1986 Volkwagen Vanagon

[Guest]

Awesome. Hight was the major concern I had. The heads don't come near the engine cover, however the intake is what does.

These engines are all pretty tall for what they are

The DOHC heads are taller than thier pushrod counter parts, still not as high as the intake, but tall, none the less.

[Tofuball]

Wow, pretty positive response, I wasn't expecting this much interest

I guess I'll get some more in-depth pictures later. Some problems I'm having with the 3.4L are I can't get some of those stupid rocker arms adjusted right so they don't make clacking noises, so I think I might have a collapsed lifter or something. Piston engines aren't exactly my specialty.

I tried adjusting them per the Hanes manual (turn crank to a certain position, tighten till pushrod wont rotate, tighten again by a set amount)

All of them clicked and clacked pretty badly from that.

Then I tried adjusting them the way I used to do my mustang (got a spare valve cover, cut a hole in the top, and adjusted all the rockers (with the engine on) based on sound)

That fixed it for a few minutes, but then one of them just got really noisy and the rest got a little noisy.

Also my coil is toast, (I have to keep dwell set really low at 1.9ms so I can even make it to 3800RPM, and I still get tach spikes all over the place (Mostly at 2400RPM)) so I got a Crane Cams Fireball Hi-6 w/ an L92 coil I'm going to swap in for the time being to see what that fixes.

The DOHC heads are taller than thier pushrod counter parts, still not as high as the intake, but tall, none the less.

Yeh, the more I read about the LQ1 the more impressed I am with it, and the more I think I should have used that for the swap. I might do that soon, one project at a time though, and right now I'm dealing with my RX-7s.

Very cool I also like the rear tube bumper (the actual bumper, not the x-pipe. Well, that's cool too).

Haha, thanks, I did not make that bumper, it's off a Toyota truck. It's got a class 2 trailer hitch, I gotta do some more welding to it and to my frame to allow me to safely tow class 3 loads. (Moving RX-7s around is a class 2 load, and thats primarily what I do with it, but I'd still rather it was a class 3 bumper)

[Tofuball]

Update:

I just put a Crane Cams Fireball Hi-6 on and it made a pretty big difference!
The idle is worlds stronger now, I can probably tune it a bit leaner throughout as well.

I bet I'll get a pretty significant MPG gain total.

So for those of you with dizzys, I recommend it.

Also, I have a friend who's giving me his 95 Lumina for parts, so I asked some questions about parts interchange in this thread:

http://60degreev6.com/showthread.php?p=327900#post327900

Note: I had to take the fan off the alternator to make it fit w/o hitting the rear wall of the van. Also the A/C compressor is pressed up pretty firmly against the rear wall of the van, so if I ever turn it on I'll be out an A/C clutch. I need to cut and weld some space in back there, and some more support.

[DEI37]

That is awesome. I know a very little about VW's from the guys I used to work with. I know much more about the GM V6's, though not as much as a lot of the guys on here. What I do love is engine swaps. This is wicked cool. Turbo it or something! Use a Fiero driveline, or any other GM automatic or manual transmission that bolts to these engines. That would be a lot better reliability wise.

[Tofuball]

It's easier to use a Porsche transmission

And why turbo it? I've got this Twin-Screw supercharger just sitting here . . .

[Tofuball]

More updates:

I used to be having tach spikes on my MS2, so I replaced the 7-pin HEI with a new one ($30) and they went away.

Then, I found out my distributor is out of phase. Man I hate distributors :P

[DEI37]

Yup...dizzy's suck.

[Tofuball]

So, I took off my engine cover and drove around a bit.

Either my engine has some mechanical problem, or these 60 degree engines are just LOUD.

Mine clicks like crazy. Is that normal for these engines?

[ForcedFirebird]

So, I took off my engine cover and drove around a bit.

Either my engine has some mechanical problem, or these 60 degree engines are just LOUD.

Mine clicks like crazy. Is that normal for these engines?

Like injector click, or valvetrain tap? My injectors are loud, I have 24# Densos.

[whitelightnin04MC]

Awesome, another marylander.

That's a pretty awesome VW.

[Tofuball]

Like injector click, or valvetrain tap? My injectors are loud, I have 24# Densos.

Definitely valvetrain tap. I've tried adjusting it three times now without it working. It's the kind of thing you can hear even with the engine cover on.

Awesome, another marylander.

That's a pretty awesome VW.

Awesome, where in MD are ya?

[whitelightnin04MC]

Fort Washington/Oxon Hill area.

My fiancee is a VW fanatic. She drives the new GTI MkV 2.0T

[DEI37]

These engines can be loud, and still be alright. I don't think you can adjust the valves in these things anyways. I had a 3.1 MPFI that was ridiculous loud. It was fine, but it was just a clatterbox. My soon to be ex-wife has our '99 Lumina 3100, and it's noisy at cold startup, too. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Tofuball]

These engines can be loud, and still be alright. I don't think you can adjust the valves in these things anyways. I had a 3.1 MPFI that was ridiculous loud. It was fine, but it was just a clatterbox. My soon to be ex-wife has our '99 Lumina 3100, and it's noisy at cold startup, too. I wouldn't worry about it.

Then what kinds of knocking sounds should I worry about? :P

Or should I reserve the worrying to the grinding or banging?

Fort Washington/Oxon Hill area.

My fiancee is a VW fanatic. She drives the new GTI MkV 2.0T

Pshh, too far! two hours and some change. A Maryland meet would be fun though, someone should throw a BBQ, I wouldn't mind driving for that.

[ForcedFirebird]

These engines can be loud, and still be alright. I don't think you can adjust the valves in these things anyways. I had a 3.1 MPFI that was ridiculous loud. It was fine, but it was just a clatterbox. My soon to be ex-wife has our '99 Lumina 3100, and it's noisy at cold startup, too. I wouldn't worry about it.

The earlier iron head motors have adjustable rockers.

I've tried adjusting it three times now without it working

What procedure did you use?