Suck the Oxygen out of the Room....

I completed the teardown of the engine mantling last night, and went to bed feeling a bit sick.

Here's what I found, and why I felt queasy:

Great Ceasar's Ghost! Poo, Everywhere! No the mouse kind, the engine kind. If I understand what I'm seeing correctly, each one of those arrows (with the possible exception of the bottom one) represents a place where the engine overheated, and lost compression, allowing exhaust gasses to leak out at the points on the arrow, thus the mess. It is possible that since these appear the be the original heads, this is just what a tired engine with 167k on it looks like.

Similar mess on the 1/2 cylinder side. But look at that yellow arrow; does that plug seem a bit high?

I pulled the #2 plug (to the right) and it took 11 turns to disengage the long reach threads. The plug on the left had the threads buggered and would hang up after about four turns. So now I must pull the heads to inspect the valves and if they are marginal (probably) replace the whole head. if by some miracle they are ok, I'll still need to timesert the #1 thread bore.
This brings up the very real possibility that the top end of this engine, while run-able, may be too tired out to justify putting back into service, only to expect to have it fail permanently within a couple of hundred miles of use. Since the R&R of the engine is a multi-week process (yes, my time is that spare) I don't see how I can justify putting these heads back into service if the valves don't check out. And somehow, I can't imagine that after 167k miles that they will.

Still...

The cold compression is:

Cylinder #3 100 psi
Cylinder #4 150 psi
Cylinder #2 100 psi
Cylinder #1 120 psi

These are not bad numbers considering the age and circumstances. But when this engine gets hot (425F at the head end) and that goo liquifies again, do I suddenly have a huge compression leak? Probably. At right is a reference photo taken from Richard Atwell's ratwell.com site. This is what happens when the stock cylinder head gasket gives up the ghost. This does look REALLY familiar.

So it is not impossible that I was up a creek the moment I bought the bus and didn't know it. But I had already told myself that even if I had to replace the whole engine, I was moving forward with the project. Therefore, I have no excuse.

I started shopping the Usual Suspects for head replacement. I knew it would not be cheap. Here's what I found:

• Gowesty AMC New, Unmodified $423 each
• Bus Depot AMC New, Unmodified  $524 each
• German Supply AMC New, Unmodified  $586 each
• German Supply AMC + SS Valves + Ground Keepers $696 each
• German Supply AMC + SS Valves + 3 Angle Grind + Ground Keepers $777 each
• Bus-Boys AMC New, Unmodified  $450 each
• cip1 AMC New, Unmodified  $550 each
• Wolfgang International AMC New, Unmodified  $429
• GermanSupply AMC Upgraded $1597 ($799 each, sold in pairs)
• Headflow Masters, AMC + keepers +seats +valves +guides: $825 each 

As you can see, the cost slews wildly by almost as much as 40%! For the same new, unmodified product! When you get in to modifications to this head (great casting, but terrible seats, guides, and valves) that's when I can see different companies being able to differentiate themselves. But seriously.... 40% based on vendor?

I chucked my info up on to itinerant-air-cooled.com and thesamba.com to see what my peeps there had to say. The comments were not encouraging. Heads at a minimum, probably Pistons & Cylinders, too. And make sure I get the case exterior scrupulously clean before I disassemble the heads. If I have to do the Piston's and Cylinders, I also have to get into measuring deck height, calculating compression ratio and adding shim rings that the base of the cylinders to make sure they're the same height and the same compression ratio. And raise the deck only enough to clear the Piston.

Thank God I bought Tom Wilson's How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen air-Cooled Engine twenty years ago.

I have a feeling that it is going to get the greatest workout of my ownership.