Has my engine been rebuilt???

[John A.]

Now that I've pulled both engines from the Type IV's I found (see needle in an Alaskan haystack) I'm lookin' at 'em more closely. The "cleanest" (the exterior of the case practically shines) of the two won't rotate (by hand) completely through without "hitting" something and coming to a stop. Sound bad, can't wait to pull the heads and see what kind of mess I got. Except for the EA, the rest of engine number on the case has been ground off and just above it on the vertical side of the breather chamber is a (green ink) stamp with the nomber 022.010A

Looks like this baby may have been rebuilt at some time. Oil in the crankcase is spotless. what do you think? This motor came out of a '71 411, Vin#4612059135. The heads are stamped 022.101.371D.

The other engine from the '73 412 is very dirty, but rotates through.

Thanks for your words of wisdom.
John A.

By the way, one of these two (1.7L) puppies is going to get "up'd", converted to an upright and stuffed into my '56 bug project.

[VielziDub]

I managed to get hold of a 2L type 4 engine out of a 914, it had been stood in a yard for a while wrapped in a tarp. On getting the thing to my garage, I tried turning the engine by hand and found the same porblem as you describe. After dissassembly i put it down to rust particles (dust and lots of it) which had fallen from the inside of the steel pipes that fit to the air box (fuel injected).
I now have the heads off and although the B+P's aren't usable I don't think they were responsible.
I take it yours are fuel injected, so could possibly be a simular cause. Also, probably first thing to check would be the fan, housing and assembly! Could also easily cause simular symtoms.
Maybe an idea to remove pipes and check for rust dust from pipes after that. It may sound obvious, but what ever you do, DON'T force it!

My engine (came out of 95,000mile car though) had it's original number (GB**etc), but on inspection of the valve train there was slight but prominant damage to one of the spring retaining collets. Also a pushrod was grooved. There was no other sighn of the damage, so my explanation was that the engine had been rebuilt after drastic faliure (possibly dropping a valve?) There is no end float and the bearings seem solid. Also my oil was crystal to start with but on swilling it around the engine whilst removing tinware, turning engine upside down etc, it got progressivly more dirty!!! All the clean oil indicates is that the oil was chnaged before being stored up.
Hope this helps and good luck!

Dan