More problems

[avant-garde]

Hi...my T25 has just had a new front end fitted with new window rubber seal etc - I had this done because there was a bad case of footwell puddles every time it rained. It rained last night and the footwell puddles have not gone away!
I have been around the front/side of the van today with a watering can to try and see where the water is coming in - no joy. Seems the water only comes in when it is raining and I'm not there to see it.

Brake problems - I had a new front right drivers side brake caliper fitted last year because it was binding - I'm now having problems with the break pedal not returning fully when driving slow. I have to flick it up the last half inch with the top of my shoe. This is a problem because I live on a hill.
The break pedal will only 'depress' when the engine is running it won't budge when not running - is this normal 'servo' break action? I replaced the servo back in November!
Anyway I was looking at the round shiny brake disk and on the drivers side only about an inch in width is shiny - on the passenger side the whole lot (near enough) is shiny. Any ideas as to why the drivers side is not shiny like the other side?

Backfiring (more often than not) when coasting in 3rd. Could this be simply an old exhaust that needs replacing or are there more sinister problems that can cause this. The tappets were adjusted the correct way when the van was having its new front end fitted. I thought this might have made a difference but not so.

I have been told that the T25 CU 2.0l engine I have is in fact a CU 2.0l engine for a bay camper as it has self adjusting tappets not hydraulic...for all this time I thought I had hydraulic tappets!

Any advice on the leak and breaks would be appreciated.

[kevtherev]

leaks can come in from the wiper holes the washer holes and the aerial hole.. and even the fresh air intake
Back firing on the overrun is a classic symptom of an induction air leak (vacuum pipes, gaskets etc)

as for the disc,
check the pad for faults and that it is seated correctly

[avant-garde]

It would seem that the backfilling is faulty valves on NS cylinder head (popping through inlet valves).

I had the valve guide bush replaced on no. 3 cylinder a while back after I was told there was zero compression on that cylinder. The reason why the brass bush had melted is because of no 'cooltins' around the cylinder head - so I've had to rig up an aluminium flexi-tube from the fan blower to each side of the cylinder head in order to help cool the cylinder head.

Anyway...

I've had a compression test done today and all 4 cylinders are now around '60'. The one saving grace is that they are all close to each other. I've read that the minimum should be 70 and the average is around '100'.

Any clues as to what causes the suspect faulty valves? Could it be excessive heat?
Am I right in saying it is the 'inlet valve' that is likely to be faulty or could it be the surface that they touch - I guess that's the cylinder head.

If it's the inlet valves then they can be replaced easily enough. If its the cylinder head part then is there anything I can do to help create a gas tight seal etc?

Cheers for any advice.

[BOXY]

the brass bush had melted is because of no 'cooltins' around the cylinder head

Brass melts at about 900'C, aluminium melts at 650'C. If the brass bushes are melting your engine is doing a bit more than overheating

The tin-ware around the engine is there for a very good reason. A couple a bits of ducting pointing towards the cylinder heads are going to be next to useless at controlling the engine temperature.

Didn't your van have a new engine fitted a while ago? What happened to the tinware?

[Robsey]

With regard to braking..

Does the van pull to either side when setting off or slowing down?

It sounds to me like the side where only part of the disc surface is rubbing, may be suffering from a sticking brake calliper.
Sometimes this suddenly releases whilst braking with a "clunk" sound as the calliper suddenly "un-sticks" and the disc pads rapidly contact the disc surface.

Or your brake pistons may be getting stuck or bound-up in their bores causing it to be pushed out at an odd angle and inturn pushing the pad unevenly against the disc.

or as said above, the pads may not be fitted squarely in their carriers.

An induction leak could cause two of your problems here.
1) Too much air getting into the combustion chamber will cause a weak spark, which can make the engine run hot / overheat.
2) An induction leak can cause popping, or hesitation on over-run as your describe.

[avant-garde]

The tin-ware around the engine is there for a very good reason. A couple a bits of ducting pointing towards the cylinder heads are going to be next to useless at controlling the engine temperature.

Didn't your van have a new engine fitted a while ago? What happened to the tinware?

I picked the van up Friday from yet another garage and they told me the popping was coming from suspect inlet valve on 3 and maybe on cylinder 4.
I had the cylinder head off and the vales guides replaced etc last November. The garage showed me the brass valve guide - okay it hadn't melted as such but it was pretty much out of shape. I remember no. 3 cylinder had zero compression at the time.

The garage which did the work on Friday couldn't tune the engine because there was no timing mark scale present! They replaced the lower ball joint and upper ball joint boot. They oiled the brake pedal piston. They told me I would need to replace the brake disks and pads at some point but it wasn't dangerous - so no worries. That lot cost me £393.13 for the work and £86.40 for the initial inspection to tell me what needed doing a week earlier

When the new engine was fitted by the VW specialist when I first bought the camper he forgot to mention that the engine was a 2.0l CU for a bay type camper and not for a T25. The tappets are not hydraulic. There is no timing mark scale. Tinware was missing. I have no oil temp gauge etc etc. I guess he could see the words "cash cow" stamped across my forehead.

Being that this was my first VW T25 Aircooled I had no idea what to look for when it came to tinware or tappets etc. I know ignorance is no excuse but that's my excuse.

After finding out on here that I need cooltins in order to reduce the heat in the cylinder head - I rigged up aluminium 1" O/D flexi-tube and have them coming out of the heater fan. One flexi-hose goes to the left cylinder head and the second hose to the other cylinder head. This has to be better than doing nothing? At least there is air being blown directly onto the cylinder heads.

All in all when I add up up what I have spent on the van in order to get the engine to run smooth and how it should - which it has never done in the 3 years that I've had it ...I've had enough. The final straw was when I was told that there was no timing mark scale present. How on earth have all the different garages tuned my engine in the past if there has not been a timing mark scale? Not one of them mentioned this except the last garage.

So I'm waiting for a decent week of sun in order to paint the van...then I'm selling up, cutting my losses and putting it all down to experience.

[kevtherev]

It's not difficult to static time an engine without marks.
even a running engine can be fairly accurately done.

But you are right about having your pants pulled down
That's a tough pill to swallow
My sympathy is yours

Kev

[BOXY]

Don't let the apparent lack of timing mark tip you over the edge. There probably is one but it's very difficult to see. First take the basket off the fan, it's held on by 3x 10mm bolts. The timing scale will come off with it. (if you need more room take out the plastic pipe from the alternator to the left side of the engine. Put a socket & extension through the number plate flap onto the nut in the middle of the fan, this will let you turn the engine over by hand. Un-clip the distributor cap and find the mark on the lip on the distributor body. Turn the engine over by hand until the rotor arm is lined up with the mark. This should bring the elusive timing mark up to the 0 position. Put the timing scale back on the two studs, and get a very good torch and a mirror. Have a good look around the the fan pulley near the 0 mark on the scale. On my van the mark is a very small circular punch mark on the back of the pulley! Once you've found the mark get some white or silver paint and transfer the mark to the front of the pulley wheel so you can use it for timing with a strobe.

I understand your frustration in finding a good garage. My van had a valve stem snap at the spring end a few weeks ago. I didn't have time to fix it myself and couldn't get the van down to Bodmin to the garage I usually use. I booked the van into a local garage who turned it around quickly but weren't used to Aircooled VW's. A couple of days after getting it back I gave it a quick look over before going for a run. The piece of tinware that covers the push-rod tube was AWOL. The flaps in the engine bay hadn't had the spring set so were fitted closed! And the engine bay seal wasn't fitted properly in a few places. All of these things could have "cooked" the engine on a long run.

I think to have a pain free life with a T25 you need to have a balance of technical self sufficiency and the support of a "local" garage that understands T25's. Only you can decide if you can get that balance right.

[avant-garde]

I've just found a mechanic down here in Breage who seems to know what he is doing
Time will tell.

The flaps in the engine bay hadn't had the spring set so were fitted closed!

...what are they then? I don't have any flaps/springs - is that bad?
As for tinware - my local garage when removing a cylinder head bent some of the engine bay tinware and it has never fitted since - there is a gap now between the foam engine bay seal and the rear of the engine bay. I take it form what you are saying that I should have an airtight ish engine bay seal.

I'll take each one out and bend back into shape and refit.

All of these things could have "cooked" the engine on a long run.

Do you mean something like 100+ miles when you refer to a long run? Or do you mean like Cornwall to Scotland and back again.

[82JEW75]

Any chance of some photos of your engine?

A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. From this thread and looking back over previous discussions last October I think there is rather a lot being lost between van and keyboard.

Pictures, please.

[Tug]

You need to sort that tinware asap. Its their for a reason my mate. I spent a day bolting mine together so it fitted snug and injected sealant between the joints. I also fitted a new engine bay seal and filled in any holes in the tinware with grommets etc. I can now here the van suck....when im driving like a whirring noise..
My engine bay is now really snug with no holes anywhere in the tinware..bulkhead..seals and it shows big time. I can pull the dipstick after a 50mile run and can hold the dipstick without burning my fingers..

The only problem I have now is oil leaks...I seal one and another appears..i give up..

Glenn

[toomanytoys]

Poor cooling system fit and operation is going to cause all sorts of issues.. as you have been finding out.... ever tried to drive your "normal" car with only a couple of liters of water in it?? it wont last long..
Whats occuring for any air cooled engine with missing/badly fitted tinware and seals is you are running it with very little "coolant". there HAS to be clear separation of hot from cold for it to work properly..

Unfortunately it seems you are at the mercy of uncaring prev owner and unkowledgeable so called mechanics.. you aint the first and wont be the last in that respect..

I cant tell you how many beetles, bays,t25's I have seen with ill advised "adjustments" to the cooling system.. VW never went to the trouble of designing and fitting parts if they werent needed..

Your addition of 1" (really 1 inch??) od tube is going to provide naff all air to cool the engine I am afraid..

A CU engine from a Bay window van will fit, but all the T25 tinware etc needs to be used.. they are different vehicles.... Or if you use the bay tinware then there needs to be a lot of effort made to make up the missing tinware and seal.. I know.. I put a type 4 engine from a 411 into the back of a T25, making up all the extra tinware took a lot of time and effort, which your average bodger wont be bothered to do...

[toomanytoys]

As for brakes...
Well.. if I had a customers van in with 1 inch of shiney disc on one side and all ok on the other.. I wouldnt let them take it away without it being fixed.. I'd suggest you get that sorted asap..

[avant-garde]

I will take some pics of the engine tinware as soon as I get it back from the garage. The guy is looking at taking off the cylinder heads etc and seeing what needs doing.

He did a compression test and 2,3 & 4 were 120 and no. 1 was 50...the garage that I took it to a couple of weeks previously said all cylinders had a compression of 65.

So he needs to find out why cylinder 1 has poor compression. There is no oil burning so it can't be the rings and then figure out why there is a popping/bang sound coming from the 3 & 4 cylinder carb. I reckon it all comes down to valves seats/guides.

I have some sheet metal so I should be able to sort out all the gaps etc. I never realised that having a few gaps in the engine bay could cause so many problems. So if the tinware gaps between the top of the engine and the bottom of the engine have been sorted there should be no more overheating problems...am I right in saying that?

I don't have any sort of oil/engine temp gauge in the van - I guess the previous owner took that out before selling! ...while I'm here should I replace the oil cooler while I'm having the valves looked at just to be on the safe side?

As for the brakes...I have an MOT at the end of this month so I'll wait till then.

[82JEW75]

I will take some pics of the engine tinware as soon as I get it back from the garage. The guy is looking at taking off the cylinder heads etc and seeing what needs doing.

I have some sheet metal so I should be able to sort out all the gaps etc. I never realised that having a few gaps in the engine bay could cause so many problems. So if the tinware gaps between the top of the engine and the bottom of the engine have been sorted there should be no more overheating problems...am I right in saying that?

If the tinware is complete, fitted correctly and the engine is reasonably clean then it shouldn't overheat. Hence why we need photos to see what you have currently and what is missing. Just filling gaps without knowing what is supposed to go where will not cure your problems.

I don't have any sort of oil/engine temp gauge in the van - I guess the previous owner took that out before selling!

No Aircooled VW ever had an engine temperature gauge as standard, there are varoius aftermarket examples though.

...while I'm here should I replace the oil cooler while I'm having the valves looked at just to be on the safe side?

Not if there's nothing wrong with it, no.

As for the brakes...I have an MOT at the end of this month so I'll wait till then.

Doubt it'll be driving anywhere before then anyway.