[T3] Trouble home from Bugorama

[Jim Adney]

On 8 Sep 2015 at 15:00, Jacob Adam Schroeder wrote:

> I drove my '72 Squareback from San Jose to Sacramento this past weekend for
> the Bugorama.  The event was great and I saw many beautiful T-3s (any list
> members present?).  I even picked up some great parts for dirt cheap at the
> swap meet (quote a bit of T3 stuff was available).  After a big hill (on
> I-205) in the mid-day California heat on the way home, however, my car was
> running so bad that I decided to call AAA for a tow rather than risk
> further damage.

FI or carbs?

Since the valves were all loose, I'd start by trying to find out why. 
There are only 2 things that I can think of that might cause this: 
running extremely rich, causing carbon buildup on the valve seats, 
and the lower head studs pulling out of the case.

Since your gas mileage seemed pretty normal, start by checking the 
studs. pull off the rocker assys and see if the lower studs will take 
normal torque. You said that the engine had just been rebuilt, so 
note that if your engine now has the late style 8 mm head studs, it 
must be torqued to a lower value. DO NOT try to torque 8 mm studs to 
the 10 mm torque.

If the studs are pulling out, it's back to the shop which did the 
work. (I ALWAYS install case savers in the normal course of a 
rebuild, just to avoid this disappointment.)

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