Date:         Wed, 20 Sep 2000 09:58:25 +0200
Reply-To:     Nigel Bennett <NigelB@FOSCHINI.CO.ZA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Nigel Bennett <NigelB@FOSCHINI.CO.ZA>
Subject:      Decided to Rebuild my 2.1-Bottom split
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi All

I have split the lower end. I have gone beyond the panicky stage because,
well, I see no more bolts that need to be removed. -phew- Wow, this naked
block looks sooo much like a beetle block....

My endfloat is shot. Slivers of metal fell out from behind the flywheel when
I took it off. No wonder I struggled with the gears! The remaining shims
have been warped and grooved against the back of the flywheel. The "locking"
shim had also started rotating with all the other shims and caused quite a
bit of damage to the case but thankfully did not reach the main bearing. The
engineers reckon they've never seen this before and *hopefully* they can
perform some magic here.

The main, big- and small-end bearings still look great, evidence of happy
spinning. Had a bitch of a time drifting out the gudgeon pins, though. These
things can only be hammered thru the water pump opening on one side and thru
some other opening on the other side. Had to make up a reverse hamer to
"pull" the far pin out.

It's interesting to check out the timing marks on the cam - not very
different to the beetle at all. And the oil pump is just an amazing 2 cogs
in a housing with 2 holes, 1 for inflow, 1 for outflow. The cover is held
down with these funny nuts that have their own, unique serrated washers.

The worst thing about pulling the 2 halves apart are the lifters which fall
back. To the novice it sounds like the inside of the engine has caved in and
the first thought is "O my G..., what was that?" Well, those lifters look
beautiful but sound not-so-nice, so they will be replaced. It's amazing that
the sealant between the 2 halves is so fine it can hardly be seen. It's also
interesting to see that most of the parts, including bearings, are made in
Germany. I hope the local stuff I'm going to buy will be of a good enough
quality.

Studs are all fine. Pistons and cylinders look OK. Conrods are OK. Hopefully
the crank and cam do not need machining. I'm just worried about that
endfloat damage, though. Really am glad I decided on a rebuild ISO wondering
what *may* be going wrong.

Hopefully we'll be able to start the painstaking, rewarding work of
reassembly within a few days. Until then I'll have to keep digging in those
pockets to pay the engineers (and those evil VW agents!)

Nigel
Cape Town, South Africa
89/90 syncro