Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 09:11:30 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@ubc.ca>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@ubc.ca>
Subject: Main&rod bearing replacement,1.6L NA diesel:HELP!
In-Reply-To: <65.b5464b8.272662d7@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Folks, I have some questions regarding replacement of rod and main
bearings in a 1.6L NA diesel engine:
1) Important data point: I've never done this before, and in fact
have never seen the guts of an engine at this level before. I'm a
total novice, and a bit concerned about screwing something up. So
I'm needing a little hand-holding here. :-)
2) I've got the oil pan off, and oil pump removed. The engine is
still in the car (it's a 1982 vanagon westfalia camper).
3) I've taken off one rod bearing half (14mm bolt heads), and one
main bearing half (17mm bolt heads), and I have to say, it's not what
I expected. I was expecting, well, a *bearing*, like as in sets of
things with ball or needle bearings. I'd have called this a bushing,
but whatever.
4) The bearing (bushing?) surface appears to be force fit into the
rest of the metal that makes up the piece the bolts pass through.
The bearing surface is really tightly set in there. I'm assuming I
have to separate the two pieces. How do I do this? Given this is a
precision piece of machining, I don't want to chew up / bang up /
mark up the pieces. How the heck do I get them apart without
breaking anything? And on the flip side, how do I get the new
bearing piece inserted correctly when I'm ready for reassembly?
5) Once I get them apart, I'll have pulled only the bottom half of
the bearing set. How do I get the upper half (the half situated more
inside the engine, and not easily accessible) out? A message from
Vic Ahmed (see below) suggests I just push on one end of the upper
half of the bearing, rotate it around, and pull it out. Given how
tight they seem to be fit into the lower half of the rod or main
bearing carrier, I can't imagine this would be very easy. Should I
just really, really push and force it around? Do I need to tap with
a hammer? I don't want to damage anything, so I'm not keen to be
forcing things yet.
6) Should I use an assembly lube when putting this all back together?
7) Anything to add to Vic's directions? Anything I should watch for,
or tips on how to actually pull this off? I've done lots of work on
my buses over the years, but it's been limited to tune-ups, brakes,
air-cooled alternator replacement, wheel bearing, and so forth. I've
never been into the guts of an engine. It's quite beautiful in
there, but kinda scary for a rookie like me too.
I may just end up replacing the whole engine, but thought I'd try
replacement of the oil pump and engine bearings as suggested by Vic
first both for the experience and because I am very tight on cash. I
managed to get a known good used pump FREE from a very generous
fellow vanagon list member, and the bearing sets will run me a little
under $100 CDN at my local FLAPS, so I figure it's worth a shot. As
a bit of background, my oil pan did have a small amount of very small
(0.5 - 1.0 mm) flat brass-coloured metal flakes in the bottom of the
oil pan, maybe enough to cover a 1 cm square area if all laid out
together. The flakes shape may be a result of chips being squashed
as they passed through the oil pump gears, I don't know. The engine
exhibits low oil pressure at idle and low rpms, and it clogged the
oil pressure relief valve 1000 miles ago, resulting in a rather
spectacular and thorough oiling of the engine compartment and roadway
(when the oil pan was removed that time -- by a mechanic -- there
were brassy bits in the oil pan as well). An oil analysis done when
the low oil pressure problem appeared showed nothing outrageously
elevated.
Any help would be very much appreciated! I hope this can work well
enough to give me at this summer out of the engine, at least. If it
doesn't work, I'll have learned more about engines, and I'll be
looking to see what kind of diesel engine I can swap in without
substantial modifications (especially rear deck interference). I'm
not chomping at the bit to convert to an I-4 gas engine at this
point. I really like being able to use diesel fuel, and I don't mind
the low power, since I drive the camper slow anyway.
Thanks!
T.
At 11:58 PM -0400 10/23/00, DrVic955@aol.com wrote:
>[This is with reference to a 1.6L NA diesel]
>The engine bearings are also replaceable with the engine in the car.
>That diesel engine [1.6L NA] is one of the easiest engines in the
>world to work on. Once you pull the pan off, everything is right there. If
>the engine still has decent power and smoothness, there is no reason to tear
>it down. Just do the oil pump and the bearings, and you should be ok. Rotate
>the engine with a socket and a long-handled ratchet on the end of the crank,
>(Clock-wise only), that brings two pistons down at the same time. Replace the
>rod bearings on those two, then rotate the engine to bring the other two
>down, and do the same. make sure you put the bearing caps back on facing the
>same way they were when you pulled them off. (Very important!). When you pull
>off the bearings, the size will be marked on the back side. Make sure you
>replace with the same size as marked. Then do the same with the main
>bearings. This is slightly more difficult. Take off all the bearing caps, and
>arrange them on the floor in the same order they came off, facing the right
>way. Reach up with a tiny thin-bladed pocket screwdriver and push the top
>halves of the bearings at the very end, they should rotate around the crank
>and just fall off. Again pay attention to size markings. replace them by
>sliding each one over the crank journals, gently prodding with your litle
>screwdriver until seated level. Then put the bearing caps back on and torque
>down. I've done this so many times before, could do it blind-folded.
--
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Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi {. .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT 7,400 km ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/
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