Date: Sat, 4 Nov 1995 13:23:26 -0800 (PST)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject: DaBoat 2-liter update - bad heads :(
Volks,
Yesterday I finished assembling the bottom end of the motor.
Following Tom Wilson's instructions, I installed the new bearings,
camshaft, and crankshaft, then coated the case seam with permatex 3-H
and put the case halves together. It all went pretty smoothly.
I drug out the heads that were earmarked for the engine and had a
close look at them for the first time since they were cold-tanked. I
was disappointed to find small radial cracks extending from three of the
four exhaust seats. Why I didn't notice the cracks before, I just don't
know. I should have looked at the heads more closely. Such a shame too
cause these heads were already flycut with bigger, TRW valves, and the
guides were not worn at all. I pulled the valves and found that the
cracks appeared in the ports too, so they were serious.
Hoping for a miracle I pulled the heads from Schneiters bus out of a
pile of junk and had a look at them. They were cracked too, and the
guides were worn really badly. I could rock the valves about 1/8" when
they were just off the seats.
So, now I have no good cylinder heads for my rebuilt short block.
My options are:
1. Buy a pair of rebuilt heads from GEX for $330. That may be a good
price, but it is an unplanned expense. Plus, they are closed till
Monday.
2. Have the cracked heads welded ($150-$200?). Getting close to the
cost of the rebuilts, and I'm not convinced they would be as good,
due to the depth of the cracks.
3. Use the good heads off of the 1800 engine that is in Schneiter's
bus now. This is the low-cost option, but risky cause I would have
to disable the only running bus I have, which means if I didn't
finish the engine this weekend I would have nothing to drive to
Panamint next weekend. Not sure I want to take a 0 mile engine on
a thousand mile drive right away anyway. Asking for trouble.
4. Go to the junkyard and look for an uncracked pair of heads.
Since it is Saturday and I had some time, I decided to try #4 first.
Heads from the pick and pull are $31.50 each. I called one of the yards
and was told they had put 60 new vans out in the last week. When I got
there, the number was closer to 30, and none of them were VW's. I went
to the second yard (of four) and found several busses. One had some
heads in it, already removed. One head had pieces of piston embedded in
it, and the other one was cracked, the same way as all of mine. Last
week I was at this yard and pulled the muffler off of a 72 ($11) that
looked like it had spend the last 5 years of its life in a field. There
was long grass growing up into the engine compartment and tangled around
everything. Lots of rust too. Thank God for Chrysler rust penetrant!
I pulled the valve covers off and the insides of the covers were mirror
smooth and clean. No dirt or carbon on anything. Good sign. So, I
pulled the heat exchangers. Two of the exhaust studs came out (BIG
suprise) and one of them was a 10mm stud, indicating that this was not
the first time it had happened. At this point, I did some soul
searching and decided that I would give up and go with option #1. In
order to make the junkyard heads work, I would have to retap one or more
exhaust studs, flycut the heads, install new valves and probably guides
too. That wouldn't be done until the middle of next week, and would end
up costing me almost as much as the rebuilts. Plus I would be out a lot
of time, patience, and hand cleaner.
The junkyard visit was not entirely unproductive, however. There
was a bus with some wire screens over the headlights. They were badly
rusted but would be good as new after a session with the wire wheel and
some paint (white?). Perfect for Inuvik! Also found a 79 bus with
little plastic caps over the front bumper mount bolts. Didn't even know
such caps existed! Now my ugly, dirty, in-need-of-paint bus will at
least be a little more aerodynamic and have those unsightly bolt heads
hidden! Woo hoo!
For those of you seeking things from the junkyard, I offer the
following. Every time I browse the junkyards, there seems to be one
or two items that are unusually abundant. This time, one such item was
brown vinly seats. I saw three sets of them. Front seats for late 70's
busses with headreasts, non-rotating type. One set was absolutely
perfect, with no rips on either seat. The second pair was almost as
good, but on closer examination had a rip just starting (about an inch
long) on the drivers seat, and one of the round seam ridge things on the
side was coming loose. Still looked really nice. The seats are
normally $30 each, but are currently 25% off. Please don't ask me to go
get these seats and ship them to you - I don't have the time. :( I will be
happy to provide the location though, if anyone wants to email me.
Anyhoo, my new plan of attack is to drive up to GEX and swap my
cracked heads for a rebuilt set (anyone know if they will take cracked
heads as cores?). I feel this is the best option for me right now, and
there is Inuvik to think about. I want to have a bulletproof engine
before I think about making that trip. I am relying on GEX's reputation
here, because I don't have much faith in "rebuilt" parts in general.
There is a lot of junk out there.
My next step is to install the pistons and liners on the motor,
which I will do this afternoon. I'll just pretend I have those bright
shiny rebuilt heads sitting on the workbench ready to install, because
otherwise I won't be motivated to work very hard. :)
-David
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David Schwarze '73 VW Safare Custom Camper (Da Boat)
San Diego (Actually La Mesa) '72 VW Westfalia Camper (Da Project)
California, USA '73 Capri GT 2800 (Da Beast)
e-mail: des@teleport.com '87 Mustang Lx 5.0 (14.17@99.34)
http://www.teleport.com/~des '93 Weber WG-50 (Da Piano)
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