cam seal on fly wheel keeps wearing ? help ?

[animal81]

hi,

i have a dg 1.9 watercooled engine which has been rebuilt and last weekend i had put it back in the van for the second time. after the last time i put a new cam seal in and put on the fly wheel and clutch plate and the seal had broke within 5 minutes of the engine running for the second time. the engines runs sweet as a nut and i cant understand whats breaking the cam seal on it cause its go in flush and it all seams clean any ideas ?
thanks craig.

[kevtherev]

Crankshaft seal?
You need to have the crankshaft end float checked
Did they remove/lose any shims?

they really need to be there

[jimpainter]

As kev stated, normally the crank seals go that quick due to end float. Is everything tight? Shims been put back in when the seal was changed?

[animal81]

hi guys,

thanks for your posts, tonights the night the engine is coming out AGAIN and i will be checking the end float thank you for that and i checked the shims before and im sure there all there so i may need some help tomorrow if still no good , hopefully with close inspection i can see the cause of the seal to be damaged, the frustrating part is that im at the end of a big 3 years large resto project and this is now breaking me down lol.
just a question before tonight has anyone had any troble with the fly wheel damaging the seal if the end float is good ?

[jimpainter]

It could be possible that the flywheel has a worn groove in it where the seal sits, maybe enough to let oil leak past.
Did you fit the o-ring inside of the flywheel?
Endfloat should be 0.10mm so you shouldnt see/feel anything.

Jim

[animal81]

well i took the engine out again last night and un bolted the flywheel and checked the end float it was about 3.5mm i was gob smacked as i had a complete engine rebuild so its going back there for another rebuild before the weekend. hopefully they dont mess it up this time and of course its FOC. 8 weeks ago i knew nothing about engines and ive learned so much playing with this one and talking to you guys so thank you for that

[ermie571]

Glad you have found the source of the problem.

Hope the rebuild sorts it for you.....at least you can check it when it comes back this time!

Em
xx

[jimpainter]

3.5mm is really exsessive, VW limits are 0.07mm to 0.15mm absolute maximum. What was done in the engine rebuild. That much wear is either going to be a knackered main bearing or a knackered case. Either way it sounds like some machine work is needed/full rebuild, but without seeing its difficult to tell. How did you test end float? With a dti or the bracket and feeler guage method?

Jim

[ghost123uk]

Hi there, sorry to hear of your hassles. I remember similar hassles (tho different reason) a few years ago

Was the motor a "pro" (workshop) rebuild or an amateur one ?

[animal81]

hi jim,

after what you said i was thinking did i do it right, do i measure it after i took the flywheel off ? cause with the flywheel bolted on theres minimal movement but with the flywheel off theres over 3mm play, should this be the case but looking at the seal it was ripped apart ! question is with the flywheel off what is the tolerance of movement on the crank ?

[jimpainter]

Is it early or late dg?

[animal81]

its a 1988

[icosahedron]

Flywheel must be installed in order to measure end float.

Crankshaft oil seal must be pushed in all the way or else the flywheel will make short work of it. The outside of an original seal sits flush with the engine casing but a replacement seal has a different profile and is recessed by a couple of mm when installed correctly.