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Date:         Fri, 13 Oct 1995 23:03:22 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu (Sami Dakhlia)
Subject:      Tribulations of the anti-Hoover: day 2

The engine is out, in the basement, sitting on what used to be my study desk, the generic $30 or $40 Office Max item. I thought it should take just about an hour, two at most, to pull the heads and take them to the shop. The rest of this warm and bright day would be spent outside, applying POR-15 to the newly uncovered rust areas in the engine compartment. NOT!

Lesson #1: Remove the heat exchangers while the engine is still in the bus. Not only does it lighten the beast considerably, but the bolts and screws are also more accessible than when sitting on a table. However, I did have cardboard on the table (originally with the intention to protect the table from scratches), so the engine could easily be slid to the edge of the table, hence allowing access to all the stuff that resides under the heads. < A note on engine stands: someone on the list told me that the usual VW engine stands will not work for the type 4 engine, because it's way too heavy; he knows from experience :-( >

Lesson #2: Follow the book's instructions to the letter and don't attempt shortcuts. I figgered that since I only want to pull the heads, I don't really need to remove each and every accessory. NOT! To remove a head, you must remove the tin right beneath the jugs. To remove that, you must pull out the pushrod tubes first (that one looks easy in the book's picture, but was a real pain as you're not supposed to use any tools; well even with a cloth-covered pair of pliers it was difficult). To get to the pushrod tubes, even the stupid little thermostat on the right hand side must be removed. Etc., etc.

Lesson #3: Cherish thy WD-40.

Anyway, the heads are off as of 2pm. Headers are still attached, however, even though the bolts are off. I'll let the machine shop take care of that. A first look revealed hairline fissures from the exhaust valves to the spark plug holes. All exhaust valves, except for #2, are grey as if they had gotten really, really, hot. There's also black residue on the piston tops; carbon?

One final question: should I put new rings on the pistons or just ignore them? There are only 50,000 miles on this VW rebuilt engine. If the jugs are slightly out of round, would new rings cause trouble?

Thanks for listening...

-- Sami ('75 Westf.) dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu http://wuecon.wustl.edu/~samid/


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