Club 80-90 Forums

phone cj or mercdoc or mcgill or billynumbers .... etc

Thanks T'Onion. Are they members? (bit thick!)

cj = cj synchro sparees....go to the wanted section...he replies to alot of posts. Number in his sig.

Mcgill - yep a member

Billynumbvers = billy739..look in the for sale....regularly posts in there

Mercdoc=t25van spares.....his good lady is tracy without the e...mrst25vanpsares

Hope this helps

Emma

DC,
These are two of the contacts that T'onion mentioned (I think!)

CJ http://archive.club8090.co.uk/profile.p ... ofile&u=65

and McGill http://archive.club8090.co.uk/profile.p ... ofile&u=52

Maybe able to find Mrs (or Mr) Mercdoctor with a search but there seems to have been a spate of username changes recently, and at my age I have usually forgotten things before they happen.
See what I mean, Emma snuck in while I was two finger typing!!!

Mike

Purely by coincidence I bumped into someone at a do last night who works at an engineering company in Chesterfield. They re-condition engine parts for someone called VEGE. They had just one cylinder head in stock which my boyfriend went and picked up this morning. It looks all shiny and new so with a bit of luck by this time on Saturday we should be up and running

It's dead easy to knock engine rebuilders, but you are dealing with a fundamentally flawed engine. The early exhaust system is supported entirely by the heads and will chafe the gaskets away if you don't fit steadies to the lower 8mm case bolts. The studs are 12mm at one end, 10mm at the other and only 8mm in the middle. The sealant you need to put under the nuts can change the torque by just adding extra lubrication.
I have experimented with different amounts of the yellow sealant and have managed to snap a stud before the torque wrench registered 50NM.

So much of the water boxer is good at very high mileages. Barrels often have the original machining marks in them, pistons also. Cams look horrible just 20,000 from new, but don't get worse. Lifters seem to have aquired a life of their own. They are very basic, just metal pistons a spring and a ball bearing. No magic seals etc. so if the overall length is good, you SHOULD re-use them because they'll be better than the aftermarket ones.

I don't know how Elite make any money on what they do, but I know that people I know who used them have found them good and honourable.

I have just transferrred a Vege recent re-con to the skip after finding the head studs weren't new and had corrosion in them. The heads were DF with the ports opened to the DG inlet size (ish) It was Fitted by Lion Garage, just over a year ago and they came to me for a 'thrown together ' replacement with new studs, bearings rings, valves and guides
and proper DG heads.

In any rebuild, you either have to buy all new, or make decisions based on experience. New case (if you can get one) is £1100. New Crank £410
New cam £110 New lifters £100 New heads 600 (pr) Barrels and pistons £150. Makes it a 3 grand engine and it still has its design flaws.

Don't knock Elite. They do a far better job than the price indicates.

yeah, 3k for a std engine... so my 2.5l at 5k is cheap... ok, it doesnt have a new case, but just about everything else is.......

Laurie wrote:It's dead easy to knock engine rebuilders, but you are dealing with a fundamentally flawed engine. The early exhaust system is supported entirely by the heads and will chafe the gaskets away if you don't fit steadies to the lower 8mm case bolts. The studs are 12mm at one end, 10mm at the other and only 8mm in the middle. The sealant you need to put under the nuts can change the torque by just adding extra lubrication.
I have experimented with different amounts of the yellow sealant and have managed to snap a stud before the torque wrench registered 50NM.

So much of the water boxer is good at very high mileages. Barrels often have the original machining marks in them, pistons also. Cams look horrible just 20,000 from new, but don't get worse. Lifters seem to have aquired a life of their own. They are very basic, just metal pistons a spring and a ball bearing. No magic seals etc. so if the overall length is good, you SHOULD re-use them because they'll be better than the aftermarket ones.

I don't know how Elite make any money on what they do, but I know that people I know who used them have found them good and honourable.

I have just transferrred a Vege recent re-con to the skip after finding the head studs weren't new and had corrosion in them. The heads were DF with the ports opened to the DG inlet size (ish) It was Fitted by Lion Garage, just over a year ago and they came to me for a 'thrown together ' replacement with new studs, bearings rings, valves and guides
and proper DG heads.

In any rebuild, you either have to buy all new, or make decisions based on experience. New case (if you can get one) is £1100. New Crank £410
New cam £110 New lifters £100 New heads 600 (pr) Barrels and pistons £150. Makes it a 3 grand engine and it still has its design flaws.

Don't knock Elite. They do a far better job than the price indicates.

As a newbie and full time amateur this is the sort of hard information I feel that I need. There's a lot I don't know but there's so much hearsay and rumour and people trying to sell you stuff that you don't know if you need. It's easy to have bad experiences. The engine in my van is a recent rebuild and all the internals, studs included, were in very good to excellent condition but it had been put together with less than due diligence. I have tried to get the best advice and parts but it has been difficult - I didn't know there were different cylinder heads for instance, and I've had difficulty in getting reconditioned let alone new. And starter motors! well I think it's like joining the inner circle of the Freemasons- you have to know someone in the know before you can get even a reconditioned one.

So thanks Laurie- feel free to give any more advice it's all useful to me

Hell of a trade discount if you can get a 110 quid cam, Laurie!
my DJ cam was 235quid from main dealer

I was trying to giva an example of the sort of new prices you can expect to pay.
Anyone can build a kit of new parts. The skill is to decide which parts don't need to be new.

Been in and running since Sunday morning. Did a couple of short runs and had it back to check for leaks, connections, fluid levels etc. after each one. Took it for a gentle run to the coast yesterday, checked everything last night and it all still seems ok.

So, we'll see how long it lasts

Thanks for all the advice off here - helped turn a potentially scary experience into one where I felt a sense of achievement. Alone and without help I'd never so much as changed the oil on a car before so the possibility of disaster was great. Needed help from my boyfriend on a couple of things like using the torque wrench, and physically maneuvering stuff. Someone off here who fixes VW's for a living, came round and offered advice and diagnosis. I don't think he wants loads of people asking for free help so I won't mention his name but you know who you are- Thank You!

P.S. If this doesn't last very long I'll be looking at an engine swap - diesel or Subaru maybe so I'll be back asking more dumb questions