and they are in and they are quiet.  The job took only 35 minutes.  It is amazing how smooth it can go when the parts actually work and fit right.  No more junk parts.

Today, I cleaned and prepped a good used oil pump to install, hopefully tomorrow, time permitting.  When I built the new engine, I installed a brand new aftermarket camshaft and cam gear, both from Webcam.  The gear bolts onto the camshaft rather than using rivets like the original from VW.  Because the bolts heads stick out a bit further than the rivets, the oil pump needed to be ground down just a bit so that it did not hit the bolt heads.  I used a re-conditioned Type 4 oil pump, which is similar to a Type 1 pump, only the gears are internal once the pump is bolted together.  The bolts on the back side of the pump needed to be ground down. 

Here is the view of a Type 4 oil pump (Just happed to have an extra one to photograph):

You can see the four bolts on the back side that hold the pump body together.  The are the four bolts that interfere with the new cam gear bolt heads:

The Type 4 pump works well, except that once the engine heats up and the various metal parts expand, the camshaft bolt heads have been hitting the oil pump bolts.  It is not enough to seize the engine, but enough to cause vibration and noise.

The pump I prepared for installation is a Type 1 oil pump, typically used in a VW Bug motor.  It will fit the Type 4 bus engine, with a little modification for the Webcam gear and camshaft.  I had to grind some material off the back side, as well as make sure the pump body and cover were flat relative to one another.  This was accomplished with some 600 grit wet sandpaper on a very flat surface.  I used our Formica kitchen table.  Don’t tell Diana.  I made sure all the sanding mess was cleaned up before she even knew I was working on car parts in the kitchen.  I have used this same pump before, but it leaked slightly as it was not flat.  I think the sanding will work.  It required that I sand the ends of the gears as well so they don’t scrap and bind on the cover.

A Type 1 pump (pictured below) is made up of several pieces.  It has a pump body, gears, and cover.  The gears are exposed until the cover is installed, unlike the Type 4 pump.  It is a lot of work to install an oil pump in a Type 4 engine, requiring a lot of the engine parts to be removed, the engine mounts and carrier to be removed, and the engine to be supported on a jack.  It is probably 2 hours of labor.  I will let you know how it works.

Ron

(o v o)

Use Quality Parts

Recommendation:  Do not use Chinese parts.  You can use them, but expect to replace them soon.  I have found this out the hard way many times, mostly with rubber parts that only last a couple of months before deteriorating.  You’d think by now I would have learned my lesson, but being the cheapskate that I am, the temptation to save a few dollars is too hard to resist when faced with a decision to purchase the good German parts or the junky Chinese stuff.

Sometimes I get sucked in to buy the Chinese parts thinking I am buying German or Brazilian, only to realize the price was so good because the parts were made in China.

Case in Point:  I recently found a good deal on new Constant Velocity (CV) joints on Ebay.  The parts were about 25% cheaper than others I had seen elsewhere.  The picture shown on the website looked like other German CV joints I have obtained in the past. 

The CV Joints in the bus have lasted over 240,000 miles.  I replaced the joints on the right side axle about 5,000 miles ago after hearing them start to make clunking noises while on a trip to Big Sur.  I didn’t replace the left side, but made a promise to the bus to get the job done soon, hence this job.

When the new Ebay parts arrived I opened the box and immediately saw what I believed to be inferior tooling and metal used to manufacture the CV joints.  It was then that I read the label on the box, “Made in China.”  Well, I don’t have to tell you that I could tell they were made in China before I even read the label.  Disappointment set in!

Against my better judgment, I installed the CV joints (about an hour’s labor).  Installing CV joints is my least favorite job on the bus.  I would rather remove and install an engine.  CV joints are packed with thick black grease that seems to get everywhere.  I spread layers of newspaper underneath the axle and then went to work (yuck).  During the job, one of the joints came apart and several large ball bearings fell out.  It took several minutes to put it back together, clean of course.  65 minutes later the axle and new joints were back in. 

Then came the test drive, everything seemed to be fine except for the knocking noise coming from the rear axle, particularly the left side with the new CV joints. The good news is that it only knocks while under a load such as accelerating or climbing a mildly inclined driveway and not while coasting.  For those of you who have never driven a bus before, you are pretty much driving under a load all the time!  Man this sucks.

I know I should have known better than to install those pieces of trash “Made in China” car parts.  Now I have to re-do the whole thing.

Why do we do this: Export all our manufacturing to China to save on labor costs and increase our business’s profits, only to have to them send us junk? We deserve it.  Oh well, move forward.  I just ordered a new set of German CV Joints from GoWesty.  I hope they get here soon.

Happy Bus Motoring,

Ron

( o v o )

New Roof Rack

This weekend, my brother Barry helped me build a roof rack for the Bus.  Barry is an extraordinary metal fabricator and quickly cut and formed the tubular steel pieces.  The bottom of the roof rack is lined with expanded sheet metal, which is welded all the way around.  All the pieces were welded together into a one piece modular roof rack design that can be easily installed for a trip and then easily removed once the trip is done.  It fits into the existing fiberglass luggage rack that is molded into the poptop roof, and expands the cargo carrying capacity.  It will be perfect for carrying firewood, extra gas can, folding chairs, etc.  I think if we took one or more of these to a VW swap meet, they would sell easily.  Thanks Barry.  Great job!

Ron

(o v o)

New Poptop Tent

Okay, here are a couple photographs of the the new poptop tent:

Ron

(o v o)