The Cal-look Lounge

The Good: with a newly acquired set of 44 IDFs, my 2017 build finally lives.  Starts great, idles nice and smooth and revs quicker anything I've ever owned  Still have some fine tuning to do, so I have no idea of what fine tuning is needed with the carbs, but on the stand it sounds great.

The Frustrating: one of the CB widemouth pushrod tubes is leaking.  I'm fairly certain its by my own doing, but its only one out of eight that is leaking (number three exhaust valve pushrod).  I'm hoping to acquire a single replacement as I certainly don't need seven extras sitting around as a broken set.  Also appears I will have to glue in the valve cover gaskets on the Berg vented valve covers I bought, as they have slight drips on both sides.  I've never had to glue them in before, but guess there's always a first time.

The Unknown: Oil pressure issues once warm.  While idling on the stand and having had ample time to get warm, the oil pressure light on the starter box (Zalex test stand) came on.  I of course shut it down immediately and started checking all externals.  Oil level was fine, no major leaks aside from what was already mentioned.  I eventually pulled out the sending unit and installed a mechanical gauge to check the pressure.  At steady idle, the pressure measured between 10 and 15 PSI, moved across the scale smoothly as the engine RPM was raised.  Returned to the aforementioned reading at idle.  Momentarily the idle seemed to bog down a bit at which time the PSI dropped down to about 5, which from what I gather is about where the idiot light should come on, so it appears that my sending unit is doing its job; its a 0-80PSI VDO unit with two poles, one for idiiot light and the other for an electrical gauge.

Any thoughts on what I should be looking for?  The oil pressure builds up nice and quickly when the engine is cold, so I plan to take a reading off the mechanical gauge once its cold. Is it possible that one of the valves in the case is sticking once warm?

Any thoughts on potential things to look for oil pressure issues, if there is one?

Sounds like you have ample pressure.
Perhaps the fault lies in the sender? Swap out the dual action VDO unit for a New stock OPS & see what happens.
TxT

This is my first "big" engine build, so I'm likely just fine... the oil light only came on once the idle started to buck down  but went out after raising the revs again.  The engine may have started loading up after idling for awhile for all I know... haven't gotten all the fine tuning sorted out, but a lot of that I will have to do once its in the car and operating under a load. 

Bummer I've gotta loose a head to change a pushrod tube, but them's are the breaks!  That's why I bought the engine test stand... better to find that leak now than once its in the car! ;D

Are you using a mag or an ally case ?

T

Mag case, German AE case, I believe.

As an update, my oil pressure appears to be all well and fine... fired it off last night after work, dead cold, and the pressure was above 40 PSI at idle, dead cold.  I ran it long enough for the pressure to drop to a hair above 20 PSI as it got warmer before I shut it down, satisfied for the night.  Still need to fix that leaky pushrod tube, though... ::) Not a horrible leak, just a slight drip.  Now's the time to take care of it, since it's not in the car yet.

buy 1) 025109337 at your closest VW speedshop and 2) 113109345A seal and an alum sealing ring that fits snugly over big end of tube to shim seal out. You can replace your tube without taking head off.

VWparts.net has been my friends for parts purchases online for a while now, that's my only hope...lol.  I live way out in BFE in Lakeview, Oregon... nearest VW shop is over 170 miles away...lol.  I've got a set of the adjustable jamb nut style two-piece pushrod tubes but I'd figured I'd try those out on a different engine, since I'm only replacing one tube.

go see Larry Rexius in Medford, @ Import Parts Ctr or give him a call, we can drop ship the stuff to you for him. 541 773 4240
tell him "pizza Jim" sent you.
Larry's a good guy.

Jim

Sweet, that's good info to have, Jim, I appreciate it! 

The happiest of marriages, IMO....;D  Engine finally goes into the car... haven't installed the 3/4 side carb because I need to replace my head temp gauge sending unit, but it's almost there.  Very close.

Hey I built the identic engine and are currently fine tuning and driving. I can tell you that it's fun. What cr did you choose and why replace the sending unit??

I went with 8.6:1 compression at the recommendation of Steve and Greg Tims, based on my combo: 44 IDFs, stage II Tims heads (42x37.5), Engle 125 cam with 1.25 CB rockers, 1-5/8" header with 2.5 inch Dynomax.  It's a pump gas motor, and I'm sure some will say I could get away with 9:1 or more, but I wanted a cushion as a novice tuner and all.  I don't have a wideband for tuning, so I'm going to have to watch things closely with jetting and what not.

The sending unit I didn't intend to replace... somehow it got deformed/damaged while off the last engine and sitting in a box... couldn't get it on the new NGK plug, so I'll have to use a spare (luckily I have one that came with a lot of parts I purchased last fall).

I damaged mine too, but first test it with a lighter. my was bend but works.

I choose 10.5 cr but we have good (and expensive) fuel around here.

The wideband from innovate is also here but I need to install it.

I'm pretty well set to run a wideband if I had the funds for it as my header has an O2 sensor bung in the collector.  The gauge sending unit is deformed to the point where it won't go on the spark plug... not sure how that happened?  Very strange.  I may end up getting a ceramic header from Dave Greiner at  Proformance eventually, as I bought this one used... but that can come later.

Minor annoyance I forgot to mention: trying to find the throttle cable tube with the new firewall rubber seal in place.  For whatever reason, I'm having a bear of a time finding the tube that the thrrottle cable passes through with this new seal in place.  I seem to remember having this issue once before and I reckon it's going to be a matter of trial and error to find it...

For the throttle tube just poke something through from the engine side and tape the cable to that and pull it through.

Congrats on the engine!

Thanks for the suggestion, when I get tired I fail to think of things that make the most sense! Lol ;D  Can't wait to drive 'er... my buddy's shop is north of town, and has a nice, long, straight road coming in from off the highway.  The road out to the dragstrip is even straighter and more desolate. ;D 
"But officer, I'm trying to seat my rings!"  :D

bugnut,
     Congrats on the motor! Your going to love those heads! I have them on a 2165 w/ a few special things done to them. They say they can make very close to 200 hp. They are excellent heads and work very well! Keep us posted on your progress. ;)

Yeah,I've got the itch to get this thing wrapped up... I'm on vacation this next week, but I'm supposed to head to my hometown of Eugene, oregon first and later on visit family in Klamath Falls.  Also have two transaxle cores and a ton of gears, mainshafts, bearings, etc, I'm hoping to sell off to German Transaxle in Bend.  I'm sick of tripping over the stuff in my garage...lol. ;D

Sweet, congratulations on your accomplishment! Load the car up with all your stuff and take a road trip with it-No better way to break in the engine than running it at 5,000RPM continuously for hundreds of miles while the car is fully loaded! ;) Better bring the spare transaxle parts in case something breaks...Kidding of course, everyone knows VW's never break...or leak. :-X ::) ;D

Andy

I've yet to have a car with enough power to bust a transaxle... still need to get a traction bar, one of the last items I need to shop out.