I have found that sometimes you can in fact see and clonk endfloat when it's well in spec so don't panic until you've measured.
Thanks everyone for your replies and advice It’s easy to see I’m out my depth lol I’m going to clean the heads and go from there It might end up on a shelf in the corner or might even go one day I need to do a lot of reading up and video watching to see why the rings are there why one ring is split where the rings should go how to get the barrels into the right place so the piston travels to the right place so lots to learn
So.... I cleaned up the 1&2 cylinder head With degreaser and hot pressure washer and Now it’s in the Dish washer BUT the “good“ news is no bits missing off valve guides and no damage to any of the four pistons just crap photos from me lol Tomorrow I’ll take the valves out of the other head and clean it up Where should I go from there ? Grind and seat the valves or ???? Cheers all
You need to see how much valve guide wear you have check for any cracks in the combustion chamber,any damage to the valve seats,are the plug threads in good condition and what are the threads on the studs like. I’d also check the cc of the combustion chambers.
Nope. Newly rebuilt engine, all good when measured. This clonking business is a very crude judgement for us amateurs - LP had set it by feel and it was bang in the centre of the tolerance.
Ideally something like a CD over the top of the chamber (cut just to fit innisde) and with a spark plug in and the valves in place use a big syringe with marks on it or an accurate set of scales to work h out how much liquid it took to fill the chamber.. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
It’s like defer says but don’t worry about it at the moment It will just be needing to be done if the rest of your heads check out ok. It’s something to be done at building the engine time really Where are you in the country fella?
I think it comes from the days when everyone ran an engine into the ground And was used as advice when buying a bus or bug I’d still be wary of spending if I could feel and definitely if I could hear it New cases and rebuilds ain’t cheap It costs a lot to drive around in an old hippy van nowadays
Not meaning to be condescending but I think baby steps are needed here..hold them by the hand 1 step at a time... No point measuring cc's of the heads yet. Working the way through at a slower pace needed I think
Hi Paradox unfortunately (or fortunately) I live in the very far north of Scotland just by John O’Groats lol I think people are giving me too much credit here and maybe assume I’m more competent than I actually am or maybe they don’t want to insult me but some of the info is way above my head which obviously is down to my inexperience and lack of mechanical knowledge So what would you say my steps are in the most basic language where I am now is Did a compression test and found 2 around 100 1 at 65 and 1 at 0 to 15 so took the heads and barrels off and found the whole thing caked in crud after years of sitting in a wet shed so the valves weren’t seating and one piston had one of the rings stuck with crud so far I have cleaned one of the heads and am ready to seat the valves then clean the second head and seat those valves the barrels have slight marks but don’t appear to be too bad So I bought a honing tool and will give them a going over and the pistons are in reasonable condition as well my plan was to clean everything up then reassemble and do another compression test to see if my efforts had been successful and if it had then it would be financially worth getting new parts where required like push rod tubes and gaskets etc and get it to the next stage and get it running but maybe even that approach demonstrates my lack of experience lol
Couldn’t agree more lol don’t get me wrong I really appreciate all the help and advice and people taking time to guide me and I’ll persevere with my lack of experience learning as I go the engine was bought knowing it was out of my comfort zone and knowledge level but I hoped to walk through one step at a time
I had a knackered engine and with the help of zed and para and all the others on here I sourced and rebuilt a new engine from bits of old and new which is spot on..yes I had a little bit of sense to ask ??? If you go 1 step at a time and not get ahead of what you are doing it is easily possible to have a full working engine and get out driving...go slow and ask...we have all been there don't rush and we can all hold your hand to get you sorted.
Careful with the honing. Your plan sounds ok to me. Without pushrod tubes it's going to throw oil out all over when you compression test. Get those heads cleaned up and see if the valves seat ok. Free the stuck rings, careful, they are quite brittle. When you have that done and dusted, the main thing you want to know is the crankshaft end float. This is life and death for a type 1 engine. You can rig something up to measure with feeler gauges. If it's within spec you're laughing, if it isn't that's a whole different situation.
The thing is Kevin With that split spacer you won’t get good compression as it will leak out of the split. If you build it without the spacer rings and don’t check the deck height When you come to do your compression test There’s a chance the pistons could hit the heads Without knowing the deck height and combustion chamber volume you can’t calculate your compression ratio and it could end up too high and run hot and damage the engine Also when you hone the barrels your supposed to fit new piston rings. At a bare minimum you could lap the valves back into the seats and check they seal by pouring fluid in the combustion chamber If it leaks out into the ports they haven’t sealed Find out the thickness of those spacer rings and replace the split one and build it back up. It may well turn over,make compression and run But it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good reliable engine It could be more like a ticking time bomb.
Thanks Paradox I’m no sure what’s best to do now then as there is no sense rebuilding to end up with a time bomb I have no idea how to find the deck height or combustion chamber volume or how to work out the compression ratio in fact I don’t even know how to source the spacer rings or how to fit them once sourced so I’m going to lap the valves and ensure they don’t leak then god knows lol I thought about new barrels and pistons but that would still involve finding the deck height and compression chamber volume (I assume) plus I don’t really want to spend that type of money on this engine I have the Haynes manual in your opinion / experience is there enough detail in there in layman terms for an idiot (me) to find the deck height and compression chamber volume without buying loads of specialist tools to get the measurements ? cheers
Check the end float before spending any money. If the thrust bearing is loose you need to completely dissemble the case and have it machined...or abandon your project for now...or sell the good parts.
I haven't been through the whole thread so this may have already been suggested, but. It seems you are interested in rebuilding as a learning experience so its well worth buying Tom Wilson book "How to rebuild your Volkswagen aircooled engine". I found it very useful as a reference while fully rebuilding my engine. Re cc'ing heads and deck height, YouTube is your friend. Its pretty easy when you know how.
