Club 80-90 Forums

Not sure but I don't think it is the same.
Cam profiles come in two profiles, one for solid lifters and one for hydraulic.
I doubt if any research has been done into alternatives, the engine wasn't around for long.

Laurie is the one who could enlighten us for sure

i know that one is made for the wbx with hydraulic lifters,got get all details for it, i know its different from the type one cam i have been told you can fit. i know that most engine rebuild a re not a money no object thing but as you will have it apart its worth looking into. i am looking forward to building a new motor for mine, and i want to strip it down to the last part so i can make sure its all good, i hope to have a balanced crank, flywheel and end pulley, refaced with new bearings, cam? (all the info is out there) new barrels and pistons, not sure about heads yet,i may have to buy new,(available from jk and heritage) i am going to top it all off with my dell40s and speedshop pipe. there you go i have to do it now. would lauri be the guy to talk to about the cam? i cannot believe no one else has done this before, so the info is out there

ok then! wish list for 2.1 BUILT engine? does it need another thead? then we can see who has the info out there. I will leave it to you as this was your thread to start with

WBX's are a bit crap, really, honestly, deep down you know they are too.
When they go bad, which they all will do at some point, if you are mechanically inclined most people opt for Subaru, relativley easy swap, loads of info ready supply of engines, more power, better MPG.
If you aren't mechanically inclined they you will probably rely on the services of a garage, or a specialist who will more than likely fit what you want within reason, and you will probably end up with a recon engine from someone like Vege, RemTec or one of the bigger brands.
Then, you have this 3rd entity, mechanically inclined, wanting an easy life and fairly inquizative, these are the people who bother to rebuild the WBX, and hats off to them.
I can understand the Subaru thing wholeheartedly, but personally if i had to drive a WBX (reasonably unlikely, 2 weeks was enough) and the engine blew up I would want to rebuild my own also.
We have at work at the moment a friends engine, it's been there a while in fairness, a project engine, a bag of bits.
He want to rebuild an engine, I now have the space to let him do so.
We pulled it in pieces probably a couple of years ago now, a 2.1, and all the bits have been off for balancing.
rough sort of spec is as follows.
2.1l DJ motor.
All reciprocating parts balanced.
MV barrels and pistons to be fitted (lower compression ratio, we want to use normal unleaded)
A bit of a cam, nowt amazing.
probably some ratio rockers.
Liven the heads up a bit, tidy the ports etc.
Probably go back together with a carb.
The guys not loaded, so once his funds recover then it will be getting a set of 40 IDF's or some DRLA's.
Hopefully after that he should have a nice, reasonably smooth, reasonably economical, reasonably quick and most important reasonably reliable easy to maintain motor for his outings.

Rebuilding a WBX (or anything at this time in fairness) is not a cheap operation, I really don't understand how the likes of Elite manage to rebuild an engine for the price they do! plus when an engine goes replacing it is usually a matter of urgency, so little projects like this usually don't happen.

It's nice to see someone bothering to rebuild a WBX as when they are running (and ignoring the running costs) they do their job well, sound nice and are lovely and smooth.
I have a picture somewhere of a guy called Mark's engine, he was Club 80-90 member number 3 i think, he was a great guy, wonder what happened to him, anyway... back in the day, in the early days of 80-90 he had a Reimo pop top based on a Caravelle GL, he had an engine built for it with a set of 40's and a bit of a cam, that really did go well, in the end I don't think he could afford to keep running it and sold it and bought a T4.
I always wondered what happened to the van though.
Anyway, if i find the picture I'll post it up.

sounds like a great engine, and i agree with you, the wbx is not the best engine in the world, but this is an itch i want to scratch, i can take my time over it, as the motor i have in the van is good so urgency to get it rebuilt. i want to get the crank,flywheel and end pulley balanced. can you recomend anybody? i had originaly thought i would use the higher comp pistons but had not thought about fuel. super is more expensive. this may be a stupid question but would it give better mpg with higher comp pistons(more efficient burn)? also where would i start looking for ratio rockers and a cam? sorry lots of questions, but i want to get it right ist time and have an engine that runs well.

We had the balancing done at redline racing in Brighouse, but to be fair, there will be loads of people who can do this sort of work that will be on your doorstep, it's not rocket science.
Cams, something we are just looking into at the moment, we don't want to take a step backwards and put it on manual tappets on, thats just daft as far as I can see.
Ratio rockers come from Type 1 engines, again, I need to do some research, As you are probably aware I was never a fan (no pun intended) of Aircooled stuff, so I Usually gloss past in in magazines etc..

so we have a weekend free and here we go ...

removing the other head revealed no real surprises as this is how it should have looked.



Perhaps a bit less sealant though next time, you can see how it has over flowed into various holes.



then the liners and pistons were removed



next the clutch was taken off





and the oil pump, here you can see where the errant circlip tried to do it's worst.





Now I'm stuck, I can't see the threaded hole that you fit the puller spindle in

Oh dear....
Bent rod



I think I see what happened to cause this.
When the clip fell out and the pin travelled to the bore the piston became heavier to one side.
this shift in weight caused the rod to be subjected to a sideways force and a frictional force from the pin dragging up and down the bore.
Then this force transmitted to the big end and started to wear away the opposite side of the big end casting seen here



whilst the other side remained relatively untouched




closer view.. opposite to the pin out



and the same side as the pin out

mmmmmm stella

yes ... my reward for being patient

Oil pump slide hammer is found and will be with you asap

Ian.

Excellent thread Kev, absorbing lots of info from this!

Don't forget Kev, you can quite easily bend a rod trying to remove a tight piston pin,,,,,,your theory should also have completely shagged big end shells.....


Regards


Fritz,,,,,,,,,,,

Quite true Fritz
A picture tells a thousand words..



One shagged shell

Right we're ready to split the case, once ALL the nuts and bolts are removed they practically fell apart





revealing the guts, with the camshaft removed





once it was all cleaned up and wiped down the crankshaft was removed, then I found what was left of the circlip, and it wasn't a lot!



Crankshaft ready for inspection.
As you can see No. 1 big end journal is looking grim.
However it's not scored or damaged.
But I fear it's a new crank as the journal endfloat is 4mm over spec



so now we save up and get a new crankshaft...

The circlip costs about 10p but if it's omitted or mis-placed, is, as you can see catastrophic