Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 08:52:09 -0500
Reply-To: "Joe L." <jliasse@EMAIL.MSN.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Joe L." <jliasse@EMAIL.MSN.COM>
Subject: Re: Head advice
I printed out your post and stapled it into my Bentley against the
time when my left head fails sometime in the next 20k miles or so (if
predictions are accurate). It certainly seems more doable than other
techniques I have seen. Should I screw up and pull the cylinders out past
the rings you will have saved the neighbrhood an exibition of how loudly and
long an old sailor can cuss.
I mentioned pulling the engine in my post because the HAYNES manual
(not me) says the heads should not be changed without pullling the engine.
Haynes, having said that, continues with teardown instructions under the
assumption that the engine is sitting on the bench and not in the van. In
their instructions they state "If the head sticks to the liners, the head
and liners may be withdrawn as an assembly.". This is stated so casually
that the mechanically challenged (like me) might assume that the cylinders
may be just as easily slipped back on (certianly NOT the case). I would
probably have made this assumption myself had I not been reading the
postings on this list for several months prior to the failure of my head
gasket. Not knowing which manual he was reading or what else he may have
known about the job I mentioned it "just in case".
-----Original Message-----
From: Johan Nyberg <johan.nyberg@ABC.SE>
To: vanagon@VANAGON.COM <vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Monday, November 02, 1998 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: Head advice
I just read Joe L.'s post about what is possible and what isn't with the
engine in place. I have to disagree with you, Joe, because I have pulled the
right-hand head with the cylinders and even managed to get it back on.
Though I had strange pains, esp. in the calves, afterwards:-)
It's not fun, but it's very educational in the area of patience and hope.
I did it like this:
Getting the head off is no problem, though it's wise to catch the pistons
when they come out and swing downwards. I think I stuffed some rags below
them.
The really hard part is to get the pistons off the connecting rods. I
removed the oil filler tube, the dipstick tube and the coolant tube, used a
pair of long, slim, surgical locking pliers (I don't know their name in
english) to remove the clips securing the piston-bolts and with the curved
end of a motorcycle spoke pulled the bolts through the coolant port. There
is a VW tool for this, VW 3091, I suppose it's very expensive. What took me
an hour or two to realize, was that it's important to support the piston in
the right position when pulling, otherwise the bolt jams. Finding the right
position is a matter of trial and error, if one doesn't have the VW 3090
special tool. There is a possibility that the bolt-hole is deformed, leaving
a ridge blocking the passage. This ridge has to be shaved off. The VW 3195
is available for this, I used a tool made for finishing the cutting edges of
a special cabintry scraper. I don't know the english word for this one
either. First I thought this was the case and did some shaving, but later -
much later - I realized the bolt was jamming because I was bending the
connecting rod sideways.
Before removing the pistons, I tried to put the cylinder sleeves back with
the pistons still on the connecting rods. It didn't work at all. I didn't
have a ring-compressor, I didn't know of any that would fit in that very
small place. I broke a ring in the process. Now I've seen one that might do
the job, just a narrow, curved steel band with ends bent outwards. It has to
be the right size to work.
Putting the pistons back with the sleeves on the bench and with the aid of a
ring-compressor was very straight forward.
The proper way to remove cylinders and pistons is to pull each
cylinder-sleeve - starting with the rearmost - until the bolt-hole and bolt
is visible through the coolant port, pull the plug and remove the sleeve
with the piston still in it, but this doesn't work if the sleeves are frozen
in the head. At least I don't think so.
Anyway, this - in the opposite order - is how I got them in place.
Putting it together again was childs-play compared to taking it apart, and
an advantage in pulling the cylinder-sleeves is that one is then able to
replace the inner gasket between sleeve and crank-house.
The only thing I did wrong was not checking carefully enough that the
pushrods were propoerly in place when I put the rocker-arms back. This gave
me a terrible fright when I started up the engine and it sounded like it was
coming apart. However, no permanent harm was done.
Good luck, and let us try not to let pride make fools of us, tackling jobs
that we don't manage. Despair is not a nice state to live in, though victory
is sweet when it comes unexpected.
I haven't done the left-hand head, yet. Then one has to remove the
water-pump to pull the piston bolts.
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Johan Nyberg, Sweden N 59o E 17o 25"
'86 Caravelle C
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