I have a question for you guys. It's a bug question, but the same principles should apply here.

My father built a type 1, with a aluminum block, empi aluminum heads, mahle pistons/cylinders, scat crank, a mild cam, stock lifters, scat chromoly push rods, and stock rockers. It has oversize stainless valves (not sure the size), with 911 style adjusters. All the other items are german vw.

The motor ran great from the get-go, smooth lots of power, yada yada. After about 500 miles he decided to check the valves, and found that one of his lifters had come half off- one of the halves was sitting in the bottom of the head area, the other half was hanging on for dear life. On the same head, but a differernt rocker he had one of the wavy springs that go on the rocker assembly break in half. This made things bounce around, and smashed the valve stem all to hell.

We replaced the offending parts, including the valves, and I noticed that the adjusting screws do not line up exactly with the stem. According to the guy that sold him the head, that is the way it's supposed to be, because that way it spins the valve, and even's the wear, much like they do with lifters on many (most?) cars. Is he blowing smoke up my ass? Or is this for real? Any input would be greatly appreciated. We just want to know what the hell happend, and that made me think twice.

Thanks guys!!

Tony

Yes, he is correct.. you want the adjusting screws to be "slightly" off-center,
so the valve ends get spinned.

~ Roger

With 911 adjusters, you're probably not gonna have the valve spinning, because the foot of the adjuster spins. I think I'd want them to be centered on the valve. Furthermore, motors like this one usually have rocker stands with spacers and bolts, not springs and clips. This helps prevent just what happened to you. By "lifter", what do you mean? We call the cam followers lifters, and they're down in the case. Maybe you're referring to the rocker arms? BTW, German VW T1 parts have mostly been gone from the market for around 20-25 years, so what you have is likely to be Brazillian or Mexican parts, most of which are pretty good. HTH, The Cap'n