Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:25:46 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: A little more on Cooling problems..inline vw in Vanagon
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
I don't think your 1.8 gasser is under 'too much' stress pushing your
vanagon.
Depends on how you drive it of course,
and given the pretty darn good fuel mileage you get, you probably are not
driving the snot out of it all the time.
I always keep an eye out for those engines ...good deals on one.
I've got my 16 valve 87 jettta one, which I'll get into one of these days.
and there is the 8 valve block I keep hoping to grab locally.
There is a head there with that engine ,and I woulda grabbed it recently..
but it's missing the cam, and I think it's a CIS head...so not too useful
for your engine.
I just take 'em apart...
and have it checked out. They can only be resurfaced so many times of
course..
sometimes you or a machinist can find out what the minimum allowable head
thickness is.
I like to remove the valves and see how loose they are in the guides, so
what the sealing surface on the valves look like.
there's hand lapping them in ..but that's not that good, not compared to a
'real valve job.'
I took my first car's head ( inline 6, 56 chevy ) to a machine shop in
Colorado in the 60's once...
hard to believe now..but a valve job was 2 dollars per cylinder. Sounds
crazy low, but it was very little.
these days I have a machine shop do two waterboxer heads for me for under $
200.
re
I've heard the diesels have head problems...they run a lot of compression
> and make gobs of torque for a little teeny motor...probably get a lot of
> low
> rpm stress.
well, the tiny ones don't have gobs of torque ...
they don't have gobs of anything. 1.6 NA is 48 hp ...some riding lawn
mowers have more than that .
and yes..
the eat up heads. I would say really ...the smart thing to do is 'just do
the head' every 80,000 miles on those.
As the VW diesel engines get bigger and better that are better..
more power, last better etc. And the high end tdi's can have enough torque
to rip out gears in the trans.
1.6 diesel heads ...very delicate actually. I have seen hundreds and hudreds
of them wasted.
and sometimes the head takes a piston or the block with it .
I do think their extreme high compression is very stressful on the little
things.
and ....sure they get better mileage, and can run bio fuels...
but they only have two systems to make them run ..
the condition of the eigine itself ( has to make good compression to fire
off the fuel ) ...and the fuel system.
If either ones of those is weak ...it's a real problem.
when they do screw up, they often just blow things up. Very scary that way
to me. Zero margin on the timing belt. if anything is wrong with it for
1/10th of a second, it blows up the head at least.
gasoline on the other hand ...under a whole lot stress. Is self-tuninng
......there's no injection pump to leak or wear out ..
etc. etc. etc.
so just pull your head, see what ya got.
another thing ...if you know the engine is medium tired ...say miles are
high, or it uses a little oil...
in other words you know the pistons/rings/bore are medium tired
....sometimes it's not a good idea to do a major 100% head job on a tired
bottem end. You want to do good head work on a good bottom end.
I better get over there and grab that 1.8 gasser block I have my eye on.
have fun !
do good work !
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Hanson" <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: A little more on Cooling problems..inline vw in Vanagon
> Well gosh,
>
> If all that can be wrong and must be repaired, I guess I'd best just
> visit
> my nearby friendly German Car Junkyard and get another one...
> I've heard the diesels have head problems...they run a lot of compression
> and make gobs of torque for a little teeny motor...probably get a lot of
> low
> rpm stress.
> I've not heard much bad rap on the gas motors, but I can see how pushing
> around a Vanagon might stress the motor a lot more than the rabbits they
> were designed for...probably 3 times the gross weight and 3-4 times the
> aerodynamic drag in a vanagon.
> My headgasket failure when I first got this van was totally my own fault,
> not a design failure. I simply overheated the motor badly, not realizing
> the Vanagon cooling system could be partially air-locked by my faulty
> cooling system bleeding.
> Not surfacing the head after that incident was probably a mistake and I
> bet that was partly to blame for an un-successful (well, it only lasted
> about 35k miles) repair. I'll do better this time, or start over with
> another runner from the scrap yard.
> Don Hanson
>
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 5:21 PM, Dennis Haynes
> <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>> You're experience of a recurring failure with this engine is not
>> uncommon.
>> Typical failures for these head include warping, cracking, cam journal
>> failure, and the head bolts loosing preload and the gasket then leaking.
>>
>> Any time the gasket fails you need to find out why. The head surface
>> needs
>> to be checked for straightness and flatness. If the head is warped, then
>> the
>> cam journals are also out of line the head is basically junk. The block
>> also
>> needs to be carefully checked. Yes they can twist also. A bad surface on
>> the
>> block can also cause the gasket to fail between cylinders.
>>
>> If the head is twisted, a proper repair involves straightening, the cam
>> bearing caps get cut and the journals align bored. Milling the surface
>> effects compression ratio and camshaft timing. Not much room here
>> especially
>> with Diesels.
>>
>> As for using compressed air to check for combustion chamber or gasket
>> leaks,
>> one cylinder at time, turn the engine until both valves are closed,
>> secure
>> the crankshaft, and then put as much air pressure as available into the
>> cylinder. Use a spark plug adapter fitting. Any significant leak will
>> result
>> in air bubbling through the coolant. Remove the pressure cap and make
>> sure
>> the coolant is topped off to the rim so air does not escape from the top
>> hose without passing through the coolant.
>>
>> Dennis.
>>
