So my positive vibes must be doing something. I ordered a new seal for the windshield of the bug, my friend got me a windshield and it installed 100 percent better than the first one. It is good to have 1 bug up and going again. If you watch this blog for the bug stuff and your in the market for window seals, I highly recommend getting them from west coast metric. Their seals have a lifetime warranty and are of the best quality. I am speaking by experience on this one unfortunately so consider yourself warned. Here John is installing it. So that was a good thing. My thumb is also healing nicely. I think I will remove the stitches on Saturday because I already have 1 stitch that was ripped out but it seems like the cut is holding. It will be nice to get them out.
I spent today working on Ed's engine. I removed all the cylinders and here I am pressing out the pins so I can remove the pistons. I had to engineer a makeshift press to get the pins out. It worked like a charm.
I am pretty disappointed in how this engine was built. I have found some things that make me wonder if I should just rebuild the whole thing but time does not allow for that. This is one thing I found. The engine had 3 pistons installed correctly and 1 piston that was installed backwards. The arrows should point to the flywheel. I had one pointing the other way. Oh well.....
I also noticed this piston had a big chunk missing from it. It looks like it has been that way for awhile but it concerns me nonetheless.
I spent the majority of the day cleaning the case and the heads so I can install the new pistons and cylinders. Here is the bottom end of the engine. The rods, crank and cam look to be in good shape so I am hopeful that I can get a lot more miles out of this engine. (again with the positive vibes)
This is after I have cleaned the block. It's getting there a little at a time.
Here are the old cylinders and pistons. 1 piston is an aftermarket one and 3 are VW pistons. I guess they changed the #1 piston and cylinder out for some reason. I find that funny because that was the weakest cylinder out of all of them. Probably cheap aftermarket parts.
I bought Moresa pistons and cylinders. They are made in mexico and are the brand that they installed on all the bugs made in mexico up until they stopped making them. They are suppose to be really good parts so I decided to give them a try. They are better then the ones made in china.
Here is a shot of the innards of the engine. This engine looks really small with the heads and cylinders removed. I guess that is why it only makes 50 horsepower.
The other disappointing thing is that I have 2 different heads. It looks like 1 is newer than the other one. I need to measure the valves and make sure they are the same size. You have to expect the unexpected when your not sure who built the engine originally. This head is cleaned up and ready to be installed.
Most of the parts are cleaned and ready to be installed. My floor has taken a beating from it today. I will do a thorough cleaning of the garage before I start putting everything together so I don't take a chance of getting dirt in the engine. It's always a good idea to have a really clean working area to build an engine. I hope to get the engine back together tomorrow with most of the sheet metal on it so I can install it in the bug on Saturday.
I am not sure if my goals are a little too lofty but that is the plan for this weekend. If I can get it installed Saturday I will have a good week and a half to break it in and make sure it is up for the drive to St. George. I have my fingers crossed!
No comments:
Post a Comment