Paying the Piper (9 months later)

I made an original cut at a cost list early on in this project when I still naively thought that I was going to fluff and buff the engine, perhaps replace a bunch of hoses and wear items and bring old Ferdinand back to life. It just goes to show that there is no fool like an old fool. And when it comes to vintage cars, I am certainly an old fool.

Expenses on this project since November 2012:

Engine: $2375 Planned, purchased ($775), yet to be purchased $1600

• Webcam 142 Camshaft, Lifters, Cam gear $332 (Alamo Motorsports) 
• 021-198-541 Cam Bearings $29 (Aircooled.Net)
• 029-198-009 Reinz Gasket Set $70 (Aircooled.Net)
• AA 94mm Pistons & Cylinders $220 (Aircooled.Net)
• 022-109-451 Valve Adjusters $52 (European Motorworks)
• 029-105-245B Flywheel crank seal $10 (Aircooled.Net)
• 021-105-247A Rear crank seal $10 (Aircooled.Net)
• 039-105-701 Rod Bearings $24 (Auto Atlanta)
• 1700cc Heads Bored out 2000cc & rebuilt $500 (europeanautomachine.com)
• All other conversion tin and heat valves ($90, Litchfield show)
• New Durability upgraded AMC heads from Suburban Engine: $150 (These have turned out to be scrap, but that's how the ball bounces. A buck-fifty, down the toilet.)
• NOS Magnafluxed Crankshaft $100 (Clark, Thunder Bay)
• NOS Connecting Rods $100 (Clark, Thunder Bay)
• NOS Kolbenschmidt Main Bearings $50 (Clark, Thunder Bay)
• VW Factory Rebuilt  GE Type4 crankcase $285 (John Connolly, aircooled.net)
• 071-251-053EK Ernst Right Exit Muffler and Kit $250 (Bus Depot)
• 113-101-157C Metal Cam plug $2 (aircooled.net)

Engine Accessories: $701 (Replacing all external parts and hoses)
    consisting of planned and purchased ($683)

• Custom Fabricated PCV Hose: $32.50 (GeeBee Racing, thesamba)
• Custom Fabricated Decel Hose: $45.50 (GeeBee Racing, thesamba)
• Custom Fabricated S-Boot: $75 (GeeBee Racing, thesamba)
• General Vacuum Hose $4 (Advance Autoparts)
• General EVAP hose $4 (Advance Autoparts)
• Watts Vinyl Hose 1/2"ID x 10ft, $3 (Evap Can to Air Cleaner Housing, Home Depot)
• Fuel Filter $7 (BD)
• Battery Cables 2AWG: $20 (Autozone)
• 4x FI hose clamps: $3 (Autozone)
• 1 meter 3/8" J30R9 FI hose: $12 (Autozone)
• 1 meter 1/4" J30R9 FI hose: $12 (Autozone)
• Replacement Points set: $8.50 (Autozone)
• Intake Manifold Boots ($15, BD)
• Throttle Body Gasket ($6, BD)
• Ex Manifold Copper Gaskets 5 ($7.50, BD)
• Used T2B Heat Exchangers ($265, Bob Hays)
• VDO Fuel Press Gauge ($25, JEGS)
• Gates 27336 3/8" Barricade Hose ($11, OEHQ)
• 2x Gates 27335 5/16" Barricade Hose ($20, OEHQ)
• 4x Sorenson Fuel Injectors ($114, Autozone)
• 021-199-231C Rear Engine Mount x2 $18 (Aircooled.net)

• M8x1.25x12mm Qty 25 (Bolt Depot) $11.53
• M6x1.00x12mm Qty 12 (Bolt Depot) $7.05
• M6x1.00x16mm Qty 12 (Bolt Depot) $7.88
• Plug wires: $80 (Holy Frijole!)
• Sparkplugs NGK BP6ET, 14mm x 3/4" Threads, 13/16" Socket : 4x $20 (aircooled.net)

Here's what I started with: $5500 budget from the sale of a Restored 1972 Beetle

-$1500 Purchase price for 1977 VW Bus

-$100 tow

-$683 external parts installed or required to date

-$775 Engine crankcase and Internals to date 

Still left in the kitty: $2442

Still needed to complete the engine: $1013

Walt Disney was Right

"Do not be fooled by its common place appearance. Like so many things, it is what is on the inside that counts." - Alladin

Call it a moral victory. I have done everything short of file the rough spots on this case down with my tongue. I just hit the 'point of no return.'

Last time I described the nasty surprise I found in the form of a beat out bearing saddle. Tonight I met the 'final straw.' SOME GOON BUGGERED THE THREADS ON THE OIL DRAIN AND HEILCOILED IT!

There. I feel better. The picture is not of my engine because I don't think I can bear to take any more pictures of it. This is on a poor Mazda.

In theory, there is nothing wrong with a Helicoil to limp by when the threads are stripped, though I prefer a TimeSert, which is a much more elegant solution and more robust, as well. But this was finally it. Removing this Helicoil and then renting the tool to install the TimeSert, as well as the TimeSert itself, plus the cost, delay and aggrevation.... We're done here.

To reassure myself that I wasn't simply blowing my stack in frustration, I made a list of how much it was going to cost me to save this crankcase so I could put brand new internals into it. I didn't like the numbers so I rearranged them. Unsurprisingly, the total dollar figure didn't change. Here's what a competent shop (Like AJ Simms' LowBugget) in Orange County, California would charge for the work that I would need on this case:

• $130 for align bore (If I can find someone closer than Virgina, Conneticut or Georgia who is qualified to do the work.)
• $50 hot tank cleaning
• $85 oil gallery drill and tap (to provide the oil galleries with a thorough cleaning after being machined)
• $20 oil gallery plugs
• $50 timesert drain plug (insert plus tool rental)
• $50 reweld breather tower tang (Which I busted off trying to get this ooey-gooey case apart according to directions.)
• $90 for a set of SilverLine steelbacked .50/STD/STD mainbearings to replace the STD/STD/STD Kolbenschmidt steelbacked mainbearings I've already purchased. (So in a way, I'd be in it for the combined price of both bearing sets.)

That'll be $475. Which doesn't sound like much, but this crankcase is not the Hope diamond. Why am I going through heroics trying to save THIS case?

Because I'd love for this build to be 'numbers matching' which means that I've forgotten the vision statement for this project: "Don't restore it ... make it run reliably." So it won't be numbers matching. Because I'm not building it for preservation, I'm rebuilding this vehicle to HAVE FUN in with my family.

So Vaya con Dios, ya poor jerk. There's going to have to be a replacement case and I found just the ticket: John Connolly at aircooled.net happens to be selling a VW Factory Reconditioned Type4 crankcase for substantially less than half of what it would cost me to repair my present crankcase.

Here's the same breakdown for the Factory Rebuilt crankcase:

Crankcase, Shipped from Utah: $285

• $130 for align bore NOT NEEDED! STD/STD/STD ON CRANKSHAFT!
• $50 hot tank cleaning ALREADY DONE
• $85 oil gallery drill and tap ALREADY DONE
• $20 oil gallery plugs
• $50 timesert drain plug NOT NEEDED
• $50 reweld breather tower tang NOT NEEDED
• $90 for a set of SilverLine steelbacked .50/STD/STD mainbearings. NOT NEEDED

Let's call the lady in the picture 'Oma.' Oma built these engines in the factory. Oma is my friend because with the Factory Rebuilt case that I'm getting from John, I will have (wait for it; this is hilarious) replaced all of the components of the engine except the alternator and some assorted bracketry. I'm assembling my new engine from all new parts and just keeping the valve covers, eh?

Bloody Type 4 engine. I shouldn't carp about the impossibility of finding parts; if anything, good deals have blessedly continued to fall into my lap. But they keep doing so because the sellers 'don't have any use for these parts' anymore. Built right, I'll be sporting a walker or a wheelchair the next time this engine needs to be replaced. But I find it a real knee slapper that after having wasted the better part of a year carefully analyzing the engine to see how much I could save, to determine that it is only the tin-work and accessories that are worth keeping is pretty shabby. If I'd tossed the engine out and started fresh back in December, I'd be driving it by now.

Instead, we get progressive revelation. Oh well.

The Case of the Hidden Razor Blade

I bottomed out in a new emotional low on Sunday night. I picked up my pretty kit of micrometers and snap gages, and trudged out to the garage in the +95° heat and started doing my measurements on the main bearing saddles of the case. Remember, this is the crankcase that I was told "these engines are built like an Ox! You should be able to clean it up, put in new bearings and reassemble."

Bolllocks.

Like a chump, I had left the main and cam bearings in the saddles (held in place by their alignment dowels) until I was ready to do the thrust measurements for each bearing saddle. "Thrust" measures the front to rear slop of each bearing inline with the crankshaft. Add up all of the 'thrust' slop and you have a total potential for what is called 'End Play' which isn't as kinky as it sounds. It means 'how much total total distance the crankshaft and flywheel can float forward and backward in the case. There are shims which you can add at the flywheel end that can reduce end play to a carefully calibrated range between .003" and .005" so the flywheel doesn't drift too much, but isn't so tight that it grabs the #1 bearing (zero distance) and eats it at 4000 RPM. (Bearings are not supposed to spin!). I carefully removed each of the bearings and alignment dowels and stored the set away and then took a good look. Great googly-moogly.

I saw that the bearing saddle for the #2 crank journal was looking...odd. But I decided for my own sanity that I was going to start at #1 (the flywheel end) and work my way back to #4 at the impeller (fan) end.

One oddity about how I work on my cars now is that I wear gloves. Always. I always wear nitrile exam gloves that are a skin tight. This isn't because I'm some priss afraid to get his hands dirty. (Though I don't like it and it is a nuisance.) It is because I earn the bread that my family eats with my hands. They type very, very fast in a high pressure job, where my keyboard has all of the lettering worn off and the keycaps polished to a gloss like Dath Vader's helmet. I cannot afford damage to my hands, as the computer environment I work in doesn't use a mouse. Two years ago I busted my collar bone and was out of work for 5 weeks. I almost lost the job. To injure my hands in some of these antics is courting disaster, so I protect them all the time.

Wearing those nitrile gloves has other benefits though: they not only keep the grease out from under my fingernails, when my hands have become completely caked with grease from wrestling something into or out of position, I can take a break and put on a fresh set of gloves. Clean hands in 15 seconds. And rather than the slip of a screwdriver slicing open my hand, it just slices open the glove and my hand gets away with a mild to moderate scratch. Very handy, those gloves.

I saw the edge of the bearing saddle on the #2 and ran my hand across it...and my glove split open across my palm! I got strong light into the area, looked closely and felt sick.

See what appears to be a chamfer across the bottom edge there? That's not a chamfer or bevel. It is a lip of metal sticking out and overhanging the vertical portion of the bearing saddle. And the horizontal edge sliced open the glove on my palm like a cut-throat straight razor. Carefully dragging a fingernail up from the bottom to the face of the saddle will cause it to STOP against the huge lip pounded onto the edge of that saddle.

The steel bearing that fits in this saddle has been pounded so hard and so long that it has deformed the underlying metal of the saddle, despite the reputation of these cases for being 'virtually bullet proof.' Certainly I can have it align bored, removing perhaps .5mm of metal from the surface of the saddles. But then I'll need to drive the case at least 2 hours and pay $120-150 for the work. The OEM Kolbenschmidt bearings won't fit, either. They're 'Standard/Standard' aka not machined larger on the saddle side to take up the space removed, nor made larger on the inside diameter to make up for a crankshaft that has had to be trimmed 1/100th of an inch to remove grooves or burrs. These bearings go to waste if I don't have a perfect crank, and a perfect case to put them in.

What's a girl to do?

The New 2 Do

The Mrs. has been extremely patient. I've been off chasing butterflies with this bus for some months now, and she has silently endured a failure to complete a few 'niggling projects.' But we're about to leave for California in 56 hours (yes, I'm counting in hours) and I think it would do me good to clean up a few of those  outstanding matters before we go, that way she can come home to a house with them completed.

In the mean time, I need to make a long list of things to do on the Bus engine to prepare it for rebuilding. The list is not for the faint of heart. As I said earlier, this is blueprinting: Where none of the dimensions are assumed to be as they should be, so all must be measured.

• Acquire snap gages from HF
• Acquire Micrometers from MM
• Remove and number all of the crank and cam dowel pins, securing them in their own carriers.
• Scrupulously clean the mating surfaces of the case especially at the front and rear.
• Take case halves and reassemble them, empty, back together.
• Torque the case bolts to spec using Brownline TQ wrench.
• Cover the bore holes at the flywheel end.
• Using a strong light at the flywheel end, look down the length of the bore to see whether any light can be seen in gaps between the main webbings or mating surfaces when the case is fully torqued. Visible light at a mating surface automatically rejects the case.
• Using snap gages and micrometers (and less accurate calipers when impossible to use mic) measure and document the bore of each of the mainbearing saddles three times, at 90*, 210*, 320* and then take the average. If any of the measurements are further out than 1/10 of an inch, align bore on the crankshaft bores is indicated.
• Using snap gages and micrometers (and less accurate calipers when impossible to use mic) measure and document the bore of each of the camshaft saddles three times, at 90*, 210*, 320* and then take the average. If any of the measurements are further out than 1/10 of an inch, align bore on the cam bores is indicated.
• Use snap gages to measure the rest of the bores
• Using micrometers, record the thrust of the camshaft and crankshaft bore webbing.
• Inspect for fretting of the metal around the bearing bores

Designed to Scare

This post is specifically designed to scare.

Not you. Me.

This is what is known as an engine 'blueprint' or build sheet. Rather than simply slinging together parts that 'should fit' from the manufacturer, we document what the measurements SHOULD BE on all of the parts, and then ACTUALLY measure every stinking part to make sure they they are how big they say they are on the box, and have the material properties the spec says they should have. Essentially, you trust nothing. It is very time consuming to be paranoid.

Many of the engines that you buy from resellers are assembled from new components that are assumed to be 'made correctly' from the manufacturer and unfortunately, the customer winds up being the Quality Assurance department. So I'm taking the extra time to blueprint. And it scares me because the measurements drive far into the 1/1000ths of an inch range and being out of tolerance by 1/50th of an inch can mean an engine that lasts 1 lifetime or 1 minute.

The following is the specification for the Type4 engine, as well as my measurements of (update: My new VWoC case.) Original GD case specs will be left below in case I ever get the ridiculous idea that I want to rebuild another engine.

Note that my measurements will be in inches because in this benighted country, metric has yet to catch on with the good old boys.

Designation New (mm (inches) Wear Limit MINE


Crankcase bores

+ Main Bearing Bores

- Bearing 1-3 dia. 70.00-70.02 (2.7559-2.7567) 70.03 (2.7808)

- Bearing 4 dia. 50.00-50.03 (1.9685-1.9696) 50.04 (1.962)

+ Flywl seal Bore dia. 95.00-95.05 (3.7401-3.7420)

+ Fan seal Bore dia. 62.00-62.05 (2.4409-2.4428)

+ Cam bores dia. 27.50-27.52 (1.0825-1.0833) 1.083

+ Oil pump Bore dia. 70.00-70.03 (2.7559-2.7570)

+ Lifter Bores dia. 24.00-24.02 (.9448-9456) 24.05 (.9467)

Crankshaft

3 undersize grinds of

.25mm (0.00984252 aka ".010 inches")

.50mm (0.019685 aka ".020 inches")

.75mm (0.0295276 aka ".030 inches")



+ Crankshaft

- Main Journals Diameter

1-3 59.97-59.99 (2.3609-2.3617) (2.35975)

4 39.98-40.00 (1.5739-1.5748) (1.573)

- Con-rod journals Dia. 49.97-49.98 (19677-1.9681) (1.967)


Out of Spec

- #2 & #4 main journals runout 0.02 (.0008)

+ Crankshaft unbalance max. 12cmg

+ Main bearing journal out-of-round 0.03

+ Con-rod journal out-of-round 0.03


+ Crankshaft main journals

(taking housing preload into account):


- Bearings 1 & 3 radial 0.05-0.10 (.002-.004) 0.18

- Bearing 2 radial 0.03-0.09 0.17

- Bearing 4 radial 0.05-0.10 0.19

+ Crank main end play 0.02-0.07 0.15

+ Con-rod journal / Con-rod radial play:     0.1-0.4          0.7


Designation New (mm (inches) Wear Limit MINE


Crankcase bores

+ Main Bearing Bores

- Bearing 1-3 dia. 70.00-70.02 (2.7559-2.7567) 70.03 (2.7570)

- Bearing 4 dia. 50.00-50.03 (1.9685-1.9696) 50.04 (1.9700)

+ Flywl seal Bore dia. 95.00-95.05 (3.7401-3.7420)

+ Fan seal Bore dia. 62.00-62.05 (2.4409-2.4428)

+ Cam bores dia. 27.50-27.52 (1.0825-1.0833)

+ Oil pump Bore dia. 70.00-70.03 (2.7559-2.7570)

+ Lifter Bores dia. 24.00-24.02 (.9448-9456) 24.05 (.9467)

Crankshaft

3 undersize grinds of

.25mm (0.00984252 aka ".010 inches")

.50mm (0.019685 aka ".020 inches")

.75mm (0.0295276 aka ".030 inches")



+ Crankshaft

- Main Journals Diameter

1-3 59.97-59.99 (2.3609-2.3617) (2.35975)

4 39.98-40.00 (1.5739-1.5748) (1.573)

- Con-rod journals Dia. 49.97-49.98 (19677-1.9681) (1.967)


Out of Spec

- #2 & #4 main journals runout 0.02 (.0008)

+ Crankshaft unbalance max. 12cmg

+ Main bearing journal out-of-round 0.03

+ Con-rod journal out-of-round 0.03


+ Crankshaft main journals

(taking housing preload into account):


- Bearings 1 & 3 radial 0.05-0.10 (.002-.004) 0.18

- Bearing 2 radial 0.03-0.09 0.17

- Bearing 4 radial 0.05-0.10 0.19

+ Crank main end play 0.02-0.07 0.15

+ Con-rod journal / Con-rod radial play:     0.1-0.4          0.7

When the lowest price wins

What will you pay for quality?

In the modern hyper-capitalist sense, there is an idea called 'the race to the bottom.' It means, what is the worst quality product that the buying public will tolerate that allows the manufacturer to spend the least amount of money making, while keeping the price artificially high enough so that a worse product made now is the same 'price' as a superior product made previously?

This is the terror of globalization, and no, this is not a political screed. The Chinese manufacturing sector is perfectly capable of producing very high quality products: you wouldn't call the iPhone "cheap and flimsy." Products manufactured in the US of A by ISO 9000 certified companies can be pot metal junk, as long as the process for how to make this low quality junk is well documented.

There are some parts, however, which cannot be substituted with 'less expensive materials.' That's because the less expensive materials fail to meet the specifications required to do the job. They might be the right shape, but that doesn't make their hardness, lubricity, or a dozen other attributes right for the job.

I first experienced this when I was selling audio components for Silo in 1991. That year, Sony had introduced the five disc 'Carousel' CD player which unloaded the whole tray and let you rotate a turntable carrying the disks so you could reload it for an enormous five hours of play time. These things were flying off the shelves, and then Sony got greedy: they replaced some of the moving components with plastic rather than nylon. The units looked the same, and played the same, and within about 50 open-close cycles, stripped that plastic gear that drove the rack which was molded into the tray. The tray won't come out, and now your brand new $200 player has et up $100 worth of CDs that are trapped inside it. All for the sake of $0.005 part that should have stayed a $0.01 part.

So what happens when an entire industry goes this route? Lowers the quality until what was once considered to be robust is a joke? Ask Craftsman. Anyone who works with tools will tell you that the steel, mechanisms, and specifications of a modern Craftsman tool are an embarrassment compared with the same tool made thirty years ago. While Sears will take back your broken tool and replace it with another for free (thus honoring the Craftsman lifetime warranty) it will be of the same or worse quality than the tool that failed.

This is the race to the bottom that has been happening in the VW aftermarket during the last twenty years. The only difference is that it is accelerating so fast now that parts quality is beyond redemption. VW hobbyists have always been a cheap lot: Don't buy a new one, rebuild the one you have. Limp by, rather than fix it 'right' and variations on that theme. Now, the only thing about an old Volkswagen that is still cheap...is the owner. The prices are still rising, and the parts quality is in the suds, that is, when you can find the parts at all. NLA (No Longer Available) has become the new price.

Unfortunately, this race to the bottom has only been exacerbated by the Hobbyist community itself. If you expect consumable parts (engine, suspension, brake, gaskets, seals) to stay at the same price *FOREVER*, you will inevitably wind up with parts that soak up the inflation and scarcity differential by lowering the quality of the components.

Serious VW hobbyists have taken to hoarding New Old Stock component that are still in the factory box, rather than buying a new component at one fifth the price that is of unknown durability. This fact hit me square between the eyes with a 2x4 this week: The main bearings (part #36 in the diagram) which support the crankshaft (part #1).

These bearings are the ones that take the horizontal pounding of the engine, and as such, wear out. The bearing doesn't actually touch the crankshaft: the crankshaft floats on a 4/1000 of an inch layer of oil as it spins at stock speeds of up to 4800 RPM. That oil is refreshed by pumping cooled oil into that shadow thin gap under pressure.

This is why machinists who know what they're doing can make a decent living: most people have a concept of 'small' as about the diameter of a grain of sand, or 197/1000 inches, about 50x the size of this oil gap.

The crankshaft main bearings, in which the crankshaft journals
rest on a thin skiff of oil and spin at up to 5000 RPM.

As you can imagine, the accuracy of the bearing surface and the accuracy of the crankshaft surface that floats and spins in it (call a journal) is paramount. The aircooled engine design is so forgiving that the most exceptional idiot can assemble an engine out of a box of parts, measuring nothing, and produce an engine that will run. The engine might not run for long, and might grenade itself within a month or the first time they really put the hammer down on the accelerator, but it will run.

When building for longevity however, the builder had better be compulsive about measurements and cleanliness in the assembly area. Even with good measurements, an engine assembled in a dirty shack is likely to have a service life perhaps 50% or less of one assembled in a clean-room environment.

So what was the bad news? How does material quality affect me and this engine build in particular?

Next time.

Was ist das "Boxermotor" mein Herr?

A brief sojourn into the horizontally opposed engine, for the uninitiated.

The video below is a product of Subaru, so obviously it pitches the 1966 beginnings of the Subaru boxer engine. But the more important point is that this video shows why the boxer is a superior design, both from a longevity standpoint, as well as from a performance and practicality standpoint.

Josef Kales, under the direction of Ferdinand Porsche created the Boxer motor, a horizontally opposed four cylinder engine for the 1932 NSU Typ 32 protoype. The engine design was later evolved by Franz Xavier Reimspieß for the Volks-auto, later to become the KDF-wagen under Adolf Hitler's reign, and finally the Volkswagen, risen from the ashes of the Third Reich.

Sadly, Volkswagen AG came to see the boxer engine as a liability rather than a strength, conforming increasingly to other motor-trends such as inline overhead cam engines mated to transverse gearboxes which became popular in the late sixties and early seventies. While VW de México continued to manufacture and sell the venerable air-cooled boxer in their domestic incarnation of the VW Beetle through 2003, Volkswagen AG wanted nothing more to do with the boxer.

Ironically, just as VW was trying to abandon the boxer, Subaru was 'reinventing the wheel' with their new boxer engine which first saw production in 1966. While not the first or only Japanese company to build boxer engines, Subaru has remained at the fore-front of boxer development since it took over the crown from VW in the early 1970s. Today, boxers are used in many cars, including the new Scion (Toyota) FR-S, which uses a Subaru-built boxer with Toyota engineered heads.

It seems that the boxer is going to keep living a long and happy life. With or without VW.