Club 80-90 Forums

I'm a bit new to the camper game, hence i ended up buying a right heap of steaming van offa ebay. I'm trying to rebuild a 1.9 DG engine for it, which i have completely stripped.
Trouble is, I can't figure out whether to replace the main (crankshaft) bearings. They seem to be in pretty good nick, but i've heard its a false economy not to replace.
Also, i'm confused as to what size bearings i need. The crankshaft has red dots on it, which i know mean SOMETHING, but not sure exactly what

can anyone help?

Run a micrometer over the crank and compare to the measurements in the manual. The main bearings are only cheap, you'd be stoooopid not to swap them.

The red or blue dots do identify which bearings you need. Green dots is for a 2.1 crank.

Ian.

Hi, and welcome. Whereabouts are you? Have oodles of pics of my 1900 DG when I refurbed it 18mnths ago, if you need any, just shout.
Good luck with it
FW

Hi there Mr / Mrs doof_mc-scoof

Welcome from sunny Chester (well it is today anyhow)

What budget have you planned for your re-build ?

I often wondered how much a sensible re-build would cost compared to say an Elite re-con.

Pistons and liners.
Big end shells.
Mains.
Bolts. (which bolts do you have to change ?)
Gaskets.
Etc etc...

And I wonder how many folks would say change things like valves, cams and oil pumps too ?

I wonder if Laurie (Pettit) will be along to let us know his thoughts...

ghost123uk wrote:Hi there Mr / Mrs doof_mc-scoof

Welcome from sunny Chester (well it is today anyhow)

What budget have you planned for your re-build ?

I often wondered how much a sensible re-build would cost compared to say an Elite re-con.

Pistons and liners.
Big end shells.
Mains.
Bolts. (which bolts do you have to change ?)
Gaskets.
Etc etc...

And I wonder how many folks would say change things like valves, cams and oil pumps too ?

I wonder if Laurie (Pettit) will be along to let us know his thoughts...

If it helps I've just ordered the following for our 2.1DJ rebuild :-

Camshaft £49.90
" Bearings £4.95
Crankshaft £240.84
" Bearings £37.89
Big End " £6.94
Dizzy Drive Collar £ 16.81
2.1 Piston Rings £44.59
Engine rebuild Gasket Set £73.51
Oil Cooler £46.95
" Pump £12.50
" " Cover £3.95

With carriage all-together £568

The pistons and barrels (£240 ish/set) , pushrods and tubes were fine and will be re-used. The crankshaft will be reground to be used in the rebuild of the 1.9DG to a DJ next winter.

The reason I got a new DJ crank was a) someone else is paying for it and b) while new ones are still available. I'll put 2.1 pistons and barrels in the 1.9 when I rebuild that.

P.S. having fitted our own Elite VW DJ I can tell you that our's definately had new pistons & barrels.

Ian.

Ummmm - so if you used the old crank, re-ground and fitted new pistons and liners, by my calcs it would be £523 plus the cost of grinding the crank (say £100 if you are paying a machine shop to do it, and hope they get it right - ask me why I mention that last bit )

So around £625 + ( aren't there some bolts you're not supposed to re-use, like big end cap bolts and poss the main head/liner bolts ? )

So a re-con from elite is costing around £400 more but saving all the work, though I realise the work can be rewarding, (I have done other engines), but also can be very tedious if, after all that, when you fire it up it ain't right !!

Gal wrote:Hmm reading this can you quite easily upgrade from 1.9 to 2.1 just by putting on larger pistons and barrels?

And crankshaft and waterpump, oil cooler ensemble .. thermostat housing, pipework, hoses.

Ian.

Cheers for all the comments guys!

I haven't really thought about a budget, was just planning on keeping everything as cheap and cheerful as possible!

There only seems to be one type of main bearing available from volkspares anyway (aside from those for ground crankshafts etc), so i think i'll just go for that and see what comes though the post.

Expenditure so far includes a complete gasket/seal set (£40 offa ebay), the engine bearings (£50 plus postage), a set of piston rings (£30ish I think), plus the ususal gubbins like sparkplugs and h/t leads.

Might yet replace the con rod bolts, but again, i'm struggling to figure out what to replace them with. Don't suppose anyone has an idea?

doof_mc-scoof wrote:
Might yet replace the con rod bolts, but again, i'm struggling to figure out what to replace them with. Don't suppose anyone has an idea?

Tis oft quoted on here (oft by Mocki ) that it is always worth trying the VW VAN Dealers (ie not the car dealers, different department and they don't talk to each other !) for engine (and other) bits as they do often have, or can get them and they are not always the more expensive.

Also, though I personally have never tried it, it should be worth a phone call to Elite and Vega et al, to ask them where they get theirs, or if they would sell you some.

You will find that VEGE, etc don't replace rod bolts. Just for the fact that they are re-useable.
Don't just buy a set of bearings without measuring the crank.
Do the bearings have dowels or lugs securing them?
Is there any marking on the bearings?

Late rod bolts are things I remove to use in beetle engines. Good for 7,000RPM.

Laurie wrote:You will find that VEGE, etc don't replace rod bolts. Just for the fact that they are re-useable.
Don't just buy a set of bearings without measuring the crank.
Do the bearings have dowels or lugs securing them?
Is there any marking on the bearings?

Late rod bolts are things I remove to use in beetle engines. Good for 7,000RPM.

Nice to have a pro on board

Laurie, is it possible to measure a crank with a decent (£20) electronic vernier gauge or should one use a proper micrometer ?