Hello, I dont post much but here i am. I have a 1600 t2 bay and it's great, i love the camping and the trips. I took the engine out in January due to some end float and wanting to change all cables at the same time (throttle,clutch.). I fixed the end float and whilst the case was split i changed the following. New barrels and pistons Bearings & shells Main oil seal Push rods Head studs Crank reground etc. The engine runs amazing. Ive just done 500 miles fault free - no smoke from the exhausts, no hesitation. My issue is a hairline crack in the case. Just below the oil cooler. The oil absolutely flows out. I tried fixing with a multitude of chemical metal solutions, all with no avail. Had the engine out 8 times. I then had a company try and weld it, the aluminium and magnesium wouldn't weld too great. I used the keyed surgace from welding and made up some cery expensice chemical metal to fill. It was incredible for about 260 miles, i was chuffed. Anyway im back with an engine thats literally so good but bad beyond belief. What would you guys do in this situation, i just want a working bus, no more splitting cases or rebuilds! How much roughly would anyone accept this engine for purchase? Or should i buy a short block from a company. The case is fxcked and I've had enough of trying to repair!
Awkward ... I`d go for a short block if you can rebuild the top end yourelf if you feel up to it . Seems silly to waste a good top end on a trade in and as you rightly say the cases are toast . If not the JK Heritage ones seem to be flavour of the week ...
My advice.... short block as your current one although running sweet will never un-crack, try the VW engine shop they usually have an ad in camper & bus.... do NOT use TES!!
Just buy a new crankcase and rebuild the engine using your reground crank, barrels and pistons, heads, etc.
What @77Westy said. You will never get a decent fix on that old case. Smash it to bits with a jcb, then burn it with fire so no one else ends up with it.
It’s fixable but case needs washing etc so really needs to be bare, best best is probably to get a new case or a used one and have it machines, then swap all the bits into it, a leisurely weekends work
I had this. It turned out the crack went into the vertical oil gallery below the cooler. I cut a slit in some copper pipe so it would fit in the hole, cleaned and degreased the hole, smeared on JB weld, and pushed it down past the crack. It did not reduce the leak to zero but it slowed the leak massively. As you have discovered, welding is almost impossible, as the oil soaks into pores in the casting.. An alternative is to use a ball tipped burr to cut a keyhole shaped slot along the crack, or at least cutting a slot wider inside the metal of the block than at the surface.. clean up and pack with JB weld. I have a crack in my oil pump I fixed like that. Still good no leak.
The sad problem with this kind of crack is that apart from oil spraying out, the engine works well. I drove many miles regularly topping up the oil until one day I started it without the fan housing to find the leak, and found then bodged the crack. In the end I only abandoned my cracked engine case when I knackered the flywheel end of the crank twice. Once leaving flywheel gland nut loose, second time hard backfiring shook the remaining 4 dowels loose in a creative 8 dowelling done when I damaged it the first time.
