Hi everyone. Apologies for the many questions of late, I'm determined to get this van back together if it kills me but I'm relying a lot on this forum. Hope nobody minds. I put the engine case back together today - the crank was very stiff though - so its all back in pieces again :-( I'm guessed probably one of the journels weren't seated right or a dowel was not in place. Then I noticed the dowel hole (into the case) on #3 is pretty knackered - about 2mil extra taken out of 120degrees of the hole to one side, east/west. So some ideas: Liquid metal Bored out hole (would probably be too large) Gasket sealant around the outside of the journal or Drilling another dowel hole directly opposite in the other side of the case. Would this be structurally sound enough? Any oil passages in the way? Thanks everyone, hope the case isn't scrap.......
What engine? The dowel peg is to align the bearing to the oil gallery so the oil can flow into the bearing.. I'm not too sure that you can 180 the bearing... would also make putting the case halves together quite interesting!!
You may be able to find an oversize dowel - maybe VWH? - and drill the case/bearing shell to suit. As Paul said, the oiler hole has to remain unobstructed. If the dowel hole is too worn, may mean the case is scrap .
Cheers chaps! Its a type 1 1600 With regards to 180ing the dowel hole/bearing assuming the hole was drilled precisely in the case I'm thinking this might work... I'd have to drill another small hole in the bearing as the oil gallery would be in the wrong place. But 3 small holes instead of 2, don't see why it wouldn't work. As you say Paul putting the case together would be interesting thought perhaps do-able. From my experience today it seems that there's plenty of friction between case/bearing to hold it in place even without the dowel once the other bearings are in place. So if I made sure the bearing hole was directly 'up' when the case comes together it might be possible. My main worry is there's something behind where the hole would be in the other side of the case - though I doubt it. Any thoughts? With regards to an oversize dowel. It'd have to be very oversize. 2mil on one side means +4mil diameter in total to centre the hole. Not sure the bearing would be strong enough.
@Paul Weeding ? I am not sure of it, but Paul mentioned it somewhere, but I cant find it !! I might have remembered wrong though !!!
Yeah, you can use a type 1 pushrod... two ticks while I go copy paste, as I CBA to type it all out again
I spotted a tip over on VZi recently... Take a type 1 push rod, cut off the hardened end and run a M10 die down the outside of the push rod... drill out the peg hole in the case to 9mm, and using a bottom tap, tap the case to M10... the push rod will screw into the case, and the hole down the inside of the push rod is exactly the right size for the dowel peg...
Thanks Paul. Very clever, wonder how they thought of that?! and the end would have to be rounded not square...
There is a reason why so many of the recon engines explode... Should be a good fix, the case will clamp up the bearing and stop it spinning Good luck
Thanks again to all posters esp @Paul Weeding , did the above fix this morning. looks very smart. perhaps I can bug you all again however. still the same problem though - when the bolts are done up to half tightness the crank becomes stiff to turn. I'm a bit frazzled with it to be honest, the case has been open and closed 3 times now haha! So my observations: 1. Parts are unchanged from when the crank moved freely before I took it apart, bearings look undamaged and shiney (ie I'm the problem ;-) 2. Crank turns freely when nuts are finger tight 3. No gasket sealent in bearings 4.Tried without camshaft - still stiff, so at least that narrows it down 5. Bearings are well oiled 6. Visually everything looks right - case mates well, shaft looks square. 7. I believe bearings are seated on dowels correctly. When I open the case the crank remains in the RHS. All dowel holes look exactly horizontal 8.New repair doesn't seem to be the problem, all very smooth. So tech bods, any ideas?
No bearings are the same ones as before. And before the crank was fine. I know advice is to change them but they're pretty new anyway and look shiny
Just a thought. Would being 'half' tight cause stiffness? I've not tried the full torque on the nuts yet as a thought there'd be no point.
Kinda sounds like either dowel peg length, or the bearings not seated on a peg properly... I always fit the bearings to the case before fitting them to the crank so I can scribe the case centre line on them
