Amskeptic wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 3:31 pm
A') The reason I do not know what is going on with your engines is I keep missing your posts. How do I get notified
A) You had low compression @ 95 psi, yaah? What was the cause?
B) You had carbon build-up in intake manifold, ports, valves, combustion chambers, yaah?
C) Oh heck yeah. That is why I don't use them. Does your APOC have a center drain bolt?
D) Define "monster torque". [Cam?]
E) I want to feel the counter-weighted crank. Is it noticeable?
A') Any time I log into the site, I click the third item down on the left side menu bar "see new posts." I've had e-mail notifications disabled since I joined…
A) I suspect rings, as it burned a bit of oil after the Colorado Dog Hair Assembly Room. That assembly was supposed to get me home for Thanksgiving, and it did, plus 55k or something like that. Adding a quart every 400-800 didn't really bother me as much as replacing the engine would have. For a few thousand miles, the oil consumption quit completely, and I have no idea why. The engine is still in long block form, minus oil pump, ready to go for a stranded traveler if needed. (We get a lot of those in San Diego.)
B) Not really. Just a little on the pistons and a little on the quench area. Manifold ports, valves, and guides were all clean. The old engine was certainly flooding, as anything other than a floored pedal at hot start would require significantly more cranking before sputtering to life.
C) Yes, it does. I prefer them so I can do a 3k mile oil change and 6k mile strainer clean out. Full disclosure, the oil change interval was stretched to 4k for the last year of the old engine's life out of scheduling necessity.
D) The new engine has more pep than the old engine, and it has it lower in the power band. Imagine going from a tired old engine to a peppy new one. It's kinda like that ;) The old engine had a used Resolit cam with a zero gear and no known history. It had a part number which came up with "stock VW" in a 2016 Google search. The "new" cam is a reground stock VW cam with a -3 gear and NOS lifters. The old engine (with the clear distributor cap at Maupin) had plenty of low-end grunt to get started after the pull-outs on Pike's Peak with the sea-level tune. Yeah, I didn't add a single degree of advance for that 14,000' climb… The new one seems to pull better below 2,800, so I imagine it give an even better run at your hill-start-test.
E) To be honest, it feels only slightly better than the last engine. The biggest noticeable difference is above 4,000 RPM, which I don't plan on cruising at. Freeway onramps are nice when I get to wind it up past 4,200, but the power is pretty much gone at 4,600. I suspect all the glitz, glam, and glory that is preached about those cranks come from people who have not driven many factory and professionally balanced engines. If it extends the lifespan of good #2 bearing clearances, or prevents a boring job in the future, it will have paid for itself @ $125 more than a stock crank from DPR. One thing is for sure, it's straight. Remember summer 2017 with NYCynthia at my family's house where we checked it on v-blocks and I thought the dial micrometer wasn't touching the journals it was so smooth?
Break-in has been trouble-free. Valves haven't changed over the last two adjustments, and the exhaust retorques are useless now, at about 150 miles of total driving.
Robbie