Club 80-90 Forums

Thanks for the link, I have spent some time considering this, as its only the threads that are tired, the rest of the heads are in good condition.

If the 'other' heads that are still on the engine in the van are past their best, I will look at helicoiling as an option.

Cheers,

Alex

what I did with my exhaust stud threads that where really badly damaged, was to drill out to 8.5mm then tap with a m10 mm thread and fit these






http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_spares_Stu ... try_GB.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


may be worth trying ?.

Great work and post, very interesting.

Pionte,

That looks great, and a very easy solution to the problem without resulting to helicoils.

Also, I have the M10 tap, all I need is a 8.5mm drill bit and I'm laughing.

Cheers,

Alex

T25Convert wrote:all I need is a 8.5mm drill bit and I'm laughing.

Cheers,

Alex

And a depth guage

itchyfeet wrote:

T25Convert wrote:all I need is a 8.5mm drill bit and I'm laughing.

Cheers,

Alex

And a depth guage

lol yes.... er be careful !

Hello,

Yes 10mm to 8 mm studs are very useful

Try to get an 8,6 or 8.8 mm drill bit..

Clamp the head down and use a bit of 8mm bar or a long enough bolt in the old hole to see how to attack with the drill bit

Use a 'plug' type tap..( flat on the end)..

A bit of thread locking compound will do no harm..

Cordialement..

Just a couple of comments from my own experience with a 1.9WBX...

I also had the oil burning/smoking problem but solved mine by fitting new liners and pistons kit, about £300 from GSF. This was in 2010 so this will have changed, no doubt but you can still get 10% owners club discount I think.
This was largely because I was in a hurry to meet a ferry booking but also IMHO its often cheaper and certainly quicker to just fit new. Good example is new wheel brake cylinders vs trying to clean, polish and fit new rubbers!

Secondly, I personally fitted thread inserts for the exhaust studs on mine - M8 x 1.25 BTW.
This way means you have stainless steel threads (the insert) in the heads for less corrosion and seizing.
Uni-thread or Helicoil are examples.

Anyway you have done an impressive and thorough job so far, looking good!
Best of luck with finishing the job with no hassles (don't forget the proper coolant bleeding!)

jon

If anyone has wondered if I’ve given up and just given Elite £1000, I haven’t, I’m back after several months off due to an unplanned decorating adventure (what fun plastering turned out to be - makes van tinkering look really simple!)

So, where was I....

Engine case now painted (black, to hide the inevitable oil leaks!!!) in Hammerite (two coats as suggested above, goes on nicely). Bit of a dodgy picture, garage so cold the camera steamed up:



The on to sorting out the exhaust studs, of which 5 needed drilling and tapping (the old thread was beyond redemption). I’ve gone up to M10 with a view to putting the M10 to M8 magic studs in. Tap in action (note drilling was done ‘free hand’ as I couldn’t find a way to mount it in a drill stand! Lots of care taken to make sure it lined up square. Threaded bar seems to point in the same direction as it did pre tapping, so hopefully all good!)



Then onto the faces. Now they looked pretty good dirty, but the dirt was clearly hiding the holes! Quick sand on a nice flat surface. Before and halfway through:



After a polish with some super fine wet and dry:



Quite a lot of pitting around the whole face, but none that deep, and none that cover more than about 50% of the sealing face width, so think I’ll trust it to the sealant and gasket to sort this out, rather than chemical metal them (worried I’ll make it worse and end up with little humps instead!)

Next all the exhaust and water connection faces need a quick polish – there is one of my M10 tapping on show to:



Will be washing the whole lot really well to remove all last traces of swarf, sanding grit and bits of snapped drill bits (grrr).

Got myself a three legged glaze buster for the weekend, so the cylinders are next – just need to make my drill go round a bit slower (even set to ‘min’ speed it still goes round at about 800rpm so I’d need to do the up and down stoke in less than 0.1 seconds. Hmmm).

Cheers,

Alex

Good to see you back at it.

Another cold couple of days in the garage, but progress has been (slowly) made.

First task, speed controller for the drill for glaze busting. Its not going to win any prizes for electrical prowess, but a variable speed fan controller (from B&Q), and an old extension lead did the trick beautifully, but only with an old black and decker drill, my newer one wasn’t having any of it:



So, deep breath and off I went:



I hope never to have to use a power drill and grinding stones anywhere near an engine again!! Cross hatching (at about 45 degrees) is sorted now though, went better than I could have hoped. No pictures unfortunately as the camera can’t do close ups!! Would recommend thet Clarke 3 legged glaze buster though.

I finally dealt with the cam drive on the end of the crank, which had defeated my small pullers, however thanks to the purchase of some ‘serious mechanic’ tools



I was off and running:

.

Something that had slipped my mind was the tappets, neatly sealed in their individual bags in a little box, looking rather dirty:



The various parts (except a spring that I had inadvertently left in the degreaser, forgotten about until I tried to put it all back together!)

There was a surprising amount of very thick tar like oil at the base of the cylinder that I’m not sure would have been adding to the smooth operation! Not sure if this is normal, or just a sign of a lack of regular oil changes?

Now Mr Haynes helpfully suggests that the pressure required to put it back together is ‘high’, which I think is a bit of an understatement! I found it best to apply some pressure, leave for a bit and then apply some more, seemed to work better than going for an ‘all at once’ approach....



First one sat in its little oil bath until needed:



Only 7 more to go!

Valves and tappet adjuster screws ordered today, along with paste and lapping tool. Anyone got any tips about lapping? The internet seems to suggest anything between a 10 second twiddle and several hours of hard graft – I assume I just keep going with a very fine paste until there is that nice even grey ring all the way round seat and valve?

Cheers,

Alex

were your tappets noisy before? Mine were but I cleaned them all up and they all felt great as I reassembled them but alas I have now discovered that I should have replaced them as one was sticking big time and its so difficult to find which one as it only did it under load!!! 3 new ones in so far and it's much quieter. As for the valves lap using both directions until you have a solid grey ring on valve and seat with no blemishes. My exhaust valves had a ring of approx 3.5 mm thick which is really too wide for proper sealing so the seats needed a light cut (luckily there was room to do this, no apparent mega recession) Both should be around 2mm wide, no more. It is woth investing in a set of scat big mouth telescopic pushrod tubes in case you need to change any tappets later on. Good luck

Me again,

In terms of hydraulic tappets, unless it was unused for about a month the tappets didn’t tend to drain, so I’m hopeful that the strip, clean and re-oil has improve dthem rather than made them worse. I may yet be cursing hem, but fingers crossed.

Thanks for the tips on valve lapping, I’ve done 4 and achieved a nice even grey ring just under 2mm wide. It took surprisingly little time to do, but assume that this is because I was using new valves and they seemed to match the seat angle pretty well straight out the box.

Only one minor issue – Halfrauds finest valve lapping stick is not so good – the sucker detached from the shaft on the second twiddle as the shaft is too small and rather rough. One jubilee clip later and back in business, but I’d avoid buying one of these!



Next job was to wash the whole lot in hot soapy water and get rid of all the last traces of grit, then oil the valve stems and refit the springs, caps and collets, which was by far and away the trickiest bit of the rebuilt so far.

If you’re thinking of attempting, but the best valve compressor you can – mine is a mid range Clarke one and was great for popping the valves out, but too feeble to make putting them back in easily – not only do you have to tempt the collet into place, you have the constant fear of the compressor slipping and nibbling the end off your finger.

This http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... compressor - too feeble.

Anyway, after an evening of serious fighting (and occasional hunting for springs when the compressor let go!) the valves are back in on one head, and the head has been popped back on the block for safe keeping:





Tonight, other head!

A big box of bits has turned up, so I now have main bearings, cam bearings, big ends, gasket set, oil pump and cover, 10mm-8mm exhaust ‘repair’ studs and piston rings thanks to the very helpful people at VW Heritage. Just need a set of stainless nuts and bolts and I’ll be sorted....

Question of the day is does anyone own one of these, and is it too cheap to be any good: http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... -040212720

Cheers,

Alex

yeh got two of those cheapo torque wrenches, you can buy them from a few places and all look the same.
does the job OK, for DIY/light use

engine looks great

Thanks for that - I will go and grab one on the way home then.

Cheers,

Alex

I've given up on those puny pullers - I invested in a 10 ton hydraulic one, it makes it all so much easier. ( I was pulling a rudder arm off a shaft and everything else just bent or stripped the threads) Pricey, but to pay someone else to do it would have cost a lot more.