richb

I recently had my engine rebuilt by a vw shop in my town. I installed in my 914 and everything went smoothly until I run the car down the road. after about 5 miles the car started to spit and sputtered, also was hearing a metalic knock "I said to myself, I blow the engine" I nurse it home, put it in the garage and let it sit overnight. The next morning, I pulled the valve covers off and found both back rockers very loose. I notice that all the other valves were normal and had some kind piece of metal between the rocker adjuster and the valve stem. Is this suppose to be there and what can I do to keep them from falling out?

Roland Kunz

Hello

Still head scratching. Some people use caps on the end from the valve steem.
Picture would be nice or guess less.

Right now I think your problem is that the engine settlet after the rebuild and needs to be adjustet to the correct valve lash.

I also would recomend to contact that local VW Shop and have them a look at there engine again.
The VW engine experts can be found in the type 4 section from http://shoptalkforums.com/bbs/cgi-bi...+4rum&number=1

Grüsse

Joe R

the way I understand it is Hydraulic liftes should have zero lash. Solid lifters should have .006 intake .008 exhaust. nothing should be inbetween the adjuster and the valve stem. I WOULD TAKE IT BACK TO THE BUILDER AND PLAY 20 QUESTIONS. Wear him down till he fixes it right.

Roland Kunz

Hello

914 engines don´t have hydraulics from the factory. Only low reving Bus engines.

Grüsse

philinjax

RichB,
Perhaps your engine builder used swival foot valve adjusters. If so, he may have not fully lubricated them prior to installation.
This will result in burn out of the adjusters within very short order, maybe as little as a few minutes of running, resulting in break off of the adjuster tip.
philinjax

Mueller

Some folks recommend the lash caps to be installed on motors that have SS valves since SS is softer and can mushroom.

Hey Roland, I went for a ride in a buddies Hydralic cam'd 914 motor a few weeks ago.
This car hauled butt and would smoke my rebuilt Euro spec 2.0 (and it's no slouch)

Made me a beliver in the hydralic cams and Type IV's.....okay, he only has 18k miles on it so far, but we'll see how long it lasts.

B.Kish

I rebuilt the motor in a 914 I had some time ago. While putting the engine back together, I wasn't very careful, I think.

Anyway, a couple of the pushrods apparently got hung up on the edge of the lifters (solid). After a bit of running I would hear a *TING* and then the metallic sound. The noise was the pushrod seating itself into the proper area of the lifter and valve shutting rather suddenly. The metallic sound was my now really loose valve adjustment.

It happened about three times, as I remember.