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Date:         Sat, 25 May 2002 23:01:13 -0400
Reply-To:     Bob O Shaughnessy <vanagon@COLUMBUS.RR.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bob O Shaughnessy <vanagon@COLUMBUS.RR.COM>
Subject:      Head/Engine rebuild lots of questions
Comments: To: Diesel <vwdiesel@audifans.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

After watching it languish on the repair lot of the VW dealer next to my office for over a year, I finally (after turning it down twice) bought a 82 diesel Westfalia Vanagon. The story goes that the engine lost power in a huge way and didn't show very well on a compression test. The owner was in Japan for most of the year and finally told the service manager to sell it off. While I was having it pulled onto a trailer one of the mechanics confided to me that he thought that all it needed was some valve work.

The engine was mostly assembled, with a box in the passenger compartment holding the injectors, timing belt cover, valve cover and intake air box. Oddly, it also held ten head bolts (the 12mm ones). I suspect that they removed the head, but wasn't sure, as it was full of oil and coolant, and had a visibly worn timing belt.

Well, since I was able to get the Westy to its temporary home behind the in-law's pole barn a few weeks back, I decided that today was ripe for removing the head and doing some poking around. The head came off too easily, as the head bolts didn't seem to have been torqued down and the exhaust manifold wasn't bolted to the down pipe (pretty sure they removed the head at this point).

Here's where the questions begin: The heads are cracked between the valves in each combustion chamber, not huge cracks, but maybe .5mm wide from valve seat to valve seat. Would this alone cause compression problems and loss of power?

The valve seats seem okay and the stems aren't too carboned up. One intake valve stem is a bit oily though. Oddly, the #3 compression chamber didn't have much carbon at all coating it. #1 and #4 looked fine, nice coating of carbon, #2 and #3 show a bit of aluminum corrosion.

While I had the head off, I figured that I'd try to measure the piston crowning for the next head gasket. I think that the dealer put the wrong gasket on, as theirs had holes instead of notches. Not having the proper dial gauge, I tried using a straight edge and feeler gauges. I'm pretty sure that I didn't get accurate results as I measured all four pistons as crowning at around .030", well below the threshold for the one notch gasket. Is this a bad assumption? I'll probably get the dial gauge to time the pump anyway.

I'm guessing that I'll have to start with a rebuilt head, and the rebuilt injectors I just bought, assemble the engine and see what happens. During one of the discussions of the condition of the engine with the service manager at the dealership, I seem to remember being told that the compression problem may have been a bottom-end thing. What are the chances of this? The van has ~114k on the odometer.

Thanks,

_________________________________________________________

Bob O'Shaughnessy, Columbus, OH vanagon@columbus.rr.com 99 A3 Jetta TDI 85GL with basic Westy interior 82 Diesel Westy (with blown engine) 74 Bus (Dad's) 72 Wife, 95 Cat, 96 Cat, 98 Kid, 00 Kid, 01 Dog 25 House


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