Harney's diatribe - rocker geometry to install & beyond

dstar · Post by **dstar** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:59 pm

mharney wrote:--------Nope. There's no bracket, nor a place on the shroud to fasten
such a bracket.

OOPS!

Don

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:10 pm

Explain? There is no reason I can see to need to fasten this thing any more than it is already. Screws at the heads, generator mounts, it's damn solid the way it is. Am I missing something here?

EASY RIDER · Post by **EASY RIDER** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:36 pm

You know mine is for the TIV and that might make all the difference.

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:45 pm

heh, yep, that would matter, Bert.

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:59 pm

Here it sits, tonight's state of being. Just waiting on some little parts to move along. Hopefully the last of what I need and didn't plan on has been ordered. Just a few more days.

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 2:53 pm

Boys, after 7 quarts of oil to feed the 3.5 sump and the oil filter, we have 35 lbs of cranking oil pressure!

My pulleys are within about 0.010" alignment. Close enough.

No start yet. Still waiting on carb linkage and gotta set up pushrods and rockers, put in the spark plugs, and set up a fuel tank. The rest is there!!

terry cloyd · Post by **terry cloyd** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:09 pm

Mark

Is your plan to fire-up this motor up, "on that engine stand"??? Terry

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:53 pm

Sure. Why?

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 6:01 pm

Argh.. Linkage will not ship until Monday.

Guess I'll just get the rest ready. Wish I could score some locally. Hmph.

flatfour64 · Post by **flatfour64** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 6:13 pm

Hey mharney, looking real good!!! I've just been reading along and remembering all this fun stuff I just went through 6 months ago with my own build. Just when you think "ok, now all I have to do is...." something comes up that makes you have to dismantle the nights work because of a part you forgot or is way out of alignment. For me it was the countless fitment issues of my stock engine tin to the new aluminum case, what a mess!!! Not to mention thinking that I had missed a tooth on the cam alignment after the case had been all torqued down and set overnight, that was enough to almost make me sick, until I realized it was right all along, damn second guessing! It was my first full on build, so I stressed about everything.

One thing I noticed on the latest pics is the header appears to be a Bugpack unit yes? I put the very same one on my engine at first too. I had a few issues with that set up once the engine was running though. I broke my motor in on a dyno and totally fried the ceramic coating at the collector, went real dull and turned rough to the touch. Also those slip joint clamps with the screws leaked like a mother and I could never seem to keep them tight. Lastly, when I installed the motor in the bug, the header hit the rear apron pretty bad, and my car has never been hit in the rear so the apron is not pushed in. I switched over to a Kymco merged without the heaterbox flanges and gained a noticable amont of power, and no fitment issues at all. Also, my oil temp guage reads about 15 deg. cooler with the change of the header. The bugpack collector is smaller on the ID than the Kymco one, that may be the big difference. Just letting you know what I went through, in case it helps!

I really admire you doing all of this with the little kids running around and all. It was hard enogh to get stuff done with my project with juggling my job, wife, and all the beer drinking that needed to be done. Way to go!!

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:00 pm

Thanks man. I appreciate the kind words.

The header is an ACN header. Where he gets it from I am not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it is Bugpack, since he buys a lot from them. It's supposed to clear. If it doesn't I will just send it back, as it is advertised to fit.

VW Grommet · Post by **VW Grommet** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:48 pm

Can't wait for your startup.. your build up is similar to mine where takes awhile to get all the pieces together (scrape up the dough), find the time to put the thing together, stop.. change something else, more time passes, change something else again, do a million other things at the same time, only sometimes I just get lazy and let the weeks go by with no progress at all. I'm going to fire up mine within 2 weeks... scat lifters or not, I don't care anymore..just start up the dam thing. I havent driven my bug for 3 years already...a project that was planned to take 6 months turned into a monster going on 3 years!

Speaking about header.. yours looks like it easily clears the muffler, the one I got from John at aircooled is funny in that I had to pound a massive dent in the corner of the A1 fatboy muffler to clear one of the header pipes.. but it fits fine under the rear apron, little close but fits. I think it's a 1-3/4" tube... it's measured from the O.D. is it?

Good going!.... record some wav files of the startup to post if you can.

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:21 pm

Thanks. I am only waiting for carb linkage and have to install my rockers and pushrods, plugs, and set up a fuel tank. The rest is there, 35lbs pressure at crank, timing is set, and all else looks great. I'm gonna wait to do the rockers until I am about ready to start it, since I will pump for pressure again, right before I start it.

The run-in will be videotaped.

I thought about doing it live. I would need someone to host the feed that has bandwidth and is willing to run Media Server, but that's a hassle, so I may just tape it and make a video to download.

mschilling · Post by **mschilling** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:09 am

Mark, I'm wondering about the rocker issue you had. One article that I read on the subject said that the best way to adjust the geo was to have the head on your workbench, assembled with the valves and a really light spring (one that you could push open with your hand). That way it makes it easier to determine without the pushrod being "in the way". Just curious whether you tried that or not before assy your engine. To me it makes sense, what do you think?

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:19 am

I used the engine as my bench, sorta, and did use light springs, if you look at the pictures.

The problem mostly related to where the tip of the rocker wanted to sit, and how the centerline of the rocker shaft lined up with the perpendicular to the valve stem contact point. The pushrods were never in the way, per se, and I needed to be able to check the alignment there too. What you say is more true with standard rockers with adjusters on the tip.

--Mark