30 year old engine - built and rebuilt by Vallero's VW Werks

I have a build thread on samba and UAC for Hugo's old 1600cc motor that's in the bus now. I started it recently and thought that most people are on Facebook and samba and didn't want to be redundant and post it here too. But I can if you would like me to... LMK.

Yah, this site is basically a ghost town now. I think maybe 3 or 4 people post in it once in a while.

I say post away, maybe it will bring some life back to this site.

Okay, time for another build thread.  

This 1600cc motor was originally built for me by Ray Vallero in 1983 for my bug "Hugo".  It's been my daily for decades.  It was the true combination that I asked for way back then:  reliability, power, longevity, and economy.  I got 36mpg on the freeway, 28mpg in town.  It has well over 200,000 miles on it.  When Velvet the bus came with no engine two years ago, we decided to put this 28 year old engine into the bus and build a new one for the bug.

So, the motor has now been pushing the 1000 extra pounds of bus around for the last two years.  On Treffen, a trip to OCTO, Blackstar campout, and tons of other hot summer roadtrips, along as a work commuter.

It did get some machine work on the heads in 1992 after I caught an air filter on fire.  The case has never been opened though.  We put it on the dyno two years ago out of curiosity and estimate it was getting nearly 100HP at the flywheel, even at its age.  But that was with some help of straight stacks/no air filters on the dual 40 Webers, a racing pulley, and a larger exhaust.





Now it's time for a rebuild.  The engine will stay in the bus, so we've decided to increase it's size and power as you will see as the thread unfolds.  Let me begin with what we have to start with:

1600cc, dual 40 Webers, V26 cam, header with dual mufflers, 35x31mm valves, ported intakes, 8.5:1 compression.



Plaque mounted in 1983 with my maiden name, I was 19 years old.  Ray had a dyno at the time and this were the initial readings.



The car it was in for 28 years:



The bus that its been in for the last 2 years, and will serve after the rebuild:

First we will start with some reworking of some stock 1600 rods.  Then we will pull the engine and start the teardown.



First he wants to lighten them up considerably and then recontour them slightly.  So, he cleans them and does some grinding to remove material.





Showing a rough start.







Done.  They are 50 grams lighter than stock now.  



I will be using a counterweighted crankshaft.  The counterweight is not enough weight to counter a rod.  So, by lightening the rod it is more equal and the crankshaft can be more effective.  Ray says that VW rods are overbuilt, so that this doesn't impact integrity.  He took 100g off of them in the 912 racecar and was turning extremely high rpms and never had an issue.



Now we are going to recondition the large end to factory minimum size.  First he will reduce the inside diameter so that he can hone it back to size and have a fresh surface for the parts to sit on at minimum diameter.  He will remove material at the part line by using the The Tobin Arp cap grinder.



Then he goes to the Tobin Arp rod machine to measure how much was removed (.007 was removed).



And hones the large end to factory minimum.



Finally, Ray will resize the small end to the proper length, within .0001.  It also will correct any twist or angle differences from large end.



Next we will pull the motor and start a tear down.  I am excited about the tear down and it will be a big focus of this thread.  It is sort of a time capsule and will show what has worked and what hasn't after such a long life. Lots of info to be learned on what to do better and also why to continue doing things Ray has done for decades.

This is gonna be fun!  

Pulling the motor from the bus and prepping to open the case.  Start with removing the bumper.







Vallero's was flanging heater boxes 30 years ago.



We will be modifying the header to match the size of the pipe...in other words - big.  Major improvement needed here.



This is not an off-the-shelf flywheel.  Ray lightened this one to 11# by removing the outer edge.



 

Next to a stock one for comparison.



4 dowels with lock tight and 600 psi torque.



This AS41 case is the factory's first really good attempt at making a better engine block.  Then came then 021 cases, then the FI case.  



Removing peripheral stuff.



Assorted items removed.



Finally getting to the good stuff.



Relatively dry for over 30 years.





He has always used 8mm head studs.



The 8mm head studs allowed the head to stretch back and forth without damaging the seal at the cylinders.  As you can see, this engine is pretty dry.



I want to paint the sheet metal and shroud.  I'm thinking a patina velvet green to match in here?



It's all going in the parts washer to prep for paint.



All clean.  



Ready for the disassembly next!

I love build threads. I cannot wait to have my engine rebuilt

Dawn as always you put together a wonderful story with great picx, I will be watching with great interest. I would love to have a new motor for my bus so all eyes are on this project. Breck

BTW:  I got a few comments on the flywheel and I forgot to mention:

In 1983, Ray also cut the flywheel so that it would accept four shims.  The shims act like bearings.  The more you have, the more bearing surface you have and less wear on the main bearing itself.  This makes the case wear less when the clutch is in at a stop.  He also taught me back then to put it in neutral and release the clutch if I'm ever sitting at a stop at idle to prevent wear.  This can really add up over 3 decades.  

Here's proof of the four shims benefit, and not letting the motor idle with the clutch in too often.  Almost no wear.



This is a Gene Berg 3.5 quart deep sump that was always on the motor.  The screen is clean, even after never having removed the plate that I recall.  I just changed the oil by the drain plug.  I always had an HP1 filter and ran Valvoline 20/50 racing oil, all year round, for the life of the engine.  This oil also never produces any sludge.



Very little buildup on the plate after having never been removed.



That's some serious road grime from over the years.  We could carbon date some of this stuff!



Just wow.  LOL.



Super clean on the inside though!



Note this sump has 4 internal struts. Super strong.  The sump studs were long because the sump has a thick boss, its very high quality Gene Berg. The long oil pick up tube extension allows it to run low on oil without the oil inside the engine, like a dry sump.   Contrary to belief, it does not make it run cooler.  It just takes longer to get warm, but it gets just as hot.  This is why we also ran an external oil cooler.  And had a doghouse shroud and external oil filter.  The car held almost 9 quarts of oil and always ran very cool, about 175F.  I had to cover up the external cooler in the winter months or it would run too cold.



All cleaned up now.  We are definitely going to be using this on the rebuild.



It never had a blow by setup like I see so often nowadays.  Just the OG tube on the filler with this directional vane inside.



Gene Berg cast iron oil pump cover.  Dean Lowry and Berg were the first to come out with them.



No wear hardly.  Also due to high quality oil.



Ray laughed at how tiny these oil pump gears look to him now.  They are the smallest gears they make at 21mm.  The smallest nowadays is 25mm or so.  Here's a comparison picture to some out of another motor. Also notice that my 30 year old gears look in better shape than the "newer" used ones.  We don't need big ones because of tight tolerances and no internal leakage.  We will use these again.



O ring style on this pump, no gasket.  Ray machined this pump for an o-ring, they do not come this way.



Next up, we will start opening things up and taking a look inside, yay!

Further disassembly...

A neat trick for removing the oil pressure relief valve...

First tap the plug with a hammer to squash the gasket a bit and it comes loose easily.



Then take a large flathead screwdriver with a quick and gentle jab into the hole to remove the spring and plunger.



I didn't get a photo, but the four shims on the flywheel are in good shape, not curved.  A bit more explanation about the # of shims:  It creates more bearing surface to disperse the load when the clutch is in, even when the oil pressure is very low at idle, like 10# or so.  If an oil light comes on at idle, it's below 7#, and with no shims, will be dry and wear the front of the main bearing and flywheel surface (and shims if there).  High quality oil helps too.  

As I mentioned earlier, Ray uses 8mm head studs instead of 10mm, which allows the head to move without being disturbed.  Because the stud is thinner, it can stretch.  It follows back and forth, so it's like a stretch stud. With 10mm studs, they often either smash the head in or indent into head and make the head loose, then sometimes you will find the nuts in the valve cover.  Also, sometimes they will make a frapping noise when start/cold.  



They are still at the same 18# we set them at.



These are early CB 1.25 rockers.  They have Gene Berg elephants feet adjusters.  So far everything is looking very good and ready to go another 150,000 miles.  



As in Hugo's build thread, Ray polished the tips of the valve stems.  When the tip is polished and the surface of the elephant foot polished, when in motion with oil, it becomes hydrostatic.  Ray has found that this is better than having the "grooves" on them that allow for oil to get in.  The grooves simply add a rougher surface to wear and become dry on the ridges.  With the hydrostatic effect, there is no wear and the valve guides are not sideloaded.



Aluminum pushrods.  Ray thinks that these were Bugpack.  They look perfect.  We are going to drill them next time in the same way we did on Hugo's engine, to create a sprinkler effect on the valve train.



There's a small amount of wear on the rings.  Ray checks this by putting it in the cylinder at the point that has no wear.  On this one, there is a small gap.



Uh oh, the first problem now shows!  Ray spots it and simply said, "Your estimate just went up."    My heads are cracked.



For those that cannot see it, we scribed it here on this one to make it show up:



I know exactly when this happened unfortunately.  It was purely my fault and was only recently.  While building the new bigger motor for Hugo, we decided to run this one on a dyno for an idea of the power it still had after 28 years.  It was winter time and this motor always ran cold, so I often ran a power pulley on it.  We ran across a tiny racing pulley and stuck that on because I got greedy that day!  Along with the bigger exhaust and rejetting, then drove to the dyno locally.  Well, the car was too low to get it onto the chassis dyno.  So we drove around town to a couple other places until finally getting Evil Genius in West Sacto to take us on short notice.    You can even hear me comment on the dyno video at the beginning of this thread about my concern about "cracking a head".  Then we drove home when the daytime temps were warmer, never intending to be out that long.  It dieseled a bit after shutdown due to the head temps, which it never did normally.  I was pushing the envelope and hoping for the best.  I guess after all those decades, I had a false sense of security that this thing was indestructible!  So, needless to say, this was not the motor's fault.  

So, onward with peeling this onion:

Notice that this rod has been ground.  There will be one rod not ground on because Ray balances them by starting with the lightest rod and then grinding the rest to match its weight.  It was surprising to me at how different each of these rods were.  How many people just buy a set of rods and put them into a motor?  These are the sort of things that are why some turnkey engines are cheap.  



Heat is a better way to remove a tight aluminum pulley without damaging it.



Ray said that he hasn't used red glue in 30 yrs. Doh. This is why it leaked some.



Next up, we will open the case.  

Too bad about the head Dawn, still that motor has run a long time!!

Great pics and vids

Best post ever, thanks! I will read, and re-read.  

Something that I forgot to write about the oil pressure relief valve.  I just learned this, so am passing along the info.  The spring is stronger on the back one.  Ray sometimes sees people use two equally strong springs.  If both are strong, the piston will be pressed tight and cannot flloat and it can blow the oil filter off, oil cooler seals out, or even blow the oil cooler up.  Unregulated, the oil pump is able to make 400#.  Just an FYI in case you know one of those people...  

And now what we've been waiting for.  The opening of the time capsule:



Gene Berg V26 cam.  Gene had Engle make this for him at the time.  That's why it's stamped GB.  



Here are the lifters that he comments on in the video.  They are soft and have some pitting, which caused some cam wear.  Ray hasn't used these for a very long time because of this.





This engine never ran with a tight valve. He can tell because of what the cam tells him.  

The rear main has almost no wear.  This is a sign of an engine being balanced well and the lack of vibration. Even though the flywheel was light and the crank is not counterweighted, the main still looks great.  Another reason is that this engine rarely got up to 180F.  The case has no bearing wear, which is unheard of.  



If you look closely at the bearing notch inside the bearing you can see material in it.  A little bit of rust smearing in the bearing.  This rust is a result of the car sitting for 7 years (more on that in a moment).



The #3 rod bearing is very worn. The copper shows (upper right of photo).   It's possible that trash got in when the flywheel was removed to replace the gland nut.  We did this recently on the way to OCTO in the bus when the pressure plate went out.  Debris can get in the oil galley in the crank and comes out in the #3 journal.  



Here's a photo showing the rod bearing wear.  In comparison to one of the others.



Or, more likely, it was caused by some rust that started to develop when the car was sitting for 7 years.  Then it got into that one bearing because #3 is the first journal from the main and the only one lubricated from that main.  Here is a picture of that rust.



You can see it more clearly here.  Remember, this engine is 30 years old.  This rust is was caused when the car sat for 7 years straight in the early 1990's.  Another reason that it is BEST for an engine to be *driven* regularly, or this rust would never have appeared and then the main bearing, rod bearing, and crank all would have been pristine.  The only wear would have been on the cam slightly from the pitting in the soft lifters.



Zero sludge in this case.



All cleaned up.  We will be soda blasting the case.





Next we will get some new heads and start machining the case for the rebuild.  

Uhhh so why did it sit for seven years??  Did I miss that part?? Inquiring minds need to know!!  

Always late to the game Breck. Lol

Breck wrote:

Uhhh so why did it sit for seven years??  Did I miss that part?? Inquiring minds need to know!!  

I ended up parking the car for the time that I was immersed in starting up and running my non-profit Wild About Cats. Working it full time and Fedex Part-time and needed my Dodge truck more than anything during that period for hauling animals. So the car was in storage.

Here is the main seal on the case.  The dark area is where the bearing etches.  It's very good for the mileage, more stain than anything.



This is more typical of what you would see at high engine miles.  This picture is of one with 100K, less than half of what mine had.  



And this is the center main on the other engine.



The owner says it never had very good oil pressure.  This kind of wear takes place for a couple of reasons. Mostly people do not fit things up with proper clearance so the internal leaks allow the crankshaft to pound on the bearings.  You need oil pressure to hold the parts away from each other. It is like a cushion.   Again, this is why Ray is a strong believer in the 20-50 Valvoline Racing oil.  When you first start the motor, the parts are not allowed to touch each other with this oil.  It protects the parts until the oil pump takes over.

Here's a last look at my case with everything removed.



And a little break from the technical stuff...

Here's the original receipt.  Unfortunately, the carbon print has faded a lot on the 2nd and 3rd pages.  It is in Hugo's glove box.  Along with every single receipt for any work on the car since 1983.  Which isn't very many, just like 15 or so over all these years.  



I noticed a 34 PICT carb, which I'd forgotten about.  I wanted Dellortos at the time, they were all the rage.  Ray said they'd take a while to order and he didn't like them as well as Webers.  If memory serves me right, he put the 34 PICT on the parts list apparently, ordered the Dells, but ended up putting dual 40 Webers on instead of either.





Here's the sweet sound this little 1600cc engine made just a few thousand miles before this overhaul.  I grew up to this sound most of my life.  In this video, we took it to Test N Tune in Hugo to see what it would get in a 1/4 mile.  It was my first time racing and I left the light easy, shifted low, and we weighed 2100# with my tools, spare, and Ray in the passenger seat.  Still got 18.64.  I think it could have gotten low 18's.  28 years old and 200K at the time.  

I got my new AutoLinea heads in.  Like just about all new heads, Ray will be modifying them to improve them.

Firstly, there is more material.  Mine are on the right, stock heads on the left for comparison.



Second, they have less holes for air flow through the heads than stock.  Stock head on the right, AutoLinea on the left.  And also, the intake port has more material on both sides.  Ray will be drilling holes into the heads (he would do this on a stock one too) for better air flow and cooling.  These dead end pockets trap the air otherwise, punching through them is much better.  He can put as many as 24 holes into the head with no downside.



Here he explains this:



To the Bridgeport mill for the bore.  This motor will now be for the bus, so we are going with 94mm.



Beginning the flycutting.  It is done in two stages for a step up, one for the piston and one for the cylinder.  Many people bore the hole without a step, but Ray likes to leave more material there for strength integrity.



Second Cut.



The finished bore.  The large diameter is the register.  The smaller diameter is clearance for the piston to go through.





Here's a video that I took a few years ago when we did the same thing on Hugo's new 2175cc motor, also 94's.



Checking after making the cut.  It's a good fit.



The factory inserts are nice for when you bore for 94's.  They do not break through to the insert.  Factory inserts are smaller outside diameter than the after market.  



Here is an example of a large insert in a 94 bore.  This case was bored slightly off center. There is no room for error.



Now we are going to work on grinding the case for clearance for the 74 stroke.  Here it is before grinding.



After grinding.

I received a pm with a very good question, so I am posting it here on the forum.  

Quote :

i am intersted in knowing your and Ray's opinion about the V26 cam. i have one here and i have always believed that it has to be a good cam. something like a W110 but for big engines. but maybe i am wrong as you use it in a 1600. this cam somehow must make good power as i have seen it in a variety of engines, but it is not common, almost not used.
so please can you give me some more insight on the use of this cam and what is achieved with it, with what combination.

Ray's direct response:

"Thank you for asking the question.  This is a very misunderstood thing.

"You can use the V26 Cam with basicly any engine combination.  The reason I choose to use it is because the base circle and the lobe profile is the same on this cam as it is on the K8, the FK87 and FK89.  These profiles are very smooth opening and closing.  The large base circle keeps the lifter deeper in it's bore which tends not to let the lifter rock back and forth.  (Also these cams are designed specifically for ratio'd rockers from 1.25 to 1.60 to share the lifting of the valve.)

"The W series has a very radical attack on the lifter due to the cam doing all the lifting instead of the rocker arm sharing the load.  These cams were originally ground for 1.1 rocker ratio.  They are noisy in comparison to the K series because of the radical attack.

"V26 specs: Gross lift at the lifter is .343, at the valve w/ a 1.5 rocker ratio lift is .510.  So as you can see, the rocker itself is doing quite a bit of the lifting, hence the smooth profile at the Cam.

"I could go on and on about the differences here, but these are the main points.

"*For anyone that may remember the Chevy Vega engine, they also had a cam profile that had a extreme rapid attack at the lifter which created many valve train problems and lots of noise.*"

Loving this build thread. Love the pics and videos...Kyle

Thanks Dawn and Ray for the V26 cam info, very informative!!

How is the build going Dawn?

Great job Ray. Sure looks great. Really enjoying this thread...Kyle

Sorry for the gap in this thread, we will finish it!  I work for Fedex and the whole thing was tabled during "peak season" for the holidays.  Back on track now.

We sent the case to be media blasted.  Normally, Ray wouldn't do this.  But this case had some corrosion and he wanted to remove it.  When media is used on a case, every plug in the engine must be removed and you must use a brush in all the oil galleys.  One small bit of debris can destroy the engine.

Unfortunately, it didn't come out the way Ray wanted.  The reason for the color change is the oxidized surface was removed, which exposed fresh magnesium, unoxidized.  When you machine magnesium, it's a very bright color.  The whole case looks that way now, almost white.  What he's been trying to do is let it oxidize back, under a controlled condition.  Here is what the case looks like now after 8 sessions of washing for a half hour each time then spraying with WD letting it set in the sun.  Getting better.



The case is finally oxodized enough to make Ray happy.  I know that this pic looks lighter, but it's just the camera.  Mine is the one on the right side of the table.



Here, we are getting ready to measure the case.



The halves are torqued together in order to measure the main bores. Then he will bore it to first oversize, which is .020 over its standard.



This is the rod bearing manufacturer's recommendation for the rod size on the big end.  If you look at the chart, the 2.5591 is the minimum diameter for the main bearing.  The 2.5598 is the maximum diameter.  We always align bore to the lower number, which clamps the bearings the tightest.  This makes for less internal oil leaks.  It is a .0007 difference.  That may sound small, but it makes a difference of the oil light coming on when it is a hot day at idle.



Ray has set the dial indicator to 2.5591, which is minimum bore diameter on a standard case.  This picture is a setup micrometer to measure the main bores.  



Measured with a high grade tenth reading dial bore gauge.  The bore has changed by .0005, upright direction on the flywheel end (the FRONT of the engine, toward the front of the car).



Horizontally it is out by .0015.  The total out of round is .002.  That is very good for the mileage on the motor.



The vertical measurment of center main is .0017 over standard.



Horizontally it is -.0009, making this bore about .002 out of round.



This is a pretty typical line bore tool for Volkswagen.  Ray has been using this tool for about 45 years.  Note the setting micrometer fixture.  He can adjust his cutters, they are not fixed, which is great because he can set the cutter to a minimum diameter.  The factory allows a .0007 leeway.  Ray always goes to the low side to crimp the bearing as tight as possible.







After boring.  It is important to have a mirror finish for the backs of the bearings to not impair the fit.  Any roughness is an oil leak.

Pieces and parts goodness, ready for action.




As I mentioned previously, Ray always sizes a rod to minimum diameter. The minimum diameter on the big end is 2.2755-2.2760. He always goes to the smaller size (which would be 2.2755) to crimp the bearing correctly and for longevity. Time for doing the big end on the rods now.



Ray couldn't resist.    He took more weight off and then balanced them.



Now done with both ends and with balance.



The final bath before assembly.  The oil plugs at the rod journals are removed before the final cleaning which gives you access to the oil holes. This is to make certain that there's nothing in it.  Sometimes you will find metal chips in it from drilling.



The plugs are in place now with a small amount of Loctite. Ray has seen them loosen up and leak. It's getting ready to go into the case.



Coming along. We will add oil and then glue the block.



The cam gear has zero lash but still turns freely. This should make it another 200K, this is how he did the first one.  Make certain that you have zero backlash.  If it's too loose, it would clatter.  If it were tight, it would bind.  If you start with zero clearance, but not binding and rolls free, then it tends not to gain backlash.



A comment from Ray about cams:

"When the engineer designed the VW case, center to center was a given dimension between the crankshaft and camshaft. If the engine block is exact on the blueprint dimensions, you would use an "0" marker on the camshaft.  On the other hand, if the distance is tighter than the factory dimension, you have to use the -1 thru -7 marker indicators, to end up with zero back lash and no preload.  If further apart (loose) on the center line, you look for positive numbers, 1 thru 7 to adjust to the correct fit.  I used to stock all the different cam numbers, which are imprinted on a camshaft, and since both positive and negative adjustment indicators were not on the cams together, I had to carry 14 different cam numbers for a stock bug to be able to install correctly."

Examples:





We will have double thrust cam bearings in this one. The first one had one.

Single thrust for example:



Double thrust:



Lubed and ready to assemble.  Ray says, "It'll be another 30 years before you open this up again.  That means I have to stay alive that long to do it ...can you imagine the taxes I have to pay?  "  





20-50 Valvoline Racing Oil is what he uses to assemble.  



FK 8 cam. Button head allens are holding the cam gear.



The two halves have joined. The flanged nuts are visible here.



Cleaned and back in service again.