Timing attempt.

So Lynn and I go out to Ruby and I start to hook up the timing light and tachometer.  I ask her to turn over the motor just so I can check to make sure the connections I have made are correct.  When she did so, I thought I saw a mist coming from the base of my spark plug number 1.  So I ask Lynn to turn the engine over again, hoping so much that I am wrong.  She cranks it, and there it is again.  Mist from the base of my number 1 spark plug.  So I hope that it is just not tight.  I ask Lynn to come back and I show her what the problem is.  We check to see if the plug is tight and OF COURSE it is.  I tried to remove and replace the plug hoping it would set itself right in the threads.  NO WAY!  So the motor has to come back out.  UGH.

Lynn goes inside, I pull the motor out in about 25 minutes.  I put it up on the wagon on a piece of plywood, and stated to disassemble it yet again.  I didn't get far before I noticed this.  If you look close you can see that the carbon build up is cooked and caked around the base of the the spark plug hole.  This was my bad plug.  The one that I saw the spray of gas coming from.   So I stated searching for a local shop to do work for me.  I assumed I needed a Heli Coil.  This is where the spark plug threads are drilled out, and a new piece of metal welded in with new threads.  I was put in touch with a guy recommended on the Vw forum.

So I got in touch with Brotherhoodvw and I drove to Youngstown in the morning to drop them off.  I had incredibly high hopes for the heads.  Mainly that the only problem was the broken threads.  So I had arranged to have the heads cleaned, the valves checked and anything that was wrong fixed.  Withing a few days I received an email with some terrible news.  And pictures to show what was wrong.  Here is a picture of the heads after they were pressure washed with hot water.  GROSS.  I mean really this is after pressure wash, and they are gross.

So after cleaning up, they were taken apart, and this is what was found.  Probably worst case scenario. 3 out of 4 of my spark plug holes had cracks going almost all the way to the valves.  This is bad.  The engine will never properly fire due to the extra amount of air being brought into these cracks.  Have a look.

This one is pretty terrible.  You can see the in the threads and to the valve.  It is destroyed. Next one.

There are 2 cracks in this one.  One goes to the Left and other to the Right.  

Then there is this one.  So I have a pretty well destroyed set of heads.  3 of 4 cylinders are not working properly due to cracks.  I do not know what caused these cracks, but I do know that they are bad.

So I had a few options. I spoke on the phone with Rich from BrotherhoodVw, and he told me that my choices were 1 buy a new set of heads, probably costing over 500 dollars if not more.  Or I could have these ones fixed.  All the cracks welded and everything fixed properly.  That would put me at probably 700 dollars in labor cost alone.  And there was a catch.  These heads were an 040 core, which I am told were not the best quality casting.  Meaning the metal was not as strong or good as it should be.  So I got lucky here, Rich had a set of 113 head cores that would fit my engine and only needed a little bit of work to have in running condition.  So we chose to build the 113 cores with the parts from my heads.  I got some pictures of these too.  Man are they gorgeous.  I am very excited to pick them up.  Check out the pictures

Boy those are pretty!  When I got these pictures I realized something.  I can not put a beautiful motor together and have a dirty engine bay and block.  So I made the decision to do some spring cleaning... 

I will start that post very soon.  We are almost up to date with real time.  I am actually waiting to pick up the heads.  Should have them in a week.  Very Very Excited.