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a few months back i read about a home made deck height tool somewhere, but i lost the address. does anyone know how to make one or where the site is?

One of the VW rags printed an article by Bob Hoover last summer. The article had about 6 different tools you could make including a deck height plate big enough to do both cylinders at the same time. But unless you have access to "1/2-inch thick aluminum plate" and a good drillpress, how are you going to build it? I just bought the Schley kit that Berg (and others) sell, which is excellent quality. It only does one cyl at a time but unless you build engines for a living, its more than adequate.

Nate has a homemade version listed on his site with the measurements and how he made it. It is about midway down on the page.

http://www.aircooledtech.com/deck_height/

I have made them several times but like RT said if you don't have some thick metal laying around you might as well buy one. It is a
tool that you will use over and over again well worth the money.
I have taken the cheap Empi one and welded a tube on top with a
set screw so I can use my Dial Indicator.

Hey that's what I made! Mine just looks more.. uhh.. handmade

Jan

Bugfuel wrote:Hey that's what I made! Mine just looks more.. uhh.. handmade

Jan

Post it up.

This pic is older than the sky, had to dig deep to find it from old backups
The hole on the plate for measuring deck is conveniently blocked by the shade of the righ top stud. I put the hole off-center near the edge of the cylinder, so I could accurately use the edge of the cylinder to measure from. Eliminate all deformity or flex of my plate.

looks likea few tools i have made in the past.

I have a nice piece of 1/4 inch steel that I've drilled 8 holes and will cover both cylinders. I haven't drilled any holes for a dial indicator yet. I'm having trouble figuring out how to use the dial indicator to determine deck height.

I imagine that I drill an access hole near the edge of the piston through which I can get a reading for the piston at TDC. But how do I get a reading for the top of the cylinder (or the bottom of the steel plate)? Does it involve moving the dial indicator to a new position on the steel plate and having an access hole over the edge of the cylinder?

You need to ZERO the dial indicator at the bottom of the plate before you bolt it on the cylinders. We put the measuring tool on top of a piece of flat steel to zero the dial indicator. Then read what the dial indicator says with the piston at top dead center and that is you deck height.

Hope this helps.

my measuring hole exposes a narrow section of the cylinder top. That way I can eliminate all chances for error, measuring only the items I want to measure, directly. The hole is on the side of the piston where the wrist pin hole is, because that side doesn't "rock". If you have a lot of piston to cylinder clearance for any reason, the piston will have room to slightly rock sideways, supported byt the wrist pin. Therefore... the further away from the wrist pin you measure, the more chances for inaccurate readings. This is more apparent the bigger diameter piston you have.

Ahhh, got it. I will use both methods. Thanks.

as long as you have somethign flat bolted across the cylinder top, you can just drop a flat piece of steel ontop of the piston, spin the motor till the piece is hitting your piece you dropped on the piston. zero your indicator on this. now remove the pice sitting on the piston and rotate it to TDC, viola, deck!