Date:         Mon, 3 Apr 95 15:05:10 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David.Kao@Eng.Sun.COM (David Kao)
Subject:      Re: Piston slap update

>>
>>Hiya, Gang!
>>
>>I've put some more miles on my just-rebuilt Westy engine
>>this weekend, and so far it runs fine!  I went down the
>>the fishin' hole in Cottonwood on Sunday, and today I
>>have it at work (Flagstaff).  I also stopped by the local
>>VW mechanic in Flag and asked for his assesment of the
>>noise it makes.  His opinion is that it's not piston
>>slap, or rod knock, but it *is* coming from somewhere
>>inside the case.
>>
>>
>>Dave
>>'71 Westfalia & SB
>>
>>

Could be that the pistons were in wrong directions. Pistons all have an
arrow on top indicating the direction (don't remember front or rear of
the engine). My mechanic had his newly employed worker installed new
pistons for my 71 Beetle. He had them reversed.

The bug suffered poor performance after the rebuild and a strange noise
like piston slaping noise. I had another mechanic tore the engine and
verified that the pistons were reversed. The noise went away when the
mistake was corrected and the bug ran like a champ.

David Kao
dkao@eng.sun.com