VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum banner

16v cam bearing caps?

4K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  garryt 
#1 ·
ok, so I built my head a few years back. I replaced everything including the cams...I was told the valve springs had good tension and didn't need to be changed. I was young and dumb. I honestly didn't know initially whether I was going N/A or turbo. I along with some help put it all together in 07. I finally I got it tuned last summer and it made some power. Well...let's just say that power proved to be too much those original valve springs and grggrgrggrggrgrgr went the head. It sounded it was gargling. Time for rebuild right? A friend basically told me the valves would be bent so I decided to do it. Another friend supplied me with a bare bone head, I mean with nothing in it!! I took my old head and the donor in with a full big valve kit from Tech Tonics..titanium retainers and all!! Now the shop has had the heads for basically three months!! and they just told me the cam bearings/caps (whatever you call them) are not interchangeable and they had to have them bored and matched!! I was like WHAT!! I NEVER HEARD THIS BEFORE!! So I called the dealer to make sure they weren't messing around and the guy told me that the part were NOT replaceable!!?? I called TT and the guy there basically told me each cam cap set were cast matched to individual heads!!So needless to say I'm nervous...this head is running maybe ?$2800...I need prayer!
I need this to work or I'M JUST GONNA BLOW IT UP!!!



Modified by 16VT4Me at 8:02 AM 6-6-2009
 
See less See more
1
#3 ·
Re: 16v cam bearing caps? (16VT4Me)

skip it, get a different head. The shop is correct but what they do not realize is that besides being correctly line bored on the head, each cap has a specific offset indicated by the letter next to the number. This offset corrects the alignment of the oiling groove to the placement of the studs. If it didn't matter, they would not have done it. look at each cap and it has a small letter like a-h stamped into it. Unless you know the correct offset for each cap that originally came on the head AND have another same letter replacement cap to stick on and then align bore, you are wastiing your time, which means: you are wasting your time. You should be able to find a complete head to work with for $200 or less. DO NOT try and patch up what you have.



Modified by antichristonwheels at 12:42 PM 6-6-2009
 
#4 ·
Re: 16v cam bearing caps? (antichristonwheels)

too late to change heads the work was practically done...luckily the problem arose when they had assembled the unit and tried to turn the cams and guess what?...THEY LOCKED UP...So they sent it out to another shop to have it bored...I respect the shop that I use. I am a repeat customer and I think the fact that they chose to refer it to a machine shop, means they've got to be good at this kinda stuff... the extra for the other shop $75
I hope it comes out great or that head is going fall from a really high building
 
#5 ·
Re: 16v cam bearing caps? (16VT4Me)

You may have missed what antichristonwheels said, and its important.
If you dont know which caps are supposed to be on which bearing, you have only half solved the problem with a line bore job. You may end up with a toasted head and at least one cam if one or more of them are wrong. If the machine shop knows this and can match the caps before the re-bore then all should be good. This sort of individual matching and fine tuning is not uncommon in high performance engines. And the VW 16V was a high performance engine for its day. Today, precision manufacturing techniques have matured to the point where a similar spec engine could probably be successfully assembled without such hand matching.
Anecdote. I was given a 2.0 head that appeared to be almost brand new. I started going theu it and the first thing I noticed was a missing cam chain. Then as I started to remove the bearing caps I noticed they has all been randomly mixed up and installed. The cams would not turn. When I removed the caps and cams several of the bearing surfaces on the head half had mushroomed edges (to the point several valve lifters would not come out of the bores). All the cam and cam bearing surfaces had been badly scored. Someone paid good money for incompetent work, and I fear this occurs all too often.
 
#6 ·
Re: 16v cam bearing caps? (wclark)

I hear you...good points. But I gave them the other head practically assembled, so they could have used it as a model. Not saying errors can't occur but I am repeat customer because they've done the head before;good quality might I add...I just trust that none of the fore-mentioned is my case.
thnx again...I'll update
 
#7 ·
Re: 16v cam bearing caps? (wclark)

good luck man.
sounds like your wallet is already comitted.
might as well run the **** out of it in your driveway for a few minutes and pop the cam caps and see if all is well
 
#8 ·
Re: 16v cam bearing caps? (weeblebiker)

committed is not the word..lol. I need this.I paid everythiung already I just gotta bring the final $75 @ p/u which should be weds. I should have it back to gether within 2 weeks because I still have to order some ACL race bearings. thnx
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top