Carnage - Don't Ignore the Green Light, Not for the faint of heart! Options

[ThinAir]

I finally got the case apart on the engine that lost the freeze plug and seized up. The only bearings that froze were the #1 and #3 mains. They spun in the case and the dowels cut a groove in them. Going simply by looks, the case appears to be just fine.

The bearings that came off the crank have the the number 021.105.531.E on them along with a KS symbol, VW logo and picture of an elephant. I've heard somewhere that this probably means that the crank is still the original grind and has never been turned.

If this is the case, does this mean there is any hope for salvaging the crank? Or is it a lost cause simply because the bearing froze onto the crank surface?

Here's a photo of the whole crank, pictures of #1 & #3 follow.

[ThinAir]

This was a running engine that I bought from Steve Malmz to go into my 72. After I bought my 73 and the cam went flat I swapped this engine into the 73. Steve had said it ran fine and the only problem he reported was that it wouldn't keep idling after it was warm. I adjusted the valves and never had another problem.

Well, no problems until I ran it out of oil. That's when the engine froze up. Amazingly, the only bearings that froze were #1 & #3. All the rods turn quite freely.

So at least it sounds like the crank could eventually be saved. That's the bottom line of what I wanted to know. There's no reason to hang on to something that has no chance of being resurrected, but 2.0L cranks are hard to find so I didn't want to presume that it was a lost cause.

One thing I learned through this, besides the obvious expense etc. of an overhaul, is that it is a ROYAL PAIN to split a case when you can't rotate the crank! The pistons won't slide through to the inside of the case so you have to split it, then rotate enough so that you can position the piston to drive the wrist pin out, then repeat for the other pistons.

At this point I'm just cleaning up parts for storing them. The original 73 engine is being overhauled to go back into the car. Everything is ready to go except heads and lifters. Once I get heads back from Brad I'll start the rebuild while I wait for Jake's new lifters to get through another round of testing.

It WILL be driven to WCCC2005!