[My Youtube channel]

Ok folks time for another catch up on the buggy....

OK so the next step was to sort out the breather system. Ditched completely the old bug pack breather box and finally got the CB performance breather tower. Put the old EMPI bolt on rocker covers that I had from the old engine and had tried again a while back. These already had the EMPI "ports" for the rocker covers but the issue was that they are a smooth finish for the hoses to attach as a result I and others before me had the issue of them coming off when tighten by jubilee clips. Looked at various options and as if by magic that same weekend a friend happen top have the CB performance ones which were slightly barbed to help grip the inner surface of the hose. I stuck with standard rubber hoses to begin with as much as I wanted stainless steel braided lines, I need to make sure they fit and the system works first of all. As said before I was loathed to vent to the Carbs and I still have the mechanical VW fuel pump so theres no extra breathing there. So its just the rocker covers, Oil filler and a little filter at the top. The other holes in the tower are blocked off with the supplied "bolts".








Job sorted, all going well!    Sadly not.....a couple of weeks driving it the old oil drips from the cover on the drivers side was getting worse, just like the last time I used it. very gentle nip of the bolt stopped it briefly but then it cam back again and then much worse one night probably lost as much as a litre! Once again the rubber gasket was spilt. There is an art to getting just the right torque on the bolts - very light in deed. Even though I thought it was very light, the gaskets still split - my thoughts are the edges of the EMPI covers are very thin - almost knife like. Plus the gaskets don't fit every well anyway. But NEWS was 2 days away, needed a quick fix.... so had a spare gasket, put a layer of sealant inside the "U" channel of the gasket, fitted it to the cover, placed some more sealant to the outer edge of the gasket and seated it again on the head. All sorted - no leaks for 2 days.

.........

Meanwhile, the engine was generally OK but wasn't running well when idling under a tiny bit of power. Running on 3 when running in 4th at 30/35mph. Had it booked in with Peter Baldwin at Royston in Cambs. This guy has a great reputation especially on racing original minis. Before there I changed the HT leads and plugs to be ready just incase.

Cause of the loss? a tiny tiny (size of a pin head) piece of rubber from the pipe partially (it was that small) blocking the idle jet for one of the cylinders. (plus one of the leads wasn't properly seated too.) once that was sorted we went for a power run on the rolling road - got 110 bhp. He then gave it a bit of a tweak on the mixture screws and the timing, and next run was 117bhp. A bit of a result! That was at about 4,500 - 5,000 rpm as I remember. Now the problem with Peter is he doesn't print out the  graphs and data from the run. Plus he did have a reputation of the power figures being a tad high on the calibration (may be 5% - 10%?) But since then he now has a new computer displaying the power figures so it may be more accurate? BUT to be honest the figure is not important. What is though is how the buggy drives and since then, it goes great!!!!!

The cause of that rubber piece? Well most would assume the break down of the fuel lines with the modern petrol? Well yes it could be but they look sound overall, all being new last year and being suitable rated. I may well replace them soon with the completely ethanol proof pipes. My guess is when I first fitted the new carbs I had double banjo inputs and blocked one with a piece of fuel hose, with a screw tightly positioned and blocked the end - I think some rubber was torn out from it at that point?


It will be nice to pop it on a truly calibrated rolling road to really compare the the readings and power curve. In the meantime, have found a video on youtube of him in action doing the same actions on a mini, so should give a good idea of it.

https://youtu.be/Inz71kRgHx0
The figures you see on the computer display - top left RPM and bottom left is BHP

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So all going well well subject to the oil leak mentioned above happening later on......

[DONT - DONT DONT!]

...... and then we get to the evening drive to NEWS...

Well I was going to be late as I promised to take a young lady to her school prom which was all fine and she loved it!




Then driving from there to NEWS, just outside of Buckingham at 8pm, I heard a slightly strange noise from the right rear... Puncture? breather pipe from the rocker cover come loose? Mass oil leak gushing out the rocker cover again? It wasn't a particularly metallic noise as though it was something inside the engine. Was just cruising at 50mph on a A road, so quickly pulled over about 100 yards later into a field track.

Yes old leak from that same rocker cover....... no problem the bolts both were loose so just a  quick nip up..... Sadly not, one side was not tightening up. In fact it felt like the bolt was not engaging into the "nut extender" on the the rocker shaft stud on the head. Very strange so took the the cover off......

Oh dear.. that stud was shearded off at the point of the that nut. So its fair to say the car was going no further. No NEWS for me! 



Got my mate to recover me. Well I could have used my AA membership But by the time they got a low loader that would not damage my exhaust on loading, I knew he was close so back home we went.....



So, currently I need to get that stud out (tried it so far but its not shifting, so will need to weld a nut onto it and unscrew it out then), am going back to the stainless steel clip on covers. Just waiting on Spike to drill and weld in the CB performance ports for the breather for the covers. And let him check the torque on the bolt on rocker shafts as well as the tappets while he's at it. Dont think any damage is cause, the push rods look fine, as does the rocker shaft and tappets. No signs of loose metal, its a clean break on the stud. So fingers crossed, will soon be fixed and running again.

So my advice....

Bolt on covers - esp EMPI - DONT - DONT DONT!
Crap for leaks and now look like a risk for breaking the studs from the head. OK that could be due to operator error on the torquing up - but believe me they weren't far off. I have since heard other tales from others of the same thing happening. So standard clip on covers with the cork gaskets are the answer!

Hopefully my SCAT s/s ones will be OK again, as they are always fine before. 


PS the irony of the weekend? When I went to NEWS two years ago, I got a mile from home and the gearbox failed on me (did a quick swap to the merc then) May be the buggy is just not destined to go to NEWS?   

I like the scat clip on ones. They polish up really nice, and a little extra "mod" factor

Feel your pain I've got new build gremlins lol

Andy

exactly the same thing happened to me 50yds from tattoo entrance, stud was on no1 cylinder

My make of heads are cb 044's and i had csp bolt up rocker covers with scat pro comp bolt up 1:4 ratio rockers

What heads are you running??

Davyd

[My Youtube channel]

Well Davyd.... funny you should say that.....

SSP engine from Heritage:
Autolinea Aluminium Race-Case with 10mm Chrome-Moly head studs
SSP Big valve heads with 40 x 35.5mm stainless valves & 12mm Long-reach Spark Plugs
Uprated single valve springs & chrome moly valve spring retainers
Scat Bolt up rocker shafts & Swivel ball adjusters
Scat Heavy Duty Chrome moly pushrods

But that side that broke now has the standard VW studs for the rockers following that repair. I will swap the other side in the winter. Again though logic says it shouldn't be I reckon even with the low forces of the additional studs in them for bolt on covers, thats where the problem lies. Now Im back to the supplied stainless steel clip on covers. For some reason those studs seem weaker than the "standard " ones.

This is going to be interesting as the engine Andrew has is basically the same as my engine..... I have CB Performance bolt on rocker covers ...... I will be keeping an eye on the studs from now!  (I also have the SCAT stainless covers somewhere in the back of the garage!! )

Spoke to Stef at mac VW today and he swapped out the original studs for chromoly ones that came with the bolt up rockers.
He reacons the bolt up covers should make no difference, and I can't see why they should either

If all that fails I'm thinking of getting some titanium ones made with longer thread and use nuts to fix the covers on. Obviously I've no idea if this is even cost doable yet, just thinking out loud

Really interested in this as mentioned as I have chromoly as well and spent some time researching. 3 things come up as potential....defective stud. Over tightened stud. Lose stud ie not tight enough (still trying to get my head around this one)  Looking on the US sites over tightening is by far the most common.

However and this is the one that stands out to me.....there have been several occasions over the last few years where fake studs have got into the mainstream distributors. They have no way of knowing and its the consumer who suffer.  Easy to manufacture on scale with a decent price tag is just ideal for fakes....

So will keep an eye on my ones and I am sure the debate will continue

Titanium is no good, it'll be even weaker.

Titanium is no good, it'll be even weaker.

Will it, i thought it was stronger. You can upgrade the rocker retainers to titanium so i assumed that was stronger

interested to know why it would be weaker, and what would be stronger if not titanium

sorry is this is off topic Andy

dav

[My Youtube channel]

sorry is this is off topic Andy
dav

No worries, its not off topic at all, because its very useful to know as I will be assessing them again in the winter months to ensure no repeat breakage. 

Titanium is no good, it'll be even weaker.

Will it, i thought it was stronger. You can upgrade the rocker retainers to titanium so i assumed that was stronger

interested to know why it would be weaker, and what would be stronger if not titanium

sorry is this is off topic Andy

dav

It's stiffer for a given weight, however, it's weaker for a given size...

[My Youtube channel]

Well..... MOT passed yesterday, no advisories

Though it was close, I only got it back together the night before from the winters updates/jobs on it - Will bore you with those details later.

However looks like the alternator issue is back (was an issue late as year but I just put it down to a loose fan belt which has now been replaced and tighten up)

Alternator light is staying on far too long  - in fact it didn't go out at all whilst I drove it around town last night. Im sure though after a much longer journey it would go out. (it did earlier in the day yesterday.) I haven't had a chance to investigate it proper at all yet - will do tonight when I get home. (Im not even sure whether the "internal regulator" is easy to get to yet.)

So will check the connections make sure all are clean and tight. and will look at the regulator to see if its something easy to replace - I know there are different fittings for these. The alternator was new when we rebuilt it in 2013 and pretty sure I went for a decent (bigger) Bosch one in view of the extra electrics on mine.

Hopefully I can get it sorted before Stoneleigh at least have some peace of mind with it. I know its still drivable but its range will be tricky in view of the trip and the driving I am doing on Monday with it. Hopefully will update more this evening.

Could be the regulator or even something as simple as a sticky brush not making contact with the ring.