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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


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