The Juice

Awright boys 'n girls, help me out here. I don't feel like posting this on the Samba.

As I said in my intro, I have a citrus orange, '74 regular sedan (as in non-Super Beetle). The body is straight and solid but the engine was completely seized so I yanked it out and bought another engine.

Here's the "other" engine's history: Rebuilt, with only 450 miles on it, 1600 DP, AH engine code, Bocar 34 pict 3 carb on it, 009 distributor (Yeah, I know- bad combo). This engine was in a 356 Speedster replica. The older guy that owned it spun out and crashed gently, nose-first into a tree. He was spooked out and let it sit right there for a few years. Then I bought the engine.

When I first dropped it in, I got it started fairly easily but wouldn't -quite- idle and required a lot of choke and a lot of pedal to run. I put my timing light on it and discovered that all four plug wires were firing erratically.

Today I replaced the cap, rotor, and wires. The wires literally fell apart in my hands. Now my timing gun shows a strong, steady pulse on all four plug wires. BUT- the engine is very hard to start and only #2 cylinder is doing any work. I can pull #1, #3, #4 wires right off of the engine and the sound doesn't change. I've got an unburned fuel smell (duh).
Yes, all the wires are on the right cylinder and the right point on the distributor cap.

Could the plugs be fouled? I didn't pull them yet.

E-bug wrote:

I can pull #1, #3, #4 wires right off of the engine and the sound doesn't change. I've got an unburned fuel smell (duh).
Yes, all the wires are on the right cylinder and the right point on the distributor cap.

Could the plugs be fouled? I didn't pull them yet.

if #2 cylinder is firing and running the motor as you say it is.....with the motor running, pull #2 wire off at the plug and hold it about 1/2" away from a good ground (and far away from any fuel source, and be carefull because the spark might bite you) and take a good look at the spark coming out the end (hopefully the motor will run long enough to see one). hopefully it's good & strong, and you can use that as a reference for when you pull #1, #3 & #4 wires off at the plugs to check there are sparks there too.

so do that and compare and confirm that there is spark at all the plugs. then pull the plugs (keep them in order) and have a good look at them. black, sooty, oily, white, brown????? what is the plug gap????

how is the point gap?

how is the valve adjustment?

with your timing light clipped to the #1 wire and pointed at the crank pulley, can you pull a reading at all? at idle & at 2500/3000rpm?

let us know the outcome and we'll all try to get you sorted.

good luck!!

Work might prevent me from getting to it this week, especially with the days growing shorter. I also have reserve duty next weekend but I'll try to get at it.

Thanks for your advice. I haven't checked the points and valves yet. This thing is -real- old school for me. I haven't fooled with point-type ignition in quite a while but I'm sure you'll bring me up to speed quick enough!

I'm inventing a new candy. You've heard of gummy bears and gummy worms. Now there's gummy sparkplugs.

I was right. the plugs were coated in a foul, black goo. They were also Champion sparkplugs which haven't been worth a shit since Richard Petty drove race cars.

I bought the proper Bosch plug and the car fired up on the first crank, and idled beautifully. I ran the engine for 10 minutes and shut it down to go run some errands. (In the E-bug)

But, as usual there's a downside to the story. Once I arrived back home, I decided I wanted to move it out of the way to make room. I started the engine and immediately heard a slapping sound. Within 10-15 seconds, I shut the engine off. I walked to the back of the car and found a huge oil puddle forming on the ground.

I found a ruptured pushrod tube on the #4 cylinder.

Since I bought the engine used, I have no idea if the tube was damaged in moving the engine around or during removal or if the rod is bent and ripped up the tube. The shop that sold me the engine told me not to worry, and to bring the engine to them, which I did. They say they'll have it back to me in a day or two free of charge.

For the 10 minutes it was running right, it sure was sweet.

glad you got it sorted out and happy to hear that the shop is taking care of the motor for you!!

Well, here's where we are so far:

Although this engine only had 450 miles on it, it had sat since 1992. After I got it starting and idling well, I had revved it up just a LITTLE. Apparently, the #3 intake valve got hung up in the seal and remained in the open position.

The pushrod was then beaten to death by the lifter because it had no return pressure or guidance from the rocker arm. The rod bent and tore up the tube.

So, the guys are going to pull the engine and the head tomorrow, double check that the piston didn't take any damage and replace all that.

It's a bummer but I'm learning interesting stuff and they're being very cool about it all.

I'll say ...very cool indeed...nice to see someone stand by their product. Good attitude too ...at least your learning something too...good way to look at things . Confusious say its a good thing to find a good thing in a bad thing... ...or something like that

Heh..well things aren't moving as fast as I'd hoped but I find that this is typical. I'm "re-work" and shops don't make money on "re-work".

Supposedly the engine will be pulled tomorrow morning along with an FI Bug that's having troubles.

I really think it's cool that the cam and everything else except the alternator is gear driven off of the main crank. No chains or belts to break.

Ok...I finally got the "Juice" back from the local VW shop. They state that bad fuel from my tank was partially to blame so they asked nicely that I pay for some parts. I was cool with that. I came away with new pistons and heads and a rebuilt carb.

When I came down to the shop, the engine was on a run-stand and they had me throttle up and test it out. It ran perfectly. Then they dropped the engine back into the Juice.

I bought a new tank, and removed the old tank. I poured the fuel out into a gas can. It was somewhere between the color of Coca Cola and iced tea.

I was going to install the new tank when I looked down and said "Hmmmm". Looks like a great time to replace that nasty old brake master cylinder since it's so accessible. Tried to break the rusty line fittings loose and decided to replace the front metal lines as well.

Hopefully I'll get all that done this weekend and have it on the road.