Well and truely up the creek?

Take a picture of the head and post link here. You will get more educated guesses if the crack is fatal or not.

I had this kind of cracks on all the cylinders, visible between the spark plug hole and valve. At least I was told that this is necessarily no problem on stockish engine. Still is running fine.

Well, considering that VW Paradise reads this group, you might find some complications when you try to get a head from them and you were not the original purchaser. I don't recall how you know for certain that VW Paradise built the engine. How do you know?

;...did you adjust valves before you removed head??....hmmm....if I remember right you broke pencil attemptiong to find TD and did not. The crack is not good....but assuming it is a hairling crack will NOT cause zero compression cold. If the valves were tight to the point to not closing that would cause sucvh a condition. In short...the crack is a problem....but not *the* problem. It is important to determine the actual problem before reccomending repair options. You *can* get a pair of heads opened to a 90.5 bore from many different head porters/ businesses. But if you have more serious problems that simply a bad head they need to be addressed. I would put the head back on....no need to bother with niceties such as pushrod tubes...but do torque it in proper sequence so as not to stress the case. I would then adjust the valves....and turn the engine over by hand....if you have compression (you will feel it) then your valves tightened from teh same stressful overheating that ccracked the head.....if you still have no compression and the valves were intact and seated when you checked take a good look at the cylinders. You NEED to absolutely determine the cause of the lack of compression before proceeding with this engine...if you decide toi go with the puebla engine and give up on the 1776....and feel like shipping...... (looks out at baja desperately in need of a decent engine case...)

...Gareth

I have a receipt that came with the car showing that the PO bought the engine from them, and the words "VW PARADISE" are stamped on the case.

Hi Gareth,

Sequence of events is:

1. No compression in #4
2. Broke pencil off in attempt to move #4 piston to TDC.
3. Stared blankly at broken pencil end.
4. Checked valves, very tight.
5. Removed head
6. Removed pencil (mashed kinda, never would have extracted it through plug hole)
7. Noted crack.

See

1. Will re-install head per your advice and check compression.

..typical DP overheating crack. That will not cause 0 compression....

..Gareth

Mike,

small cracks between the valve seats are normal and no problem. Cracks in the exhaust port, or from the valve seat to the plug hole are NOT OK.

...BTW I was poking around on that site....pretty cool, but you will never get me to buy anything with PCB surface mount tube sockets...just not a good idea for longevity...though I'm sure an amp of that sort doesn't get kinocked around like a guitar amp....still old preferences die hard. =-)

...Gareth

Ain't surface mount, they're through hole, and in over 20 years of manufacturing tube gear (for home use) with thousands of preamps and power amps having been sold, I have never, ever had a tube socket come loose. But for you guitar players (I'm of the bass guitar persuasion) I would certainly use chassis-mount sockets. You guys are ANIMALS!

John, I can't tell from your site - are those heads bored for a 1776 engine? I'm looking at a bore of 90.5mm

....::looks down at furry knuckles::..... moi???

=-))

...Gareth (who just got two Carling SPDT switches in the mail today....ohh happy day....eyes iron on corner of desk)

Yes.

John

Hand-cranking of engine showed Cylinder #4 would go up to 30lbs, then the pressure would drop before I could crank it around to #4 again. Hissing sound from oil filler neck indicated leakage going down past piston. This was with a dry cylinder.

While adjusting the valves to do this test, I also attempted to adjust the valves on Cylinder #3. The front valve (front is FRONT) adjusted nicely, but the rear valve is odd*. Can't back the adjusting screw out far enough to open up any clearance, and the ring? washer? the end of the valve compression spring? seems to be in the way of getting the feeler gage in there. It's like the end of the valve stem is somehow recessed into the end of the compression spring, yet the overall length of the valve has increased greatly. Does this make any sense?

For #4, I don't want to wait for Harbor Freight to get around to deliver the leakdown tester I ordered, so I'll drop by Pep Boys tonight and see if they have one, or some other means to shoot compressed air into the plug hole. I'll also figure out how to get some oil around the piston -- I wish I had some handy oil spritzer to shoot through the plug hole.

Probably get some piston ring tools, too. If #4 continues to leak my next step is to pull the jug and look for damaged piston or rings, I reckon.

...you likely do not have the pushrod seated in the cup of either the lifter or rocker....loosen up the rockers and wiggle the pushrod...see if it sets into place. You are not goin to get full pressure by hand cranking...it went up to 30? well thats no longer 0..sounds like the valve adjustment tightened when it overheated....also common (as is the crack)

..Gareth

kmiddle two are intake (underneath the intake manifold(=) outer two are exhaust,../....ummm....next to the exhaust pipes ;-)

...Gareth

On Wed, 26 May 2004 15:48:55 -0700, "Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott" ran around screaming and yelling:

these). These are a great deal for a low-buck performance engine. Price is per PAIR (2 heads).

JT

As far as tough amps go,I would have to nominate my early 70s ampeg VT-22.Vw content:I used to haul that hundred pound extremely loud amp around in the back of my 71 super beatle.It sure would have been a lot easier to get that thing in and out of a bus.

Interesting -- when I clicked on the link this afternoon it was a blank, no details, item. I had to click on "Add items to your order" to even see they were heads.

"Next to the exhaust pipes . . . " Well, I'll be danged if that don't make sense.