Pulled the valve covers off. Amazingly clean inside. Only rocker with some play at the moment is on 3 I think. So how do I know if we are conventional or hydraulic?
If the engine is as it was when it left the factory you have hydraulic followers – solid cam/lifters would have springs between the rockers and aluminium pushrods.
Awesome thx, makes sense for what is a 77 bus.... albeit with a rather indeterminate history. I'll follow the steps for hydro lifters and see where that gets me. I've definitely got one slack Alice hanging round me rocker box.
Righto slack Alice the 3rd sorted. Howdja get the firkeling rocker cover back on. Takes a load of force to move the clamp and the cover slides away….
I just did my valves today, and forgot which way the spring is eased off. After struggling I realised it should be pulled downwards, then put back up by prising it with a screwdriver. Also it works best with the VW emblem inside upside down. That way the tabs on the cover will stop it sliding about.
Emm, a ’77 would not have had hydraulic lifters originally; they were only fitted to ’79 engines. If you’re not sure what you have it’s easy to pull a cam follower to check. If you run a solid cam with hydraulic cam pre-load the valves will never close, and a hydraulic cam with solid clearance will rattle like a machine gun. Either way the performance will be poor if you get it wrong,
But CU would indicate a transplant at some stage iirc. It's T3/Vanagon 1980 to 1983. Our Cali 78 has the GE lifter engine.
There's another way to tell without actually fishing a lifter out...possibly. Assuming, if it is a built or refurbd motor, that correct bits were used... Obvs the shaft on a hydraulic engine will be magnetic
Another way to tell: solid pushrods are 271mm long, hydraulic are 262mm. CU is a 2.0l engine manufactured between May ’79 and Dec ’82 that would have had hydraulic cam/followers at the factory, but it could not have been fitted to a ‘77 T2 originally because the engine is newer than the bus. The number on the fan shroud by the coil is probably the original engine number but even these are changed from bus to bus. My fan shroud is original and the number matches the registration doc but the bus has had at least five engines and the crankcase number doesn’t.
My CJ engine has solid lifters but a garage I took it to in Scarborough thought it must have dodgy hydraulic ones as it can sound a bit rattly. I've checked and they are the aluminium ones and it's the original engine. The valve gaps hardly ever need adjusting, and compression is good, so I consider this normal. That picture at the top looks a lot like mine unless I'm missing something.
From the factory solid cam/follower rocker gear would look like this pic; springs between the rockers, hydraulic has spacers like the pic at the top. A CJ engine usually has a solid cam and springs but if it has spacers, it will sound a bit rattly.
