Review: SCAT Pushrod Tubes

Does your VW mark it’s spot?  It’s not all that cute.  It’s actually kinda obnoxious.  When you have an engine that’s complete with rusty pushrod tubes,  what do you do?

The only practical choice without tearing down your engine is to use split style expansion pushrod tubes.  The problem with them is they usually leak since most “econo” models are plastic.  Other models are aluminium, threaded with a nut and an additional jam nut.  However,  since the engine does expand and contract between hot and cold, the fixed style is rugged, but likely to leak over time.

My 1975 Bug likely had original pushrod tubes, which have been leaking. Leaking so much, that I have been graciously offering free rustproofing to drivers behind me.  That’s a problem! It was certainly on my shortlist of things to repair.

I included a set on my latest order from cip1.ca.  I chose the “SCAT C15-20175 – NEW STYLE HI-PERFORMANCE ALUMINUM SPRING-LOADED PUSHROD TUBES – WITH DUAL O-RINGS DESIGN”.  If one o-ring is good, then two o-rings is better, right!?

The order from CIP1.ca showed up quickly, and upon inspection – they looked great but did not include installation instructions.

Common sense should tell you how to install these.  They  have a longer end (like a very short windage tube), this end slips into the block. This is the larger diameter tube.  The smaller diameter tube is the end that goes to the cylinder head.  Different forum posts debate how to install them, and deal with the rather springy spring.  This included jamming the tubes with nylon tie-wraps.  Don’t do this – it sounds like a way to mis-shape them and cause a leak.

To install them – I simply loosened and removed the rocker arm assemblies.  The push rods were then removed.  I kept everything in order so things would line up again and the tolerances would be fairly close when setting the valves.  I used a pair of slip-joint pliers to liberate the rusty old pushrod tubes from the engine.  Easy done!  I suggest cleaning  up the mating surfaces and adjacent area on both ends (on the block and on the cylinder heads).    With the SCAT pushrod tube kit, there is some assembly required.  The “dual o-rings” must be installed on the small diameter tube.  Once I installed the o-rings , I greased them to aid installation and operation of the tubes. I installed the white viton seals on each end of the tubes, then nested the smaller into the larger.  At this point I offered the one end into the block and got ready to compress the smaller end into the larger end.  I used a very large (broad with a hex-shaft) screwdriver as a pushing device. I directed the other end towards the head.  When the end is lined up with the opening in the head, slip out the screwdriver.   Repeat 8 times.

I reinstalled all the pushrods to the original locations, and reinstalled the rocker arm assemblies.  I torqued the rocker arms to 18 FT/Pounds.  I then set the valve clearance at .006 inch. using the valve set procedure and reinstalled the valve covers.

Bottom Line:  These do not leak oil at all!  They are pretty fantastic.  I’d recommend these to anyone that wants to stop an obnoxious oil leak.

/M