Think I blew a piston?

Check for too much oil in the engine.

Do a compression test. Holed piston sounds likely.

If you don't have a gauge, do the "poor man's" test:

Ignition Off. Shift in Neutral. Turn crank pulley CW by hand (easier to turn the Gen pulley). Go thru 2 complete revs of the crank. You should feel 4 very distinct compression "peaks".

Do the test a few times to get the feel of it. If you only get 3 peaks, oh oh.

Speedy Jim

Are holes in pistons that common? Cheap gas might contribute to that happening. As you see I don't work on the ACVW engines as much as I used to! :-(

I would have thought that maybe the fuel pump was leaking fuel into the crankcase and the oil was thinning out and the level was higher than normal. Then going up the hill, this abundance of thinned oil/gas caused issues with blowby and some possible sparkplug fouling as it was trying to burn off the oil/gas mixture (Blue Smoke).

BTW I like that "poor man's" test! lol

One out of many daves

No, holes aren't that common, but it does happen when the engine is pushed to the limits (up hills for example) and *especially* if the timing is advanced too far. Inadequate cooling will contribute too.

Jim

Thanks Jim...................

Geez, I used to pull other Beetles or boats with my '67 Beetle Conv. and its stock engine with no problems. Uphill too from Iowa back to Chicago or from Michigan to Chicago! Of course I did not "push it to the max" though. I think I will drop a Type IV engine in my 1970 Beetle when I put it on the road.

I hope it is sometime simple, cheap and easy to fix for the OP. ;-)

"dave AKA vwdoc1" wrote in news:FqHwj.12555$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.net:

Well, I didn't really push it...just climbing slight hills like it always does (come out to Missouri, we have nothing BUT hills). It wasn't pinging or anything...I just put new points/condensor in it. Plus a cap and rotor. It's a stocker, and I don't race it.

Oil temp was fine all the way through. Pressure did drop, that's when I turned it off (10 psi, checked oil - still has oil showing 1/2 full).

Only thing I can think of is that now I have the proper carb (had a 30, swapped to a 34) and fixed the throttle (was only opening 3/4) that maybe there was a stress crack on one of the pistons - and I aggravated it. Who knows?

I'll pull it apart later this week and see. Hopefully without pulling it out of the car...pull the intake, exhaust...then drop the heads. Then I'll know.

I'm figuring on 4 new pistons/cylinders.

drop the engine...you are asking for more work trying to do the teardown, much less the reassembly, with the engine still bolted in the car.... to even pull the heads with the engine in the car you will have to remove half of the headstuds on each side, and i recommend against removing them unless you have to.(specifically if the case doesn't have case savers.) removing and replacing the pistons with the block bolted in the car gives you too many opportunities to drop parts into the engine, or even the chance of dirt, grease, and grime being knocked into the inside of the block....on top of all that, it's tougher to get to the things and takes much longer....drop it and tear it down...

Do not fear engine pull. It's a piece of cake.

Need a rolling floor jack though. Even a cheapie one will do.

Jan

"Joey Tribiani" wrote in news:i_3xj.2190$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe19.lga:

That's all and good if I had full strength in both shoulders. I've done it before with it in the car (yeah, it's not much fun). I've never pulled the engine out of a stock Bug...the ones I've done were out of baja versions (open back). They didn't have all that tinwork and such...plus as mentioned in my shop manual - I don't have 4 strong men to pick the bug off the motor (once dropped)...

I thought the heads would drop off once the intake/exhaust was out of the way? Good to know...

Jan Andersson wrote in news:62k0neFi8oooU1 @mid.individual.net:

Link does not work.

Works for me.

i removed my first vw engine over 20 years ago, by myself with a small floorjack(the kind you can get at a department store)....did this in the backyard on dirt...still wasn't a large problem....i *have* pulled heads in the bug, and i'd rather dress in pink and ride a unicycle to work before i'd attempt that instead of dropping the engine...engine removeal isn't tough and it makes it much easier to work on it... if you can't drop the engine, just be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to do the work and take special care to not get trash in the engine when you have it open...

Michael Cecil wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Working now for me too...weird.

Thank bandwith & doanload limitations set by GeoShitheads. Try again later. It worked for me right now (8:49 eastern) and it did when I pasted the link.

GeoShysters takes the page offline temporarily if it gets too may hits.

Yeah, but when they do that they put up a page telling you that. I figured that with Pakistan accidentally nuking YouTube the other day and with Florida going black that maybe it was just a hiccup in Skynet.

and where were you all when I was a poor boy before I became a poor man? lol

i like to perform the "redneck" compression check occassionally...just to make sure the engine is fine...just downshift early and you will know if your compression is okay based on how much the rear tires slide....hard on parts though...

" P.O.W." wrote in news:georgewspamk- snipped-for-privacy@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net:

Yep, going to pull it this week. Rebuild kit with rebuilt heads, new cam, new crankshaft, etc, etc (everything but the case) is only $600. For that, I can go through it and everything will be new (and correct)...

Check that crankshaft end play BEFORE you order any parts. Sometimes the cases need attention or replacing! I can usually feel too much play with the engine still in the car, but not while it is running! lol