Had to bring my stepson to the orthodontists yesterday, plus I wasn’t feeling that great so I decided to take the day off. Toward the afternoon my energy was starting to return, so I thought I’d head over to the in-laws to work on the car. The weather was beautiful, and I ended up working for quite a few hours putting things back together. It sure is nice to have more room to work on things now that the engine is coming together and I no longer have parts lying all over the place.
I took apart the rocker arm assemblies and cleaned them, then pretty much doused everything in motor oil and put it all back together. I decided to adjust the valves while I had easy access to everything and finally realized that TDC for cylinder one is right around the notch mark on the distributor. That’s certainly nice to know for the purposes of timing, wiring the ignition cables and for the next time I have to adjust the valves. One less thing to figure out. I also sliced my knuckles pretty good somehow while taking off the old valve adjustment screws and replacing them with new ones. I guess I should take out that pair of mechanics gloves that are sitting in the trunk and use them once in a while. I pretty much don’t wear them for two reasons. The first is that I like to actually feel what I’m doing, and the second is that I imagine they’d be caked with grease and oil the moment I started working on the engine. Oh yeah, that brings me to another concern… Dirt… I’m trying to keep everything as clean as possible during reassembly, but I really wonder how much dirt I’m getting in everything, especially since I’m basically rebuilding this engine outside? My paranoid side is going to make me change the oil twice in very quick intervals as soon as Wilson is running again. The first will get changed before I actually go anywhere, after the engine is running somewhat well, and I’ll probably change it again after a few miles… Maybe only back to the inspection station and back. I hope that will lessen any problems I have with dirt. I did, though, make sure to keep the spark plug and air intake holes on the heads plugged with paper towels, and made sure to keep any dirt away from them. I imagine anything that gets in there anyway will go out the exhaust though.
So after taking care of the rocker arms, I put on the oil cooler, and was a little worried about the torque I was putting on the bolts. I used the green seals I got from Jim Adney, and the Bentley manual confirmed that I should put those seals in without any spacers, and I torqued it down. Even though I was within the specified torque range, some of the metal scraped up from the oil cooler when I tightened the bolts down. That was a little disconcerting, as the assembly manual I was using did NOT have any washers noted between the bolts and the oil cooler housing. Hopefully they’re OK. I will be paying strict attention to any signs of overheating when I start the engine. Along those lines, I think my thermostat is broken. It’s extended the full length of the bracket it fits in, meaning the engine cooling flaps will always be open. I figured it wasn’t a problem, so rather than leave the thermostat out and leave the flap linkage just hanging there, I partially screwed in the thermostat so that the flaps were open all the way. I suppose if it gets down to freezing, the thermostat might contract, which would close the flaps, but for right now in 80 degrees (which I can’t imagine is hot by any stretch), the flaps are open and will stay open. I’ll be sure to double-check those too as I put a dab of white-out on the cooling flaps crossbar so I can tell just by a glance whether the flaps are open or closed. I didn’t have any white lithium grease for the pushrods either, so I just dunked the ends in motor oil and hopefully that will be fine. I can’t imagine the grease stays on there long anyway. I’ll get a second opinion on this.
After putting on all the cooling tin, the engine is starting to look a little more legitimate now. Saturday is supposed to be very nice, so I suppose it’s possible that I’ll have everything back together by Sunday. After that, I have to fix the remaining parts of the fuel system — filler neck and removal of the carbon filter setup — before I fill up the car and try to start it. I still can’t imagine that I could be driving this car soon. After it’s running, all I really have to do I think is the brakes. Which reminds me… I think I realized what that “popping” sound was because it happened again on Sunday. My floor jack has a lift plate that is notched crosswise, and I think the popping sound was just the car’s jack extension “falling” into that notch. I jack the car up by the little extension that is normally used for the factory jack, so it’s not a perfect fit. So the upshot of all this is that hopefully I don’t have any major suspension work in my future after I get everything else done.
Finally got a chance to go work on Wilson again. What a messy job it is putting an engine back together. I think it’s messier than pulling it apart. Lots of spreading of oil, sealer, and other stuff. I was pretty surprised how well everything came back together. I hope everything seals properly. I put on the pushrod tubes dry, with new seals. No Permatex. I used just a little sealer on the cylinders where they go into the case, but that was it. Torqued everything down and it was raining by that point, so I put everything back in the car and left. I’m missing a piece of cooling tin, the tiny piece that goes on the bottom around the air intake distribution manifold where it connects to the head. I’ll see if someone on the list might have one. Things are finally starting to come together. I’m still quite nervous though. It’s going to be a real struggle getting everything back in I think. Trying to line everything up while I maneuver the jack & match the engine to the transmission. I’m most concerned about the heating ducts & hoses though, as it’s the thing I paid the least attention to while I was taking everything apart. Hopefully I’ll take a day off from work this week to do some more work. Just waiting for a nice day.
Survived the biggest blackout in US history. Hopefully people will be starting to realize that you just can’t let big business “police itself,” as the White House likes to say. We’re very familiar with this inability of public companies to be trusted to govern themselves here on Long Island, as a jury fined the former LILCO (Long Island Lighting Company) some $4.3 billion for charging its ratepayers exorbitant prices for phony services and upgrades. Of course what did they do then? They went bankrupt. I guess this isn’t really relevant to my VW, but it really pisses me off that both the Democrats and the Republicans let this shit go on. Then when something happens, they start the finger pointing. Now we hear it’s going to cost us more than the recent tax cut to fix the grid. I don’t think we’ve cashed our Govt tax rebate check yet. I wonder if we should send it back with a note – “please use this to help fix the power grid.” Nah. A better place for it is right in Christian’s college/future fund. After all, he’s the one who will be paying for all this, just like my generation did in the late 80s and early 90s after the Reagan deficits and the beginning of the “trickle-down” theory. End of rant.
Haven’t done much work on my poor Squareback for the past few weeks. Besides my boss newly demanding more and more weekends out of me, one of my relatives is ill, so we’ve gone to Rhode Island a couple times to visit. Last weekend was HOT and HUMID and given that I prefer the cold, it’s been way too hot for me to start putting Wilson (yep, that’s the name my wife and I arrived at for my Squareback) back together. So basically I’ve just been hoarding parts for the past few weeks and I think I finally have everything I need to get Wilson back on the road, with the exception of any suspension work should he need it. I’ll have to look back and see if I explained about the “popping” sound I heard when jacking up the car to get the engine out. Luckily, someone on the Type 3 list e-mailed me and said he had a torsion bar if I needed one. Whew. I wonder if people replace torsion bars as their cars begin to sag? Looks like they’re available in stock sizes aftermarket.
And there you have it. I finally know the cause of my bad compression on number three cylinder. Check out the broken compression ring. When I pulled the cylinder off the engine, the ring fell to the ground, and just like that came the answer to my questions. Also, wedged down between the cooling fins and the engine block was a spark plug someone had lost along the way. Yet another obstruction to airflow. I’m told that this actually happens quite often. I recall I did lose a spark plug socket rubber boot in there, but I think I’d have to think twice about running around town knowing I had a whole plug lost in there.
Finally got the pistons off the connecting rods today. Yesterday I stopped at the Home Depot and bought one of those seven-piece propane torch kits. Supposed to come with a flame dispersal tool, a spark-maker (what are those things called? It’s 1am and I’m tired…) and a bunch of other stuff. So I open the box today and it’s got the propane tank and the brass valve and that’s it. So I sat there debating whether or not I trek fifteen minutes over to the Home Depot by my work or just try to find some matches and light the thing and get on with it. My in-laws weren’t home at this point, and there were car parts and engine tin all over the driveway. I would’ve had to have packed up everything and spent the next hour taking care of what amounted to ten bucks. I scrounged around the garage and finally found a grill lighter, lit the torch and heated up the first piston. This was a suggestion from the Type 3 list as well. Earlier in the week I had stopped by the house to see if I could just get the pistons off. One came off, the rest didn’t want to, even with lots of “convincing.” It wasn’t smooth as silk even with the heat, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to get them off without it. Next step is to actually start reassembly! I have to clean up the areas on the case that seal to the cylinders and pushrod tubes. I’d do the whole case, but I don’t want to get any dirt inside the engine. As it is, I figure it will be a good idea to change the oil almost as soon as I get this going. Maybe let it run for a half hour, then change it. Wow. Run… Let it run… I’m getting ahead of myself. I still don’t know what this car sounds like!