:lol:

I am not sure when they Branched away from the wood but the engine i took apart was a 55 but theres no saying it was original.Will a 25 pushrod fit a 30? Anyway i wont Bark on anymore.

Anyway, nice updates LT, after all that typing your fingers much be acorn. :beer:

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I wondered what was rattling inside the pushrods! :lol:

The cam followers are covered in grease and oil - they just 'look' a but funny - they're fine in real life.

Thanks for the comments.

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I was hoping to get the case closed tonight, but as is always the way, the smallest jobs often take the longest time.

I installed the cam follower guides in the other case half and gave it a final wipe down and blow out. Had to do this on the bench as the other case half was hogging the stand. A silly job like this swallowed over an hour just to get the pushrods to fall smoothly and equally free under their own weight. All sorted now though.





When the case halves are closed, you need to install the oil pump before final torqueing of the case bolts to make it easier to get in, and because there is only so much time to do so before the sealant dries too much, it is preferable to have the oil pump cleaned, prepared and ready to drop staight in.

Hence the rest of the night was spent cleaning and prepping the pump.

First job is to clean it up.





The factory tolerance between the pump gears and the cover plate is ideally to be as close to zero as possible, with a maximum clearance of 0.004" to give good oil pressure. I measured mine at about 0.003" which is fine and dandy, but not very accurate as the mating faces whilst clean, weren't perfect.

So, to kill two birds with one stone, I set about refacing the pump body and cover plate to clean, flatten and reduce the clearance a little.

To do this, I turned a mirror upside down to give me a perfectly flat surface, and with copious quantities of soapy water, carefully and methodically resurfaced the faces with a combination of 800 wet n' dry, followed by 1500.











I was very pleased with the results...







With the body now prepared, I re-checked the clearance at just under 0.0015" - it's just a fraction under this at probably 1 thou, but my smallest gauge is 1.5 thou. I offered the cover plate up and it is almost an interfereance fit but not quite, which when the thin gasket is in place gives adequate clearance and good oil pressure at the pump.





Next up is to close the case...

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Damn, it's blurry, cant make out the telephone number, I wanted a Meriva as well. And the 1.4, nice.

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Tonight was one of those “I’m not going to bed until the case is joined” nights – hence the late night post!

First up was to complete the final prep for the oil pump fitment which began with adding some grease to the slot in the cam shaft gear which drives the oil pump.





Then some grease in the pump gears, the housing and the cover plate.







Now was time to start to get organised for closing the case.







I then methodically and carefully went round the entire perimeter of the case with cotton bud sticks and brake cleaner to make sure the mating surfaces were as clean as can be.








The cam plug goes in first, with some of my favourite Curil K2 sealant.









As an insurance against leaks or weeps from the case studs, I added a small dap of sealant to the ends of the studs inside the case.





Then around the outside of the case…





Last chance to check everything…. GULP!





And….. on she goes!

It was then a case (pardon the pun) of doing an initial torque of 7 ft/lbs on the 6 main case studs whilst checking the crank doesn’t bind. Sealant and paper washers are used under the normal washers. Once all at 7 ft/lbs (tightening in a criss-cross pattern from the centre outwards) and once I was satisfied that all was turning freely, the bolts were torques up to 22 ft/lbs.




Before any of the other bolts were torqued up, the oil pump goes in with the thick gasket behind the pump, then the thin one between the body and the face plate – the face late gets torqued to only 5 ft/lbs. Although VW say to insert the seals dry, every rebuild book I have says to use sealant, so I did.










And the shots we’ve all been waiting for…..







Can’t tell you how good that feels!

So I’ll sign off for now by saying, “Your Honour, the case is closed”

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Picked up my heads and cylinders from the soda blasters today and I'm thrilled with the results - saved me so much time!

Check out the cylinder head porn!












They masked up the ends of the barrels and did them too. I thought that they'd painted them when I saw them, but this was just the bare steel casting.







I then masked up both ends to prevent getting paint on any sealing surfaces.





And then with a few very light coats of this....





They now look like this.... (although not as grey looking in real life)





Before I packed up, I re-fitted the oil pressure relief valve, once i;d given it a thourough scrub.





To make sure the spring still has ample pressure and hasn;t compressed over the years, the manual says that it should measure between 52-53mm when new.





The plunger is hollow and goes into the hole in the bottom of the case 'head first' with the hollow side facing you as it goes in.... followed by the spring.

In this pic you can see that I have used just a touch of sealant as a belt n' braces approach, just in case.





That's all for now.

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Bravo LT - looking very good indeed.

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Looks great...so clean,it'll be a shame to start it:wink:

Right then - some more action - but before we get down to the the money shots, I thought a little foreplay might help set the mood....

This is the new 'Stairway to Heaven' to my loft, where I keep all my NOS contraband filth!





I opened a few more boxes and couldn't resist a little appetizer...





Complete rear axle installation kit! (X2)





Oooof!





Nice!





Wish I'd known I had this before I went out an bought an exhaust fitting kit and cork gas cap seal!





Which might come in handy for this little lot!







NOS battery cover was a pleasent surprize!





Steady on now.... hope this spare original sekurit windscreen doesn't come in handy one day!





This pic is the equivelent of showing a bit of suspender belt....





I only had a quick peep in this box, but it was too much to take....





Needed a cold shower after that little lot.... and that;s not all of it!

Right then - down to business!

Despite me having a lovely NOS oil strainer, I decided to thoroughly clean the old one and re-use it as it was perfectly seriveable. It had a deep bath in a custom mix of boiling degreaser which lifted the dirt off instantly. Came up like new!









Then I could fit it to the engine with a my nice NOS gaskets.











10mm nuts get torqued to 5ft/lbs only kids!





And now for the valve guides - a job I'd been approaching with a little trepidation, I must admit.

First up was to grease the new guides to aid installation and put them in the freezer overnight (last night).







Hope nobody wants a midnight feast!





Then, with my best Gordon Ramsey impression, I popped the heads in the oven for dinner - 150 deg C for 30 mins, on a flat surface.





Mmmm, tastey! - Good enoughto eat!





Once they were thoroughly cooked, I removed the poor little valve guides from their icy tomb and blasted them with some liquid nitrogen spray for good measure!





At this point I had to postpone my photographic aprirations as I just didnt have time to stop and take pics. I made a soft brass drift and whilst fumbling with the guides through my thick welding gauntlets, 'tapped' them home. It was reassuring that the new guides were about as tight going in as the old ones were coming out - that is that they didn't exactly 'fall in' and I'm confident that they won't be falling out any time soon!

Once the heads had cooled, I tested the valves and they seemda very nice fit, with just the right amount of freedom and play as per the Bentley manual.







I'd call that a win?

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WIN,WIN.

I’ve just read this from start to finish. Awesome! I love the way you’re approaching and carrying out the work. a very lucky find. Seems like its found a perfect new owner to maintain the originality. 🙂 I’ll be checking back daily I assume from now on. So don’t be shy on the pictures :)
Pete

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Dad came round tonight and gave up his evening to teach me how to lap valves - thanks Dad!

I'd bought this basic kit earlier in the day.





I decided to choose the worst and most pitted valve seat of them all to learn on, and quickly got the hang of it. Dad taught me all the little techniques and the 'feel' of it. At last - a job that can be done in the comfort of the dining room!







Notice the continuous, unbroken and uniform dull grey ring round the valve...





And the corresponding ring on the valve seat. It took quite a while to cut through the minor pitting, but we got there in the end and I'm more than pleased that the seats can be saved.





Whilst I only managed to get one valve lapped tonight, I learned an aweful lot and feel much more confident to do the rest unsupervised.

Couldn't resist a picture of the head with a full set of NOS valves in place - luuuurvely!





For the record, the coarse grit paste is not much use as it feels like there are rocks under the valve and it displaces almost instantly. I much preferred the slow and steady approach with just the fine paste.

To finish off, I held the valve closed with my finger and filled the exhaust port with water and held it for 30 seconds - not even the slightest weep - that'll do nicely!

I can see what the next week of evenings has in store though.... Zzzzzz

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This is a truly inspiring thread, I love stock stuff but it always seemed a little out of reach to the amateur. Great work on those valves too!

Thanks for the reply - I was begining to think people had given up reading....


Spent all of tonight with a head on my knee watching TV just calmly and slowly lapping the valves in with fine paste. I reckon 1 - 2 valves per night tops...

Boring but satisfiying job.

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Hell no!

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agreed.

Although I admit I got completely lost through all this engine stuff and may have 'skimmed' a bit at that point :oops: :shock: :lol: but I never tire of page one's pics! :beer:

(I am secretly relieved that my 55's engine is a happy bunny luckily :oops:)

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No sign of boredom from me ,its always the first thread i look at .One thing i like about this thread is the details which hopefully will make people realise just how much work goes into a rebuild,even with such low miles as LTs.Its also a good eye opener for anyone wanting to buy one of these engines as they do have a different set of problems to the later models.

Mike

Ditto :d , first thing to do when logging on to Pre-67 is see if there are any new posts on LT's engine thread ......


:wink:

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Ditto ditto... :wink:

Mike

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