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Hi all, just wondering if anyone has heard what was wrong with Leon's engine? Ummm Leon, are you still out there? hint hint hint Any news on another San Diego Type III get together soon? Maybe we can all take a run to Rosarita Beach afterwords...?!?!? Pat@Volksclocks ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before giving the forensic results of my engine's Autopsie. I will describe the unit (or the body). Age : approx 50,000 miles in about a time span of a year and one half. Very brutttal life in the fast lane above 80 mph for two hours daily, lots of waiting, stop and go daily at an international border for one hour everyday. Offroad driving daily for 20 minutes almost daily, not on gravel roads but rustic, rocky bumpy roads to get to property (home), third world country. Owner (or suspect) has been known to damage engines of all owned cars, including detroit monsters from the big 3, has even snapped Volvo engines several times. Engine specs: stock displacement : 1600 cc compression of cyl 1 and 2 is 80 lbs compression of cyl 3 and 4 is 105 lbs Compression is unbalanced and very low balaced crank balanced weighted rods balanced and weighted pistons 31 mm pump dished gear cam with original factory grind silicon sealed tins. external mesa cooler with 10 inch fan external oil filter 15w-40w synthetic motor oil Prolong engine additive every 20 k Brazilian Heads Swivel adjusters Tweeked pressure sensor Pertronix electronic ignition with 50,000 watt high current performance coil. Spark plugs: Bosh platinum with increased gap to take advantage of bigger spark setup. Dual quiet pack muffler automatic tranny The engine doesn't seem to be modified in a way to shorten life, in fact life should have been lengthened with the mods or improvements. The results of the internal inspection is as follows: Piston : incredible, of all autopsies conducted, have never seen pistons with no wear. all machining is present and shiny with no wear. Absolutely no scuffing present, not even minor scratches. Cylinders : very little wear with catbon deposits on the top edge. Most cross hatching still visible, impressive. Heads: bank 3 and 4 head, good condition and combustion chambers are very clean and show very good burn, probably due to bigger spark. Bank 1 and 2 head, cracked combustion chamber between valves and spark plug holes. Clean burning indication also. Cracks due to missing fan outlet pipe for two weeks at high speed driving. Bearings : all bearings show moderate wear with some strange asymetrical scratches. The case bearing surface show no pounding at all, no bearing images have been trasferred, this is probably due to the balancing of internal moving parts. Thrust surfaces are all in very good condition with very little evidence of wear, probably due to the automatic transmission. Crank : excellent condtion, no evidence of wear yet, machining still visible. Oil pump: pump shows little evidence of wear, some minor internal scratches also asymetrical. Cam: Found a very bad thing here, well well well ! Cam has ground up gear, some teeth on a side which makes up 25 percent of the gear are ALMOST missing. Gear on crank is in new looking condition. Cam gear was almost ready to completely break teeth and have valves smash into pistons. Cam itself is in very good condition with very little evidence of wear. Cam was a non rebuilt junkyard item that looks exactly the same as it was when installed. The cause of damaged gear is unknown, damage of other items is not detected. Powder of ground up aluminum gear is present as microsopic metal crystals in grey/silver colored oil. Fatigue of gear under large load is probable cause. Cause of excess load can be attributed by the following: -Gear originally in bad condition or manufacturing defect. -Excessive spring load. Unlikely , due to stock setup. -Oil pump size and oil viscosity causing increased gear load. -Going too fast: Spring load, oil viscosity, and large pump. All of these increased the load on the gear. If the later is the cause, then our engines are not designed for my abuse. Then I beleive these engines are not durable. Not!!!! I think, hopefully that the junkyard cam/gear was not up to par. ACCORDING TO MY FINDINGS THIS ENGINE SHOULD HAVE LASTED PROBABLY 150 K MILES WITH MY ABUSE. IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE GROUND UP CAM. I WILL REBUILD THE LOWER END AGAIN, BUY A CAM LIFTERS BEARING AND SEALED POWER RINGS. QUESTIONS : I wish to get another dished cam, maybe ground for lower end power to prevent me from high speed abuse and get more power on takeoff. All the performance cams, I have seen are manufactured with the flat gear. The stock flat gear is also aluminum. - DOES ANYONE KNOW IF DISHED STEEL GEARS ARE SOLD OUT THERE ? - DOES ANYONE KNOW IF PERFORMANCE GRINDS ARE SOLD WITH DISHED GEAR? - HAS ANYONE EVER HAD THIS PROBLEM BEFORE ? MOST OF MY PROBLEMS SEEM UNIQUE AND NEW TO MOST PEOPLE. - ANY IDEAS ABOUT THE CAUSE OF THE GROUND UP GEAR WITH ALL OTHER COMPONENTS LEFT PRESTINE? -AM I THE PRIME SUSPECT OF ENGINE DEATH DUE TO HEAVY DRIVING? OR IS THIS THE MAX I CAN PUSH IT WITH THE STOCK GEAR? - WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ? When I am done with my engine, I will list the enhancements but probably not learn my lesson on not going fast. I always put very much love, skill and thought when rebuilding. These are still my main wheels until the car is totaled or catches on fire. That day will never come , knock on wood!!! LEON MARTINEZ 1969 SQUAREBACK EFI/AUTO SANDIEGO AND TIJUANA