[T3] Hothe's numbers

Keith Park topnotch at nycap.rr.com
Tue Jul 3 18:01:20 PDT 2012


Ill have to look over my records and see how often Ive found loose valves.
I remember when taking apart virgin engines that the lifters were worn
concave with age, these were well worn engines but it was pretty easy to
see.  Ill have to look to see where I bought Hothe's lifters, but it was
probably Berg or VW.  This was in 1991, and I remember getting new lifters
after the amzoil incident and re-using the same low mileage cam.  That cam
is now a high mileage cam and although it seems to work fine I can see wear
on it in there.

Keith


Top Notch Restorations
topnotch at nycap.rr.com 
http://www.a383ina68.addr.com/radiorest/main.htm
71 Squareback "Hothe"
65 Notchback "El Baja Rojo"
65 Squareback "Eggcrate"
87 golf "Winterat"
93 RX7 "Redstur"

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org
[mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org] On Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 11:20 PM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Hothe's numbers

On 2 Jul 2012 at 23:00, Keith Park wrote:

> I find sometimes things loosen up a bit, I occationally find a valve at
> ,.007 or .008, maybe its different temps but the cam in this engine has
over
> 150K on it as it was in the previous builds, I know its worn, I can see it
> up in there when I drop the sump plate and it did go thru some time with
> less ZDDP before we knew that it had been taken out.

Your experience is not typical. The usual wear area, where things get 
hot, is at the valve/seat interface. If you think about it, wear here 
will make things tighten up. This is what happens normally and this 
is why skipping valve adjustments is a bad idea. (Tight valves lead 
to problems, while loose valves don't.)  

While there will always be some wear at the cam/lifter interface, 
which makes things loosen up, this should always be minor compared to 
the valve/seat wear.

I had loosening valves with the second engine I ever built. Turned 
out that I had bought "Made in W. Germany", plain brown box lifters, 
which were known to be too soft. That was in about 1975, so I can't 
blame the oil. Friends here explained the problem, Berg agreed, and 
the Rockwell hardness tester at work confirmed it all. New, correct 
hardness, lifters fixed the problem. YMMV.

Now I tend to reuse OG cams, with lifters I buy from Berg or 3-part 
Brazilian Eaton lifters that Berg confirms are correct. I haven't 
bought any lifters in years, so I'm not sure what's good these days.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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