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On Sun, 2003-08-10 at 10:30, Rustad, James R wrote: > I got the engine fired up yesterday...no leaks this time, but: > > It was running pretty rough, so I wiggled the FI MPC plugs, and > got it eventually to hit a decent idle, though it was still popping a bit. > > Then while I was driving over to my local mechanic for some peer review, > the oil light started to flicker at low idle. So I stopped the car and used > up a few AAA points, and had it towed over to the shop, where it now sits. > A flicker at low idle is kinda normal on some air cooled VW's. My '71 does it after a long drive. > What do I do now? Does this mean I have to disassemble the engine again > all the way? Here are a couple of my hypotheses and I would appreciate any > advice: > > (1) I put assembly lube (lubriplate) in the oil pump, as the wilson rebuild > book tells you (or maybe he says vaseline?). Anyway I remember a recent > post by Jim A. advising against this. I suppose one possibility is that the > assembly lube goop is giving my engine congestive heart failure somewhere. > Maybe it ends up at the screen and I will be lucky and can just remove it > and be ok. > Lubriplate in the oil pump is fine. I have done it for over 30 years, on probably hundreds of engines, without a problem. Lubriplate assembly grease is oil soluble. > (2) I did not do anything with cleaning out the oil passages in the case. > Maybe this was a grave error. Nor did I check the pressure relief valves > as I had lots of trouble getting the big screws out. I figured the case worked > before, so it should work now. (Jim A: if you are wondering, this is not > the case you sold me last year...I am saving that one for later as I did not > want to deal with the full flow system until after I have moved and have more > time and money) > Get the oil pressure relief valves out. If you have trouble unscrewing the plugs, smack them hard with a hammer. This will jar the threads, and compress the old gasket, making them turn easier. > (3) I was extremely diligent checking the bearing seating, and the > case torqued together without problems, so I don't think bearing seating > is an issue. This would probably create a more drastic problem than > what I have now in any case (no pun intended). > > I can't think of anything else, so at this point all I can do is check the screen, > and if that's ok, then I guess its another teardown and rebuild from square one. > At least the engine is now clean, so there's not that bother. But this time I > am going to work fast (out of necessity) and avoid the lubriplate. > > Anything else I can do? > How was the bores for the main bearings in the case?? If they were bad/worn, it will contribute to lower oil pressure. Check the actual oil pressure at about 2500 rpm. A $5 pressure gage, and a couple hardware store fittings should work. -- Russ Wolfe '66 FB MT '71 FB AT '65 Bug (not running) russw@classicvw.org http://www.classicvw.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org