Date:         Tue, 19 Sep 1995 12:57:21 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject:      Da 2-liter boat (and tech help?)

Hi again,
	I have a few plans for my dear old '73 bus in the engine department.
As some of you know, I transplanted my rebuilt 1.8 into the '72 Westy
that I bought from Jeff Schneiter (which is running great now) and have
been looking for a replacement in the 2-liter/hydraulic department for
the '73, which deserves it after having been so good to me all these
years.
	I finally got a 2-liter motor from Mike Catlin.  It was from a
burned '80 Vanagon.  The FI, distributor, and hoses and stuff was all
melted away, but I only wanted the short block anyway.  Mike was nice
enough to help me disassemble portions of the engine in his carport.
We took about an hour taking off the throttle body, manifolds, fan, fan
housing, and cylinder heads.  I snapped off one of the bolts holding the
fan housing off - it was inevitable.  Also, I discovered at that time
that there was no provision for the mechanical fuel pump on this case.
Damn.  Finally, one of the cylinders was scored pretty badly - deep
enough for me to catch my fingernail in, although the crosshatch marks
were very visible.
	The good point is that the motor was generally very clean, and parts
of it looked brand new (like the cylinder heads).
	What with the fuel pump boss, the snapped off bolt, and the
different crankcase breather box (no big deal, except that it might tip
off the smog weenies that this was not a stock 1.7 engine) I decided at
that point that I was going to have to transfer the internals of this
engine to a 1.7 case that came with Jeff's engineless Westy.  No big
deal, I was gonna split the case and inspect everything anyway.   The
pistons on this 2 liter are dished, and the valve train is hydraulic.
I'm going to use the stock '73 Solex dual carbs on this engine, possibly
re-jetted (using info supplied by Dave Kautz).
	A while ago I found a set of really nice cylinder heads on a 72 bus,
and bought them as extras.  I like the 72 heads because they don't have
the ports on them for the air injection.  I was planning on flycutting
them to fit the 2-liter engine, but it turns out they fit already!  I
slipped them on last night.  So, I break out the tape measure and find
that these heads have the larger 41 and 34mm valves like the '74, and
the combustion chamber matches the design of a '74 head.  I conclude
that the heads are from a non-California '74 bus, originally, which is 
great because I was going to install the larger valves anyway to help the
2-liter motor breathe.  These heads also have "virgin" spark plug
threads - no helicoils or inserts, which was the main reason I snapped
them up.  I have *had it* with stripped threads - sooner or later a
helicoil or insert is gonna come loose, probably while I'm down in
Cabo San Lucas stuck in the sand.  No thank you!
	
	
 	A couple of questions for the experts on the list:

My friend at the machine shop said not to worry about the scoring on the
cylinder wall - said he could probably just hone it, or that I could
probably get away with leaving it that way.  In his defense, he did want
to look at it first.  What does the list think?

Also, can I remove the pistons from the barrels and then reinstall them
later, without messing up the rings?  Will they still seal correctly, or
does removing them mess them up?  I have a ring compressor, but I
remember that it is no fun installing them.  I'm obviously going to have
to take the piston in the scored cylinder out if I want to have it
honed.  Should I just replace all of the rings?  Is honing only one 
cylinder acceptable?

Next, I have also had my share of problems with the friggin exhaust
manifold studs.  My idea is to remove them all, get some high quality
studs from a fastener place, and red-loctite them in.  I was just
wondering what grade studs I should get?  Will harder studs not work
because of different thermal expansion characteristics?  Am I asking for
trouble?  I'm sick of those things coming loose and stripping.

Finally, the hydraulic lifters.  I want to just transfer them from the
vanagon case to the '72 case.  I have heard that you should not mix
these things up, and putting them in a different case certainly
qualifies.  I'm probably going to do it anyway.  Is this stupid?  I
think a new set of hydraulic lifters is gonna cost mucho dolares.

One more question (okay I lied!):  I eyeballed the 2-liter flywheel
against the 1.7 version, and while the clutch was obviously bigger, the
outside diameter of the flywheel seemed to be the same.  Yet, I have
heard that this flywheel will not fit inside of my '73 tranny
bellhousing.  Was somebody lying?  I'd sure like to use the larger
clutch if I can...

Thanks in advance for any help!

-David

(2 liters here I come!)

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
San Diego  (Actually La Mesa)      '72 VW Westfalia Camper      (Da Project)
California, USA                    '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail: des@teleport.com           '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (14.17@99.34)
http://www.teleport.com/~des       '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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