Tar Pit

Well, I have socked a Tar Babe right in the mouth.

(For those unfamiliar with the term, see Wikipedia.)

I've now dug down into the case and can clearly see that there is going to be no top end rebuild to save this. I've generated a list of components to be replaced, and it is considerable: Pistons, Cylinders, Rings, Heads, Connecting Rods, rod bearings, crankshaft journal bearings, camshaft, cam gear, valve lifters, camshaft bearings, every blasted seal on the engine, and the spark plugs, too.

Poo.

So pretty much the only part of the original engine that is staying is the crank and the crankcase itself. Even those are not a lock.

That being said, the Type4 crankcase is a stout sucker. I was concerned about possibly needing an align-bore on it (to true up all of the crankshaft bearing saddles before installing oversized bearings.) I was told by some old hands (this one in Mission Viejo) that the saddles are unlikely to need attention until at least 300k miles. Wow.

So here are some horror pictures of the teardown:

After removing the 2/1 cylinder head and getting the cylinders along with it, I gave the mess some more acetone (throttle cleaner) and whanged on it (carefully) with my rubber mallet. No budge. So I thought back to the heat that got these glued on by carbon blow-by in the first place, and applied propane torch heat to the head.

Which lit it on fire. (Throttle cleaner is flammable. This was outside. Only idiots set fires in their own garage on purpose.)

Which was what I was expecting. After 45 seconds or so it burned itself out, and I whanged on one of the cylinders again. Clunk. And the other. Clunk.

And that was when I saw the literal 'hot mess.'

The #2 exhaust valve is missing a pie shaped wedge out of it. No wonder I couldn't get compression on that cylinder.

Also, the surface of this valve adjuster should be gently rounded:

Yowza. I was able to pull one of the cam followers (valve lifters) out of the case with a magnet and look at it under strong light. They should have a slightly crowned top, so that when two are pressed together you see daylight all the way around the contact face.

What I got instead was so worn out that it was CONCAVE, rather than CONVEX the way it should be. What do the tops of these rub up against? This lead to a horrible suspicion that was quickly confirmed by a look at the camshaft.

2/1 cam lobes

4/3 cam lobes

Even a knuckle head like me can see that these are SHOT.

I pulled the heads for the other side and then performed the same 'light em on fire' operation on the cylinders to unstick them from the heads. Pretty much the same story on the other side.

At this point, I have pulled the reins back in. My workspace is not arranged such that it would be wise for me to go much deeper into this engine as I will have to. I'm going to need to provide a very clean environment to work in, and that is going to mean a week of evening cleaning the garage before I'm there.

So while I do that, I'll leave you in bated breathe on whether the heads are salvageable, if the case is usable, and how much it is going to cost me for that laundry list of components that must be reconditioned or replaced.