Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 15:44:45 -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: what clues about engine health can I get...
In-Reply-To: <4D031836-2A81-4707-B653-5003759EDD32@shaw.ca>
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hi.
pull that water pump and inspect the case behind it,
which is part of what would normally be 'the water pump housing' ..
in other words, that's a dynamic surface there.
Sometimes they are trashed by a loose w. pump impeller..
or by severe corrosion.
the real test for a not running engine is a
Leak Down Test. .
However...put your bell housing on it and spin it ....after adding oil
into the cylinders..
to get oil ..I'd use a fairly thin oil for this ....spread around on the
piston rings and cylinder walls.
( A dry test isn't very useful. ).
then do a normal Leak Down test ..
that only tells about engine sealing of course ...just one part of the
whole deal.
what kind of heads are on it ?
original VW or AMC ?
I usually find slightly burned exhaust valves in most 2.1's.
it is also quite important to know that the cylinder studs or nuts are
not badly corroded..
I get rather nervous about heads that have been on 'forever' .
it's nice to know also, that the rubber gasket sealing surface on the
bottom side of each head is not pitted or corroded ..
though you have to have the heads off for that.
If I know heads are going to come off anyway ..I like to loosen all the
head nuts to make sure they are not badly stuck or rusted.
if it's got any coolant leakage into a cylinder .....I regard that as
pretty bad, long term, in terms of cylinder wall health .
Store the whole engine in a vat of WD-40 I suggest.
that would be about 200 dollars worth of WD-40 in gallon cans of course.
scott
www.turbovans.com
On 5/14/2012 1:11 PM, Alistair Bell wrote:
> when engine on bench?
>
> I had to move my spare engine, again, while working in the barn. I need to decide what to do with it. Came as a spare with my syncro. was given to the seller by a friend. Supposedly pulled from van to make way for conversion.
>
> What I can see upon casual observation:
>
> - oil leak from base of crankcase breather tower (seen that before!)
> - minor oil weeping from one valve cover
> - pushrod tubes shiny, oil and rust free
> - oil pump endplay 0.004" (good)
> - water pump seized
> - crank can be rotated, there is compression. I suppose I could rig up my spare bellhousing and starter to spin the bugger and test compression.
>
>
>
> So what else can I look at apart from pulling the heads?
>
> alistair
>