Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,
first of all I want to say hello and thanks to everyone who runs and use this forum. Just can't live without!
I am a registered user from 2011 but never got a chance to write something about me, but I think as I am now going into the real mess that is probably better to introduce myself and my Syncro!
I'm Matteo and with my girlfriend Lisa we own a nice and rusty 14'' syncro T3 with a MV engine and LPG system, westfalia interior. We live in Verona (N/E of Italy) and we love to travel with or without our VW.
Don't want to annoy you with personal infos... let's get to the point!

I am not a mechanic, but I own a VW van from 2008 so as much in here I am becoming one, to be precise I am now working part time in the garage where my van has just had an engine rebuilt across the end of 2014 and january 2015.

BUT after they (with "they" I mean the garage who actually opened and reconditioned the engine) got our engine rebuilt, we got the engine in place and drove it for 300 kms (three hundreds) and then decide to fit new hydraulic followers.


The mechanic at the garage did the adjusting procedure right and it was running great but the everything was ticking so we decided to follow the VW Bentley Manual and we did 2 turns without seeing that the valves were a bit open... drove it for few kilometers and the engine was running really bad... then we did a lot of tests and check and we finally managed to "have a look" at the camshaft ... and 2 cams were almost flat.



This probably happened because garage 1.0 (they) rebuilt the cam shaft instead of buying a new one (shame on them will follow) and it was great but after a few kilometers and the followers were pushing hard on it, the 2 cams just "melted" in the engine block.

This caused a sort of "metal sand" to be sucked by the oil pump sucker (that thing that takes the oil from the bottom of the engine) and was transferred all over the engine, some scratched appeared on the oil pump cover and on the gaskets of the 2 shafts.

I am now on my way to order new parts for my rebuild: camshaft, oil pump and seals and gaskets kits. As I also want to improve the power of my van I will fit DJ cylinder and pistons to my stock MV engine...
So here I have some questions for you:

I am considering buying the DJ bits from TK Carparts, do you know of anyone else?

I red the reseller championship thread in the forum and I get that SJ Baxter is probably the best part supplier within UK, and this said, I am happy to had ordered from him few times...
but at the moment he doesn't have anything that I need and I am considering buying stuff from TK Carparts and VW-Heritage.

I found the camshaft on the VW-Heritage website and it's described as a refitted one (from air cooled to wbx) is it any good? I know it's the only reseller who have it, and they offer a CB Performance one as well, it definitely got my attention but they say it's usually a 10 weeks order and they say you need some hi-revvs bits in the engine to use it, any advice about this? I spoke with the CB Performance customer office and they said they doesn't sell anything for WBX engines, just VW T1 engines... so it has to be all in VW- Heritage crew's hands... I am not a tuning-lover kind of guy but a would love to have some more power out of my MV engine... is it any reliable way about this cam shaft issue or should I just buy the Air Cooled refitted (but OEM) part?

Another important issue to me at the moment is about the hydraulic followers: as I said before we got a new set but we did some kilometers with too much pre-charge. We have now 5 of them who you can push with a screwdriver and they squeeze a little bit, and 3 of them that are actually solid. Is it normal behaviour for hydraulic followers or should they be totally solid? Did I broke them? Should I buy some new one from TK Carparts (Febi/Bilstein)? All set of 8?

I will then post some images of what we are doing in order to make it clear and easier for me to get some advice.

I know I probably forgot to write and note something but will update this post as I go forward with the work...

any feedback really appreciated, mainly about:
Stock or sport camshaft (more bits to change? pro's and con's?);
DJ Hi-RC pistons and cylinder (where to buy? pro's and con's?);
WBX oil pump (good quality products reseller?);
Hydraulic Lifters (should I buy a 8-pieces set or run with my 50 kms-old ones?)

thanks for your patience and time!

These are the different hydraulic lifters I used.
The one on the left is the old one that I found in my engine, the one on the right is the new one I bought from vw-bus.com and drove on it for 50 kms...

From now on, I post the pictures of what I found opening my engine after we found out that the cam shaft had 2 almost flat cams.
The oil pump cover is scratched and we think is because of the "metal sand" in the motor block, coming from the melted cams.

What do you think of the valves?
They looks like they close fine and we are not planning to have new ones in here. Any advice?

...follow

Here you can see the "metal sand" I was referring to before...
and the pistons, we checked them for shape and they are alright. I want to buy new pistons and cylinder because of the more HP that I can have buy using DJ pistons.

I'm afraid I can't answer all (or even very many) of your questions, but a few points come to mind:

1) DJ high compression pistons aren't available new as far as I'm aware. You need to look out for a good second hand set.

2) Silverbullet (on here) has been developing a replacement cam - see this thread. If you go for this you'll need an oil pump suitable for a three rivet cam.

3) I could be wrong, but I thought DJ and MV barrels are the same.

4) The lifters that Brickwerks sell (or did sell a few weeks ago) are from the OEM supplier, and are a good price, so it might be worth waiting for them to come back into stock. Have you asked them when they're expected?

WOW thanks for your reply.

I'm trying to contact Thomas Koch that is selling some nice parts for our VWs and looks like he has the DJ cylinder from Kolbenschmidt.
When he'll replies to my emails or phone calls I will have some news...

About the camshaft I had red the thread but couldnt really understand everything... I can't understand if I need anything different to use it (oil pump or other parts) and if it is a sort of plug and play thing. Because I am not a tuning guy I don't want to face any problems because of the modified camshaft and I can't understand if this improved cams are a safe improvement for the engine or there are still some things to work out.

I asked Brickwerks about the followers and they said no parts for the next few weeks...

I think VW-Heritage is selling the same products, the price is the same and they are from Germany too.

Hi everybody!
Finally we get it to the closing of the engine, with DJ pistons and new camshaft!
We reach this result today and we were then stuck for the cranckshaft play once the flywheel is in position.
Trims and shims on the cranckshaft were ok, we checked with the manual and a friend (and we had to reopen one side to get on the cranckshaft to get a bit that was missing - can't remember the part at the moment...! ).
We now have about 0.15-0.18 mm of play with the flywheel, manual says maximum tolerance 0.15mm.

Are these parts from Brickwerks the right shim to work on this play? Does they fit on the crankshaft between the engine block and the flywheel?
Any help appreciated!

End Float Shim
https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/ ... 0-4mm.html