Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 16:23:56 -0700
Reply-To: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: what clues about engine health can I get...
In-Reply-To: <4FB18ADD.2010507@turbovans.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
The waterpump body is pristine,but the impeller is siezed. VW heads, obvious sealant squeeze out on gasket. It is the pushrod tube condition that is a bit unusual, nice and shiny.
I'll set up spare bellhousing and do comp test, and hook up some air to do leak down test.
A couple of poor quality pics (GoPro vid cam, not the best for thing) to give an idea of how it looks
https://shufti.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/gopr0045.jpg
https://shufti.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/gopr0046.jpg
alistair
On 2012-05-14, at 3:44 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
> 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
>>
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