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On 04/08/97 21:29:58 you wrote: > >I appreciate the responses that I have recieved thus far. It has been >suggested that I plastigage the cam and bearings. What gap should I look >for? Are new bearings essential for every rebuild? I did put the old >cam with the old bearingsin the case, and the thing spun. Also, how freely >should new stuff spin? I'm trying to do whatever it takes to get this old >case to work before abandoning it. Thanks. >Bryan > > Personally, if the case is open, I'll replace the cam bearings, they're cheap. If I go to the trouble of a tear down, I want as much mileage for the time spent as I can get. If you're in a place where there's no handy VW parts place, I can understand trying to reuse the old parts, there's not much point in it if you can get the parts. The cam bearings are fairly lightly loaded, the oldest VW air-cooled engines didn't have them, the cam-shaft bearings were the engine-case metal. If you have an engine in unknown condition, first tear-down after previous owner, I'd replace everything that's replaceable, you don't know how well the guy took care of it! On your gaging question, this and many others are answered in a handy book I picked up before I bought my first type-III, it's called How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine by Tom Wilson,ISBN: 0895862255, covers types 1-4, has all the head numbers that someone a while back was looking for, too. Check out www.amazon.com, they have it discounted and they ship fast. Muir's Idiot guide is there, too, if you don't have that, as well as the factory Bentley manual. Tolerances are close in a VW air-cooled, don't guess, it can adversely affect engine life, unless you love tearing the things down.