Hydraulic Lifters, drained during engine assembly.

1

Hi All,


So I have been enjoying rebuilding my WBX with all brand new parts, over the weekend and last few days, however...

I have been using an engine stand and I rotated the motor so that I had the barrels facing up when I dropped the heads on.

After putting the second head on, I left the motor over night on its side and the Febi hydraulic lifters that were brand new (and came filled) have leaked out and are now squishy.

Do I risk continuing on and hoping they will fill under engine oil pressure or do I pull the head off and bleed them?

Cheers

Paul


2
Hi Paul, was told by Steven Muller that he doesn't bleed the lifters on rebuilt engines to start with because they always leak out. Engine sounds horrible on start up but sorts itself out in 5-10 mins. Eddie.
3
I have made a tool before to spin the oil pump with a drill and pressurise the system before starting on a newly rebuilt engine.  It consisted of a shaft that went in the drill to replace the distributor drive and spin the oil pump.  Not sure how easy that would be on the WBX,

Neil.


From: "paul.dumais@ymail.com [Syncro_T3_Australia]" <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com>
To: Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 29 June 2016, 13:05
Subject: [Syncro_T3_Australia] Hydraulic Lifters, drained during engine assembly.

 
Hi All,

So I have been enjoying rebuilding my WBX with all brand new parts, over the weekend and last few days, however...
I have been using an engine stand and I rotated the motor so that I had the barrels facing up when I dropped the heads on.
After putting the second head on, I left the motor over night on its side and the Febi hydraulic lifters that were brand new (and came filled) have leaked out and are now squishy.
Do I risk continuing on and hoping they will fill under engine oil pressure or do I pull the head off and bleed them?
Cheers
Paul



4
Thanks Guys, I feel a lot better. The motor is at Stokers/Byron Mechanical to get the end float set this morn. I will put it in on the week end.
Cheers
Paul

On Thursday, 30 June 2016, neil smith jackthebearau@yahoo.com [Syncro_T3_Australia] <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I have made a tool before to spin the oil pump with a drill and pressurise the system before starting on a newly rebuilt engine. It consisted of a shaft that went in the drill to replace the distributor drive and spin the oil pump. Not sure how easy that would be on the WBX,

Neil.


From: "paul.dumais@ymail.com [Syncro_T3_Australia]" <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com>
To: Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 29 June 2016, 13:05
Subject: [Syncro_T3_Australia] Hydraulic Lifters, drained during engine assembly.

Hi All,

So I have been enjoying rebuilding my WBX with all brand new parts, over the weekend and last few days, however...
I have been using an engine stand and I rotated the motor so that I had the barrels facing up when I dropped the heads on.
After putting the second head on, I left the motor over night on its side and the Febi hydraulic lifters that were brand new (and came filled) have leaked out and are now squishy.
Do I risk continuing on and hoping they will fill under engine oil pressure or do I pull the head off and bleed them?
Cheers
Paul





--
Cheers
Paul Dumais
Aerospace Engineer

5
that is a classic Chevy trick..

but do not try this on a waterboxer engine ..!

And besides.......the distributor driveshaft does not drive or connect to the oil pump anyway in waterboxer engines ...
the oil pump is driven by the cam shaft ...

if you disturb the distributor driveshaft on a wbxr engine, say by lifting it up or extracting it,
there are two washer type shims on the bottom of it ..
if those slip out of place....and get cocked, they can jam on the brass gear on the crankshaft that drives the distributor ....and if that happens and the engine is turned ..
it can immediately trash that delicate brass gear.
Repair would be to split the cases and remove the crankshaft to replace that gear.

Scott



On 6/29/2016 6:08 PM, neil smith jackthebearau@yahoo.com [Syncro_T3_Australia] wrote:
I have made a tool before to spin the oil pump with a drill and pressurise the system before starting on a newly rebuilt engine. It consisted of a shaft that went in the drill to replace the distributor drive and spin the oil pump. Not sure how easy that would be on the WBX,

Neil.


From: "paul.dumais@ymail.com [Syncro_T3_Australia]" <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com>
To: Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 29 June 2016, 13:05
Subject: [Syncro_T3_Australia] Hydraulic Lifters, drained during engine assembly.

Hi All,

So I have been enjoying rebuilding my WBX with all brand new parts, over the weekend and last few days, however...
I have been using an engine stand and I rotated the motor so that I had the barrels facing up when I dropped the heads on.
After putting the second head on, I left the motor over night on its side and the Febi hydraulic lifters that were brand new (and came filled) have leaked out and are now squishy.
Do I risk continuing on and hoping they will fill under engine oil pressure or do I pull the head off and bleed them?
Cheers
Paul




6

I have not re-built a WBX before, but on all the air cooled motors I've done, I always pull the plugs and crank and confirm the oil light goes out before trying to give it a run.

Could do similar on the WBX, just crank for a while longer in the hope it fills the lifters.


That said I have found if you leave the bus parked for a while and a lifter looses oil, it takes ages before the rattle goes away.


Richard

7
So after a few challenges, such as getting the motor in to discover the studs on the cases I swapped in were too short to go right through the bellhousing I got the motor in a and running.
It fired up straight away but ran rough til I worked out that I had the 3 and 4 leads mixed up.
Then it still didn't run well, which turned out to be bad fuel.
From then it was going pretty well, the temp guage sits slightly hotter then before but I have been told by Stokers not to worry about this.
I am still running it in so I can't give it a good blast yet to see if this Waggots cam grind is torquier as advertised.
So I got it registered and back on the road, I drove it about 30 km's and then on my return home as I came up my street the red light started flashing and the temp guage was at 3/4's!
I pulled up and took the engine lid off to find steam coming from around the air flow meter area.
The top hose that comes out of the firewall on the rhs (drivers) goes to the metal h crossover had a 1 inch split in it.
This hose and the one below seemed in good order so they almost the only ones I hadn't replaced.
Silly mistake.
Anyway I stopped quick and the engine didn't get too hot, there was still plenty of coolant in it so I am not too worried.
Stokers, Tooleys and another supply I checked didn't have the hose in stock, does anyone know anywhere that might in Aus or should I just order one from Van Cafe and get a silicon one.
http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_2451_1141/syncro_metal_h_pipe_upper_right_silicone_hose.html
Cheers
Paul



On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 11:24 PM, cathrich1@yahoo.com.au [Syncro_T3_Australia] <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I have not re-built a WBX before, but on all the air cooled motors I've done, I always pull the plugs and crank and confirm the oil light goes out before trying to give it a run.

Could do similar on the WBX, just crank for a while longer in the hope it fills the lifters.


That said I have found if you leave the bus parked for a while and a lifter looses oil, it takes ages before the rattle goes away.


Richard




--
Cheers
Paul Dumais
Aerospace Engineer
8

Sounds like quite a few challenges Paul. Did anything happen with the lifters in the end?

I don't know of any specifically other than ringing around (Mick Motors, Vintage Vee Dub, Volks power) There are more that could have stock also.

When I was stuck for a hose some time ago, I took the one I removed to repco, they let me look through their stock, found a hose that had the right bend, just cut the excess off. Was only a few $$ as it was a std hose (Gates)

Richard



---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <paul.d.dumais@...> wrote :

So after a few challenges, such as getting the motor in to discover the studs on the cases I swapped in were too short to go right through the bellhousing I got the motor in a and running.
It fired up straight away but ran rough til I worked out that I had the 3 and 4 leads mixed up.
Then it still didn't run well, which turned out to be bad fuel.
From then it was going pretty well, the temp guage sits slightly hotter then before but I have been told by Stokers not to worry about this.
I am still running it in so I can't give it a good blast yet to see if this Waggots cam grind is torquier as advertised.
So I got it registered and back on the road, I drove it about 30 km's and then on my return home as I came up my street the red light started flashing and the temp guage was at 3/4's!
I pulled up and took the engine lid off to find steam coming from around the air flow meter area.
The top hose that comes out of the firewall on the rhs (drivers) goes to the metal h crossover had a 1 inch split in it.
This hose and the one below seemed in good order so they almost the only ones I hadn't replaced.
Silly mistake.
Anyway I stopped quick and the engine didn't get too hot, there was still plenty of coolant in it so I am not too worried.
Stokers, Tooleys and another supply I checked didn't have the hose in stock, does anyone know anywhere that might in Aus or should I just order one from Van Cafe and get a silicon one.
http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_2451_1141/syncro_metal_h_pipe_upper_right_silicone_hose.html
Cheers
Paul



On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 11:24 PM, cathrich1@... [Syncro_T3_Australia] <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

I have not re-built a WBX before, but on all the air cooled motors I've done, I always pull the plugs and crank and confirm the oil light goes out before trying to give it a run.

Could do similar on the WBX, just crank for a while longer in the hope it fills the lifters.


That said I have found if you leave the bus parked for a while and a lifter looses oil, it takes ages before the rattle goes away.


Richard




--
Cheers
Paul Dumais
Aerospace Engineer
9
'drained lifters' should never be an issue.

if you assembled them into a new engine , I hope the procedure shown in Bentley was at least attempted...they show operating the lifter plunger with a push rod while the lifter is submerged in engine oil.

I always do that.
it also says to remove the clip and take it apart..I never do that.

there is also a procedure to adjust them ..with the rocker arm screws..
before ever firing up the engine.
you want the lifter in mid-travel ( it's under spring tension ) .
you get that by the rocker arm screws.

if you do those two things..
pre-bleed them a little,
and adjust them properly, you'll have noisy lifters at first for sure ..
gradually going away.

In the case of used lifters ...sometimes it can take quite a few hours of running for all of them to get quiet.

BE SURE the push rods are centered in the lifters after you put the heads on nd start assebmling the pushrod tubes and pushrods and rocker arms !!!

Like look down in there with a tiny flashlight or whatever you need to do .
if the pushrods are not centered in the lifters...bad things will happen..usually bent push rods.

re a hose, I've done the same ....the trick is to get a parts store to let you look at and scrounge around in their hoses.

Not hard to find something that will work that way.

scott

On 8/16/2016 8:11 PM, cathrich1@yahoo.com.au [Syncro_T3_Australia] wrote:

Sounds like quite a few challenges Paul. Did anything happen with the lifters in the end?

I don't know of any specifically other than ringing around (Mick Motors, Vintage Vee Dub, Volks power) There are more that could have stock also.

When I was stuck for a hose some time ago, I took the one I removed to repco, they let me look through their stock, found a hose that had the right bend, just cut the excess off. Was only a few $$ as it was a std hose (Gates)

Richard



---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <paul.d.dumais@...> wrote :

So after a few challenges, such as getting the motor in to discover the studs on the cases I swapped in were too short to go right through the bellhousing I got the motor in a and running.
It fired up straight away but ran rough til I worked out that I had the 3 and 4 leads mixed up.
Then it still didn't run well, which turned out to be bad fuel.
From then it was going pretty well, the temp guage sits slightly hotter then before but I have been told by Stokers not to worry about this.
I am still running it in so I can't give it a good blast yet to see if this Waggots cam grind is torquier as advertised.
So I got it registered and back on the road, I drove it about 30 km's and then on my return home as I came up my street the red light started flashing and the temp guage was at 3/4's!
I pulled up and took the engine lid off to find steam coming from around the air flow meter area.
The top hose that comes out of the firewall on the rhs (drivers) goes to the metal h crossover had a 1 inch split in it.
This hose and the one below seemed in good order so they almost the only ones I hadn't replaced.
Silly mistake.
Anyway I stopped quick and the engine didn't get too hot, there was still plenty of coolant in it so I am not too worried.
Stokers, Tooleys and another supply I checked didn't have the hose in stock, does anyone know anywhere that might in Aus or should I just order one from Van Cafe and get a silicon one.
http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_2451_1141/syncro_metal_h_pipe_upper_right_silicone_hose.html
Cheers
Paul



On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 11:24 PM, cathrich1@... [Syncro_T3_Australia] <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I have not re-built a WBX before, but on all the air cooled motors I've done, I always pull the plugs and crank and confirm the oil light goes out before trying to give it a run.

Could do similar on the WBX, just crank for a while longer in the hope it fills the lifters.


That said I have found if you leave the bus parked for a while and a lifter looses oil, it takes ages before the rattle goes away.


Richard




--
Cheers
Paul Dumais
Aerospace Engineer