Time to get this thing done so, here's how I pulled the gears on the crank and replaced the #3 main bearing.

First I drilled a countersink into the top of an 8 mm bolt to protect the threads in the nose of the crank thtat secures the fan hub.

I threaded that bolt into the nose of the crank then started applying tension with a puller. Oh ya, you need heat to expand the gears.

You end up with a bare crankshaft that you can get checked and cleaned up. This got a little polishing.

You end up with these bits

Clean and lube up the journal and put the bearing on. The hole for the dowel goes toward the flywheel end of the crank.

Heat up the gears to expand them. I got away with this because my wife was at work today.

I used a toaster oven for my gears. Once they are hot they just seem to fall into place.

Drop the gear on, line up the slot with the Woodruff key and give it a little persuasion. This one just took a light tap.

Next comes a spacer with the VW logo.

Next comes the dizzy drive gear. Line it up with the key.

Here's my persuader. I love PVC pipe. I have a bunch of different sizes for this kind of stuff.

Lastly, there is a retaining ring which can be a bitch to get on. My solution was to use piston ring expanders to slip it on. Ready for rods on Friday.

Dave,

What are you building now? Didn't you already do the 2270 rebuild and put it into your car? By the way, how is it running?

Dave is this another teardown of your four? I thought it was all sorted after the rings went tits-up?

yeh...what he said

Dave has involuntarily been a guinea pig for Charles and I!

The issue was with his Nickies/JE pistons and JE piston rings compatibility. This issue has only shown up with Dave's engine and one of my test engines and none of the other dozen+ of my engines using the exact same rings/piston/cylinder combo have had the issue... Not even after thousands of miles on a few of them.

Charles from LN has the answers he is the guy tyhat did all the homework on the problem along with a consultant that he hired that has had similar issues with 911 engines and JE pistons.

Dave has been a real sport through this- a truely great customer! When it occured I offered to have the engine shipped here, tear it down, get to the bottom of it and then reassemble and dyno it (free of charge). This was because I felt bad about it happeneing AND that I wanted to see what happened to it first hand and then terrorize it on the dyno afterward to ensure it was right. Dave chose to suck it up and do it himself so I supplied him with the parts while Charles and JE went a few rounds on the issue.

A few weeks and a chunk of change later the issue was found to be a flaw of sorts with the JE oiling ring package. The oiling rings were replaced with an alternate part and Dave is reassembling. At the same time I'm finishing another engine that has the same specs and cylinders/pistons and using the improved oiling ring with it as well for test purposes to ensure things are taken care of once and for all..

This is the joy of my position.... Having weird, unexplained issues that have no solution without a lot of effort!

FYI- 96mm Nickies were used in BOTH instances that we had an issue with, none of the other engines have ever had this issue with Nickies.. We honestly think it was a very isolated issue since my pistons/rings and etc for the test engine were purchased at the same time I supplied the pistons to Dave in his kit...

Dave, thanks again for the understanding and perseverence- if you have questions -call me (and I don't give a damn if it's Thanksgiving or not!) you have the number.

This is the same engine. I had the same problems the second time around. The oil control rings failed and the cam showed some wear.

I guess now's the time to air things out. Tabs on the oil control rings failed, all four cylinders. It's hard to know why. This ring set certainly was delicate. Tension was minimal. It isn't clear whether I damaged them on insertion or they broke while in use. At any rate we've change oil control rings and I've been assured the new ones will work.

The cam is interesting. The exhaust side wore. It appears that the second one was misground and the ramp rate was extreme. the smaller base circle probably contributed. So I'm going for a different cam. A little more duration and a litlle less lift. Valves open a little more early and late and there isn't as much change near full open.

Now, this has certainly been a pain in the butt. However, both Jake and Charles have stood behind their products to the extreme. It would have been easy for them to blame this on the builder (me) but, they have both spent time and I suspect a good deal of money trying to sort this out. For instance, the pistons and cylinders have been all over and finally ended up with Bob Cousimano at CMW Motorsports. He suggested a different ring which I am going to use. I can't begin to imagine what that cost but, I'm sure the profit is gone. After I tore it down Jake offered to rebuild it and break it in on the dyno at no charge. Even though I'm sure they are eating it on this engine they are still very helpful and friendly. These guys STAND BEHIND THEIR STUFF. You are going to pay for it but you won't be left high and dry.

Anyway my son and I are going to see this through.

Dave

Bravo, and the best of luck this time around.

wow!

KUDOS to these guys for sharing the info with us!

I'm curious to know what got your attention to stop and strip the engine down? The sound of scrapping in the piston/cylinder areas while running or was it smoking badly when you ran it due to bad oil rings?

I figured it would be the smoke part but do tell us anyhow!

Hope this time would work out better for you, Dave!

Jerry

I'm just waiting for JP or Trek to chime 'get a six..'

The cam is another interesting thing... I haveb used the grind MANY times, a derivative of it is even in my 912E and has been for 90K miles... BUT I have always either used it with a stock stroke, or used it with my 80mm crank with a Chevy journal. Both these allow a larger base circle to be ran than with Dave's 78mm crank and the TI rod I set him up with. I really wanted Dave to use this cam because of its characteristics with EFI on the intake side of things...

The exhaust side of the cam is VERY fast on its ramp speed (thats one reason it makes hellacious power) but obviously the .045 difference in base circle (reduction) for clearance purposes with the larger journal was just enough to cause an issue.

I learned a lot from those issues and created another couple of rules that I never had before- its just another case of listening to the engine and learning from it and anyone that pushes the envelope will have that happe from time to time. I replaced the cam and related items (twice) so Dave now has another cam profile that is absolutely proven to work great with the combination he has. It may lose 5HP, but things are fail safe with this camshaft.

FYI_ dave's kit was bought back when I custom made kits based on similar engine combos and did not have the default kits that we have today with standardized parts and procedures. I was trying to maximize his power and the "Grin factor" as much as I could and well, that has a few risks- Thank god Dave wasn't an impatient asshole (like he could have easily turned into if he wasn't such a swell guy) and was willing to let us figure out some things along the way....

This is the reason I refuse to claim the title "Expert" we all learn- all the time and the day we think we know it all, we have just proven that we are idiots.

Today engine kits are 100% fail safe, their components have been used literally hundreds of times together - the downfall is not quite as much power or efficiency but its still plenty enough power to blow your mind everytime you drive it.

Good luck Dave!

a 5hp loss on dave's engine will be undetectable. plenty-o-power. nice work, and a nice write up dave.

k

QUOTE (Jake Raby @ Nov 23 2005, 03:07 PM)

This is the reason I refuse to claim the title "Expert" we all learn- all the time and the day we think we know it all, we have just proven that we are idiots.

The more you learn and the more you know, the more you realize just how little you really do know.

Know-it-alls and self-proclaimed-experts never learn enough to reach this level of enlightenment.

Boy I must have missed some stuff or it just didn't click until now. Dave, you had to tear down your 2270 once again?

Yeah, he's getting real gud and this!

Nice write up Dave. Nice to see Jake got behind this, and Charles and his gang are golden. Pretty easy for a builder to point this off and move on.

Q. When reducing the base circle, do you change the push rod length, the rocker to valve clearence, change the geometry on the rocker, or somehow attempt to off set the ramp bind?

Just a question, I did some really crazy things with a head and cam on BMW 2002.

As always great info Dave, Pictures too