First of all, a quick apology for this being a text-only
installment. We forgot to bring the camera with us over to work on the car, and with
sunlight fleeting this time of year, we decided to get the work done and rely on my
writing ability to convey Part 12 of Project Hole-In-One.
Updates are aplenty for
Project Hole-In-One. First of all in order to simplify my life (not to mention the
parking situation at my parents' house) I decided to part with the rally car. Eric
Parham, a fellow club member and racer of some note is the new owner. I hated to see
it go, but I've spread myself a bit too thin lately. I still have a pile of parts,
including wheels and tires as well as a nice Sparco steering wheel and adapter. If I
don't sell these parts the might find their way onto another project car.
We've also put the Fastback
out on the market, as I'd rather it go to a new (and hopefully warm and dry) home rather
than risk it rotting away on the lawn over at the 'rents' place. Again, not
something I want to do, but without a garage and with no interest in renting one, I want
to do what's best for what is a really solid and unique car.
With the (relatively)
unrelated news out of the way, and after a few weekends filled with family and social
obligations, we finally decided Sunday afternoon (10/20) to tackle the cam and lifters on
Project Hole-In-One. As many of you probably know, noisy lifters are a common
problem on water-cooled VWs with hydraulic lifter heads. The causes of the noisy
lifters are many. Worn valve train components, varnish and gunk in the lifters, or
low oil pressure can all lead to that embarrassing ticking noise. After oil changes
and additives failed I bit the bullet and ordered up some new lifters from IMPEX.
With the motor running well otherwise, I figured my problem was simply worn out
lifters and not an indicator of something more serious (read expensive).
Now, as anyone who has ever
brought their car to the dealership can tell you, when you're doing a job like replacing
noisy lifters, there are several little side jobs you can do since you have the car apart
anyway. In my case I decided to take advantage of having to remove the camshaft
anyway to do a little upgrade. Rather
than try to make you believe that I spent all this time researching the
right cam for my application, the truth is I happened upon a eBay auction
for an OEM VW "Sport" cam, new in box. Seeing the specs (listed right).
The price was within my budget and the specs sounded close enough for my
tastes.
I was looking for a cam that would wake up my otherwise mostly stock GX code motor without
killing the idle or engine vacuum. Sunday afternoon around 4 o'clock we rolled into my parents'
yard and started tearing into it. Having already taken the motor apart this far
before to replace the timing belt and tensioner (see Part 9) the parts I
needed to take off to get at the timing belt SHOULD have been a piece of
cake to remove. |