Vako's AAZ rebuild

[theman53]

This is true on the elongation of the bolt. But unlike the head bolts that will cost you some oil, antifreeze, head gasket, and maybe some fuel economy, the rods are a different story. I don't have "luck" when it comes to things like that. If I would reuse the bolts they would pull the heads off, bend every valve in the head and stick the lifters in their bores, score the crank so much it wouldn't be able to be undersized, and blow a hole through the block. I would come out with maybe some good seals I could use and an IM shaft...maybe a cam if it didn't bust when the lifters seized. And when that is what I am up against I tend to do it right the first time. You have already had some crazy "luck" with your old crank nose so you are looking at a different game than I do.

[Gizmoman]

This is true on the elongation of the bolt. But unlike the head bolts that will cost you some oil, antifreeze, head gasket, and maybe some fuel economy, the rods are a different story. I don't have "luck" when it comes to things like that. If I would reuse the bolts they would pull the heads off, bend every valve in the head and stick the lifters in their bores, score the crank so much it wouldn't be able to be undersized, and blow a hole through the block. I would come out with maybe some good seals I could use and an IM shaft...maybe a cam if it didn't bust when the lifters seized. And when that is what I am up against I tend to do it right the first time. You have already had some crazy "luck" with your old crank nose so you are looking at a different game than I do.

Ha ha - I have the same "luck". I remove the reliance on luck and am learning to dissolve as many potential issues early.

[vako]

i checked the rings and as expected everything was installed ther properly.. only one n1 compression ring that does not have orientation mark was installed with goetze logo facing down and i rotated it secod compression rings that have marked top side were all installed properly

 then i measured bolts from that rods and from my old rods...surprisingly my old bolts were 0.5 or even more milimeters loger (stretched and thread was alsodeformed a bit) but the bolts that i tightened yesterday were all perfect, without stretching marks on the threads. i torqued them to 30 newtons + 50 newtons (turned out to be a bit less 90 degrees as stated in the manual) + i used some locktight. i doubt that they will ever come loose, and bolt snapping will not happen either  (that torque is needed to tighten main cap bolts on my suzuki engine... and after hydrolock at redline rpm all the bolts seem to be okay, but two rods were shortened by  1!!! inch (my friend did thing like that), and rod bolts are only tightened to 32 nm-s ).

[vako]

installed short block n the car cant wait to fire it up ))

i ws unable to find info about flywheel bolt torques... i usually torque up to 90 nm with plenty of lockight to keep everything tight did not have any problems before. this time i had to use 5 mercedes benz flywheel  bolts and one vw flywheel. because one thread in the crank seemed to be damaged in in the end of the thread and it damaged the bolt when i waas just testing if all the bolt holes were clean without flywheel installed i was screwing all he bolts to the end of the hole just to make sure nothing was wrong with the bolts/threads). i dod not have another mercedes bolt inthe garage so decided to use a bit shorter vw bolt (that i was using before the past winter (when i found that mercedes had similarylly threaded bolts on the flywheel. my flywheel has a spacer fitted so i needed smth longer that vw bolts just not to worry about that

i tightened vw bolt up to 85nm + locktight (shorter bolt and damaged sctor of thread in the crank) woth no problem at all. and all other bolts were 90 nm + locktight )



i think that i will finish assembling everything tomorrow

[vako]

yesterday i torqued head bolts as recomended in manual. them set the timing to 1.00mm and tightened camshaft bolt. the only thing i missed was that i used 4mm stopping plate instead of 4.5 mm on the cam. but as i found out camshaft tries to rest on that position itself. so using 4mm stopping plate will be no problem )) i have tripple checked everything and everything is aligning perfectly every time i set flywheel on tdc ))).

today i started the car. after bleeding injector lines it started up perfectly, without any misfiring or smoking.  when starting cold it starts immediately but still misfires a little if i do not pull cold start lever, it is 8 degrees celsius in tbilisi now ) after pulling the lever it just starts and runs fine without vibration or misfiring...


idle is smoother than ever, driver side mirror always used to vibrate on idle, not it isn't
also there are no sighns of exhaust gasses in coolant. when i had blown headgasket expansion tank was filling uf immediately and it was spilling the coolat everywhere . now it overflows only needed amount of water (i'm using water for few days to clean the cooling system, than i will fill it up with original vw g12 coolant 50/50 distilated wather concentration).

[Gizmoman]

Congratulations Vako!
Good to hear it's idling better and not pressurizing you cooling system for sure.

I started mine for the first time today as well - after a year long re-build - runs great.

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

Successful rebuilds breaking out all over the place... Must be spring

[vako]

100 miles on the clock already. engine runs smooth and strong it even starts without glowplugs now : i think that power will increase more with time. fuel economy already got better. but first 30 kilometers were not so economical. maybe 5 or more liters was used then

i have some twitching problem again and i think it's worn out u joint (one u joint was changed 2 month ago and another was left, because i did not have 2 joints then)      now i bought another one from gmb and will change it tomorrow.   i dont think that twitchng comes from engine because it is gear depended , in lower gears and uphill it twitches more that problem was also peresent before the rebuild

this is the trip that killed my u joints
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201831728813534.1073741834.1191969666&type=1&l=bf31436998

[Gizmoman]

Great job Vako and beautiful photos. I hope your U-joint replacement fixes the twitch.
Do they make beefier ones?

[745 turbogreasel]

+1 on the  great photos, reminds me how strange it is we have no structures  over 200 years old anywhere around here.

[vako]

thank you for your positive feedbac about photos. those buildings are hugh up incthe mountains near the border of our country, they are at least 800-1000 years old (y)   

and now about the twitching problem :| changed the u joint today (old one was not in very bad condition too) and there was no change :|  after that i went to diesel mechanic who told me that some problem exists but it may come from different issues. injectors opening at different pressures or camshaft bit off the mark... but advised me to drive for at least 1000 kilometers.    i think i will also use winns diesel purge.... maybe injectors are clogged a bit

[vako]

but today it started easily without cold start lever and glow plugs ))