My father always told me, “if you can be patient and carefully take something apart, you can always put it back together” — well what about something as complex as an engine?
Figure 1. Exposed underside of a VW 1.8T engine block.
Some helpful Top-shade-tree DIY Mechanic Tips
- So what of all these bolts, bobbles and parts? Well my #1 recommendation is grab a lot of ZipLock sandwich bags and Sharpies. When taking apart a motor it’s really import that you separate and label everything. The more time you spend away from the project, the harder it becomes to just “remember” where everything goes. Unless you’ve built 100 of the same motor.
- Some items that should be kept in order at all costs are the Cam and Crankshaft girders. They are generally numbered, but be sure to place them down the same way you took them out.
- Keep tabs on your “junk” as you’ll need to remember to reorder new parts to replace it. Some things can be salvaged for other projects (that random track side exhaust fix, etc), but I recommend Metal Recycling for anything not being used. Your local dump should have an area for used metal.
- You would think that crank bolts, girders, etc would be bolted down with “the force of Hercules” as they are all part of the “rotating mass” inside of the block. You’d probably be surprised to find that most of these components are only torqued between 30-50 ft-lbs. It’s especially important that when you reinstall these parts that you follow the factory recommended torque specs. If you have a European car the “Bentley Manuals” are your go-to-source for this information. Amazon.com is a great place to get a Bentley for your Euro without spending an arm and a leg.
- Keep your impact and air tools handy for disassembly, but never put the motor back together using those tools, always by hand and with hand torque wrenches. Worse thing you could do is strip a vital component.
It’s really amazing when you have the engine apart how many pieces are contained in such a small space… errr… “incredible cosmic power, itty-bitty living space” — and the majority of the weight in a typical cast-block is concentrated in the block itself. Pistons/Rods are actually quite light. It is also recommended that when you rebuild a motor, esp. if you’re changing pistons/rods that you take the crank along with the new components to a race shop and have it rebalanced. last thing you want is the motor to vibrate itself apart, or cause premature aging/wear. More to come as we begin the reassembly process!
#neverstoplearning
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