Engine rebuilding

Hi all!

Finally decided to totally rehaul my stock 1600. Reasons? 76km, oil leaking and poor compression in 3 cilinders....

I have it all in pieces on my table, and now cleaning everything and measuring, looking for cracks, scratches, etc....discovered a broken camshaft bearing, will replace all.

Got a new crankshaft, conrods, pistons/cilinders. And I am evaluating wether to keep the old crankshaft/conrods. The old crankshaft/conrods set looks in good shape, I am measuring journal diameter and roundness, conrod play, and conrod/shaft clearance.

If I install new, I've read that is not easy to install new conrod bushings and that professional machining will be needed. Is that true?

If I remove old conrods, I will need to replace the old nuts?

thanks for any hint, I will be busy this summer...

cheers!

carles

Reply to
Kuebel Guy
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Yes, replace all bearings in the engine. Also inspect the bearing saddles in the case for wear. The surface that teh bearings rest against, has to be perfectly smooth. No grooves or steps worn on it, from the bearing. Usually the bearing closest to the flywheel is the worst, it pounds grooves onto the bearing saddle. (this is caused by very minor vibration). There can't be ANY sideways play in the big bearing once it is pressed in place. (Do this test without the crank). If the big bearing has end play, or if the saddles are grooved, the case needs to be sent to a machine shop for line boring, where they machine material off the saddles to achieve smooth, straight support surfaces again. Then you will need oversize bearings. Ask for a correct size set from teh machine shop, or ask them to tell you the exact size they bored the case up to, so you know what size bearings to buy. The end play problem is eliminated much in teh same way, they should machine the sides of the flywheel end bearing saddle smaller, to accept a new bearing that has a smaller flange distance. It'll be tight again as long as the sizes match.

Woohoo!

They make a wonderful tabletop decoration and conversation piece in the livingroom. :) Or you can use them to build a "B" quality engine some day, where you use only old (but still good) parts.

Both can still be bad.. visual inspection doesn't reveal some of the more severe problems they usually can have, like microscopic cracks and slightly bent rods, even bent crank..

Good.

Not true. It's bolt-on, as long as you bought the right size. The rods should be weighed against each other, to make sure there is no weight difference across them. Acceptable tolerance is around 5 grams, factory rejection limit is around 8 grams weight difference. I match mine within 1g of each other. To remove weight, you can grind off the ridges of cast "seams". Leave the little "knob" intact on one side of the rod neck. When installed, those knobs should all point upwards, when each rod is pointing towards it's piston. (The rods are not symmetrical, there is a very small, undetectable to the eye, difference)

Old nuts can be reused if the threads are ok. Dry them, degrease them (and the bolts) and use loctite thread locking glue when assembling, and carefully torque them to specified torque value. Some rods have little grooves by the bolt hole, and the nuts have a collar.. you are supposed to use a sharp punch and peen that collar into the groove to prevent the nut from loosening up. Not all nuts have this collar, and not all rods have the groove. Therefore a generally accepted safe practice is to use Loctite.

Jan

Reply to
Jan

Good!

while inspecting the case, I've discovered that the thread that holds the oil presure sensor is broken. In fact looks like a bronze thread insert which was glued to the case hole, as the case itself is not threaded at all.

I was planning to clean the hole, and glue a new insert (if I find one) or make a thread in the case to hold the insert.

your advice...?

cheers!

Reply to
Kuebel Guy

Thread the existing hole for an insert. Solid insert takes more room and there's not a whole lot of meat around the boss, so I dunno... coil type thread requires less room but I would worry about leaks.. well.. use sealant and/or teflon tape..

Biggest problem is to find a suitable thread insert. May need to have one made or make it yourself. Glue a non-threaded insert in there? Jeez. No way. It's under constant pressure, and oil..

Maybe go to a pro alu welding shop and have them fill weld the hole shut, then drill and tap for fresh threads. Alu/Mag case CAN be welded. (if you know what you are doing)

One more idea: how about trying to find a pressure switch from another car that already has a larger diameter thread size, then ream and tap the case for that size?

It's just a stupid pressure on/off switch, and most car engines require

*roughly* the same oil pressure at idle to protect the bearings. Bearings are the same basic type, with more or less same clearances, regardless of what engine it is, so they should have the same basic lubrication requirements. - so, it shouldn't be hard to find a switch that opens at the same approximate pressure as the OEM VW switch, but just has larger diamater threads. I think? Never tried.

Jan

Reply to
Jan

Here again...

I have inserted one of the rod bushings to test wether a 22mm wrist pin can fit.

The result is too tight. Interference between fitted bushing anf wrist pin is about 0.5mm.

Also the bushings I got have no drilled oil holes, although is a VW stock part.

Whats the best action here...honing? And of course drilling the oil holes.

cheers!

Carles

Reply to
Kuebel Guy

Do you have solid or split bushings? I tried a set of the split type, and found them to be PITA. Also tore down an engine where those were used (installed many many miles ago by someone unknown), and they were loose to the rod, and spun little, so the oil holes no longer lined up. I'm never going to buy those again.

I also don't reuse old stock rods for high performance engines either. New set of good rods with ARP bolts is a nice insurance.

YES they always need to be honed to perfect fit and oil holes drilled. They are too tight probably to "force" you to hone them properly.

Jan

Reply to
Jan

Ups!

they are split type. so, better buy solid ones? sometimes is not easy to select type from catalog.

I am using new stock rods for a stock 1600.

If I would like to hone bushings whats the best technique?

cheers!

carles

Reply to
Kuebel Guy

I honestly don't know. I decided to never even attempt doing them myself. Too many things can go wrong. At the very minimum you need a solid fixture and drill press or something for the hole so that you get the hole absolutely straight and true, and 90 degree angle.

Buy new, or have a machine shop do them. Just don't bother.

Jan

Reply to
Bugfuel

...............My dad use to do it by hand back when I was a kid and I think that his technique was from way back in the old days maybe even in the 20's & 30's because he told me once that he learned from someone back when he was a teenager. What he did though was use very fine emery paper on the wrist pin instead of honing the bushing. It's pretty simple.

Here it is: ....Put some masking tape on the ends of the wrist pin where it seats in the piston. Roll the pin on an ink pad to stain the center section that's not taped. Remove the ink on the pin with the emery paper without rubbing any area where the ink is no longer visible. Take the rod/bushing after removing the tape from the pin and do a trial fit. If it's still too tight, start over. If it gets too loose, start over with a new pin. I remember that it was time consuming and that I wasn't trusted to do it because I was an 11 year old goofball kid.

Reply to
Tim Rogers

Honing is not the correct method. Honing follows the contours of the metal responding to dips and highs, you can never achieve a perfect circle. The correct procedure is to "ream" the bushes to suit your pin. With an installed new pin of 22mm (.8661 inch) you would be after .0004 - .0008 radial play. So you "ream" the bush to suit. A good machine shop would be able to do this for you either using a straight or adjustible reamer.

Check here for an example of what a "reamer" looks like.

Grahame from Aus

Reply to
Grahame Rumballe

Thanks for clearing that up, good reply Grahame!

Jan

Reply to
Jan

Thanks!

Yes, reaming is the way to go. I do have a drill press and a lathe...

My problem here is that machine shops don't take small jobs, they either do a full engine or refuse the work, so I am left to my own here.

cheers

carles

Reply to
Kuebel Guy

You can always send them to RIMCO and get them completely rebuilt. It's quite inexpensive, and getting them done on a proper rod machine assures a matched set of rods with the same center to center distance.

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----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Reply to
Jim Adney

and all this work will be wasted if the cores had microscopic cracks in them, like MOST stock rods do. They'll work fine in a stock engine, but when you start demanding more from them, they fail. And take the rest of the engine out with them. They should at least be magnafluxed or x-rayed to inspect them for cracks.

Carefully weigh the cost factors of reconditioning a set of old rods against buying a set of new ones. The scale will soon tip in favor of a new set that you should be able to trust are good without questioning.

I'd sleep better at night knowing they were in perfect shape.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

Sending the rods to an international (I am not in USA) shop its quite a hazle.

I do use new VW rods, and is a stock engine the one I am rebuilding. My problem is that they don't come with wrist pin bushings inserted. I did insert 'em it by myself but they are too tight for the 22mm wrist pin. I will ream them, already ordered a reamer.

This kind of rods stand 100K+ in a stock engine..I do understand they are not good for performance engines.

cheers! carles

Reply to
Kuebel Guy

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